Afraid of spiders: what to do

Being afraid of spiders often feels a little silly, but arachnophobia can be super annoying. If you've seen a spider in your home, it can give you sleepless nights. Especially if you live alone and you are afraid of spiders, it is very annoying that you can't just call someone to clean up the spider for you. Of course, avoiding a room in your house is not the solution either. That's why in this article I will discuss spider fear and what you can do about it

Why are people afraid of spiders?

The fear of spiders should logically relate to the fear of being bitten, but that is precisely not always what people fear. Especially the movements of spider legs and how weird that looks creates the fear. First, this fear may have to do with conditioning. That means that you have had a nasty experience with spiders before and have become afraid because of that. Who doesn't know the stories of angry boys putting a spider in the back of a classmate's shirt? That of course scares you and the fear can be born just like that.

Or if you walk through a spider web during the fall and then the spider is in your hair.

Second, this fear can also be passed down through family members. For example, a fear of spiders can be passed from a parent to a child because the child mimics the parent’s behavior. A fear of spiders is therefore not genetic, but learned.

People who are afraid of spiders aren’t necessarily afraid of all animals, but they’re often also afraid of animals that it’s “normal” to be afraid of, such as wasps, mice, snakes, and other small creatures. Researchers therefore want to investigate further whether this fear is related to the instinct for survival and defense against dangerous animals. For example, you can be allergic to wasps, and mice and rats can spread diseases, such as the plague in the Middle Ages.

It is also notable that mostly women are afraid of spiders. This is because girls learn as early as 11 months that a spider is part of a scared face. So for a spider you should be afraid. Little boys of 11 months do not yet get this association. This study was conducted with pictures shown to the children while sitting on their parents' laps. After the spider and fearful picture, they were shown a picture of a happy person with a spider next to them and a happy person with a flower next to them. Girls looked significantly longer at the picture with the happy person next to the spider compared to the boys. According to the researchers, this was because the girls did not trust the happy person because of the spider. The researchers explain that this may be because women used to take care of children and thus need to know what is safe and what is not while men need to take more risks for hunting and it is not useful to be afraid of a spider. There is still plenty of debate as to whether it is hereditary or not, but one can assume that it is mostly copy behavior from the mother.

Spider anxiety symptoms

When faced with a spider, someone who is afraid of spiders may get the following physical reactions:

• Faster Heart Rate.
• Dizziness.
• You suddenly get very hot or cold.
• Sense of loss of control.
• Chest Pain.
• Shortness of breath/ feeling like you can't breathe.
• No longer able to distinguish between what is real and what is fake.
• Vibrate.
• Sweat.
• Thoughts on Death.
• Nausea or cramping.

These are all very intense reactions that make it difficult to deal with the spider in a controlled and focused way. This makes killing or cleaning up the spider extra difficult. Then, if this also fails you can feel uncomfortable in your own home as a result. If it bothers you very much you also avoid places where you expect spiders to be.

Spider Fear Therapy

Precisely because a fear of spiders is so awkward, there are all kinds of therapies available to overcome your fear of spiders. Sometimes even medication is given to reduce reactions, but these have side effects and do not solve the problem. Symptom relief is never the solution.

Spider anxiety hypnosis

Hypnosis is also an effective tool for reducing irrational fears. In the case of a fear of spiders, regression can be used to determine the source of the fear. During hypnosis, you’ll go back to the moment when the fear first arose—such as when you suddenly walked through a spiderweb and found a spider on your face. Together with the hypnotherapist, you’ll examine your reaction to that situation and the beliefs you’ ve formed about spiders as a result. You’ll then gain insights into how you could have handled that situation differently so that you no longer suffer from that fear.

The hypnotherapist can also change your values about spinning with suggestions. Initially, your values about spiders may be:

"Spiders are life-threatening."

"Spiders just crawl into your mouth."

"Spiders can hurt me."

In the Netherlands, few spiders are truly dangerous. The only poisonous spider for humans in the Netherlands lives in and on water, and of these, the bite and the consequences are comparable to a wasp sting. So that's not so bad. Therefore, it is wise to change these kinds of values to the versions that better suit the spiders found in the Netherlands, such as.

"Spiders do nothing."

"Spiders don't crawl in your mouth."

"The most venomous spider in the Netherlands can't even bite through my skin."

Tips to combat spider anxiety at home.

In addition to these tips, a hypnotherapist can also provide treatment that will make you less fearful by confronting you with your anxiety, but you can also do a lot at home. Therefore a few practical and self-hypnosis tips to reduce the fear of spiders.

Relax

The first step to reducing fear is to relax. When you’re afraid, you tend to tense up quickly, but when you relax, you don’t allow that physical reaction to take hold. So if you’re confronted with a spider, instead of screaming right away, try taking ten deep breaths in and out first. Instead of giving in to your fears, first look at the situation objectively. You’re standing here, and that spider is sitting over there. It’s not attacking you. It’s actually very small—yes, even a 10-centimeter spider is very small, even if you’re 1.5 meters tall. Then you can calmly call for help, grab the vacuum cleaner to suck up the spider from a distance with the vacuum hose, or calmly walk on.

Relaxing is also how you begin self-hypnosis. You lie or sit on the couch or any other comfortable place in your home and begin to relax. Then you can begin hypnosis techniques.

Visualize the spin

One way to become less sensitive to your fear is to confront the fear. Now I don't want you to immediately have all kinds of tarantulas walk all over you. You start quietly by visualizing the spider. Then you can visualize yourself sucking up the spider with a vacuum cleaner without fear. Then you can visualize how you beat it to death with a slipper or something and then clean it up with a dustpan, all without fear. So you do this while relaxing for self-hypnosis. On the other hand, don't you want to kill spiders either? Then you can also visualize putting a glass on it and holding a piece of paper under it to bring it out.

View daily images of spiders on the Internet

Visualizing the spider is 1 method of making the spider less scary. We fortunately live in the age of the Internet and there are many images of spiders on there. If visualizing situations with spiders goes well, you can go further by viewing real images of spiders. By looking at images of spiders daily, you can get used to the spider's appearance and keep your composure longer in real life before you break out into total panic. You may even then avoid that panic.

You can use that spider inspiration in subsequent visualizations and to face the spider more often.

Watch a video of spinning on the Internet

The next step is to watch videos of spiders. Nature films in particular can show that spiders also have very beautiful sides. Some spiders have amazing rituals to find a mate. There are even brightly colored spiders that look almost like a bird of paradise. Seeing just the beauty of the spider can give you very different values about the spider. Anyway, afterwards you are less frightened when you see a spider walking in real life, because you get used to moving spiders.

Highly recommended, however, is a documentary about the portia spider, that little jumping spider that kills big spiders. This little spider not only kills those dirty hairy spiders in your house, the portia is also a really intelligent spider. A very interesting documentary to take a look at.

Do you find it difficult to put these tips into practice on your own because your fear is so intense? If so, you can learn more about hypnosis and self-hypnosis at the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands, so that you can help not only yourself but also others overcome that terrible fear of spiders.

Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:

Sources:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08917779208248798

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1210748/Are-women-born-scared-spiders-men.html