A phobia is an irrational fear of something, be it an object, animal, insect, etc. It is irrational in that the danger it poses to us is disproportionate to its actual danger. One of the best known phobias is arachnophobia. At psychology-online we want to explain to you what it is and give you some indications to overcome that phobia that can interfere with the normal development of your life.
What is arachnophobia
The arachnophobia It is a specific phobia that consists of a irrational fear of spiders and other similar arthropods. It is one of the most common phobias, however, we must distinguish between the phobia and the fact that you do not like spiders or that they disgust you. When we talk about the phobia, it is probably limit some areas of your life such as going out into the countryside or avoiding activities and places in places with vegetation where it is likely to find insects in general and spiders in particular.
Symptoms of arachnophobia
When a person who suffers from arachnophobia encounters a spider, it is very likely that there will be an anxiety crisis or a situational or situationally predisposed type. Let’s remember the symptoms of a panic attack:
- Palpitations
- Heart jerks or elevated heart rate
- Sweating
- Tremors or shaking
- Feeling of suffocation or shortness of breath
- Feeling of choking
- Chest tightness or discomfort
- Nausea or abdominal discomfort
- Unsteadiness, dizziness, or fainting
- Derealization (feeling of unreality)
- Depersonalization (being separated from oneself)
- Fear of losing control or going crazy
- Affraid to die
- Paresthesias (numbness or tingling sensation)
- Chills or hot flashes
Other symptoms of arachnophobia are:
- Chest pain caused by fear
- Pain in the stomach
- Heavy breathing
- Dizziness or nausea
- Sweating
- Instant temporary body paralysis upon seeing the spider or even knowing it is nearby
How to know if I have arachnophobia
If thinking about spiders or seeing them causes changes in your body. If you are triggered and avoid situations where a spider may appear, you may have a spider phobia. To be safer, go to a professional who will evaluate whether your fear is disproportionate or irrational (phobia) or not. In addition, it will help you overcome it in both cases with the appropriate techniques.
Here you will find the.
Why do I have arachnophobia?
The fear of spiders has an adaptive component in that, throughout our evolution, avoiding contact with certain dangerous insects has allowed our survival. Our ancestors already avoided them and according to Seligman’s theory of preparation: we would have inherited a natural tendency to avoid them for being potentially dangerous for our survival.
Another reason that may be linked to spider phobia is having had a bad experience previous. Perhaps we ourselves or another person we know have suffered a bite from an arthropod and this has generated a rejection that has ended up becoming irrational.
We can even associate images that we have not actually experienced, but have read or seen on television or in the movies, with spiders and their potential danger, thus developing the phobia.
How to overcome arachnophobia
The therapy that has been shown to obtain the highest success rate in the arachnophobia treatment is the The exhibition can be in imagination or live, the second being the one that obtains the best results. Halfway between one and the other is exposure therapy through virtual reality, which is used in cases in which exposure can be difficult and/or dangerous, such as .
Next, let’s see what the flood exposure therapy, which has proven highly effective in phobias. Whether for exposure in imagination or live, the first part of the treatment consists of develop an anxiety scale subjective. We will present situations related to the phobia and we will rate them with USA (subjective anxiety units) giving them a value from 0 to 10 or 0 to 100 and then order them. Let’s see it with an example:
- Read the word spider in a book 20 USA
- Talk to someone about spiders 30 USA
- See a spider in a movie 40 USA
- Go for a walk in the countryside 60 USA
- Knowing that there is a spider nearby 75 USA
- See a spider from afar 80 USA
- See a spider one meter away from us 95 USA
- Holding a spider in your hand 100 USA
Once we have our hierarchy complete and ordered (it is recommended that there be many scenes to be able to go little by little), we will begin with the exposition. We can do it in imagination with the help of a therapist, or in real life with a therapist or co-therapist (family member, friend…).
We will start with the scene that the USA has the least. When we expose ourselves we will notice anxiety, but we must stay on the scene until the anxiety decreases and/or disappears. We will go from scene to scene in the planned order and we will not consider a scene over until we notice that our subjective anxiety is reduced to around 20 USA.
The treatment ends when we finish exposure to all the scenes in our hierarchy. The duration will be determined by the patient.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Arachnophobia: meaning, symptoms, causes and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
References
Bibliography
- American Psychiatric Association (1995). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Barcelona: MASSON.
- Buela-Casal, G. Sierra, JC (2009). Manual of psychological evaluation and treatments. Madrid: New Library.