Overcoming a fear of spiders Part Two

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How do you know if your fear of bugs is actually a phobia?

I have an enormous fear of bugs. When Im outside I am always on the lookout for creepy bugs..we live in arizona so there is no shortage. The worst is flying bugs! If I see that there is a bug on my patio I cannot open the door to let my dog out. If I see a wasp I literally begin to run! I just cant be around them at all. Am I phobic or is this just normal to hate bugs this much?

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Hypnosis Test#2

This is to help you little lab rats… Errr1 I mean viewers, to concour your fears.

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I have MAJOR aracnophobia! please help me?

Please help me!! I’m 11 years old and spiders are the scariest things in my entire life!! I cry every single day because of them. They make me soo sad and scared that I have to look every where I go because they are every where cuz i live in Australia! How do I keep them away naturally and cure my phobia… PLEASSE! I get soo freaked out and people always tease me and nobody understands how I feel but myself. thanx soooo much!
I don’t care if you say they are just so small and more scared of us then we are of them, I’m still scared I ont know why
Spiders aren’t harmless! some are poison and can bite, right?

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A lot of phobias?

I have an insectophobia,a serpentophobia, I am afraid of heights, I am afraid of sharps, I am afraid that every time somebody sees me up the road alone they will attack me…what’s wrong with me and how do I cure it?

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How to overcome insectophobia?

I really have a HUGE fear of bugs. It is so bad I cry if there is a wasp, or bee by me. I also scream when there is a fly by me. If there was an ant on me, I would start crying too. Please how do I overcome his?

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Arachnophobia – the Fear of Spiders

Arachnophobia is the scientific name for the fear of spiders. Is is the most common example of an animal phobia in the world and although to many people it is just a mild annoyance, to some it has very intense effects. Different people suffer to different degrees and to those who do not suffer them phobias seem irrational, the afflicted person reacts intensely to the merest sign of the animal causing the phobia. It is often difficult if not impossible for those of us not suffering to make any sense of what they are experiencing. Phobias can be stimulated by many animals but spiders are the most common source. Phobias do not infer a cowardly or otherwise weak mind, Bowers of the Antarctic, an intrepid explorer of the most inhospitable places on earth was apparently terrified of spiders. People who suffer badly can not even enter a room without having someone else check it for spiders first.

Fear of spiders has a long history, around the time of Christ’s birth parts of Abyssinia were abandoned by the whole population as a result of a ‘plague of spiders’. Amongst primitive people fear of spiders occurs irregularly, while many African people exhibit a general far of large spiders most Amazonian Indians don’t. In fact the Piaroa Indians actually eat the larger spiders and consider them a delicacy.

They are not the only ones to do so, throughout European history there are scattered records of individual people who loved, and thus ate, and even delighted in eating spiders. The French author Reaumur reports a certain young lady who ate all the spiders she could find. There is also written records suggesting that one Maria Schurrman was very fond of them, claiming her birth in the sun sign of Scorpio as justification for her habit. In addition to this the astronomer Lalande is also known to have enjoyed them. However it is mostly women who are recorded as having such epicurean tastes and W. S. Bristowe, author of The World of Spiders reports that although he had already tried eating cooked tarantulas he was surprised by a lady called Miss Jennifer Walker who assured him common British spiders were delicious eaten raw. She ate one after he had turned down the suggestion and he then followed suit. His report continues to tell us that during the after noon they sampled 5 different species.

Arachnophobia and the irrational fears seem to propagate from an early age and it is widely thought that young people are more likely to accept spiders as just another fascinating animal if given the chance. Part of the source of arachnophobia is a result of our adult alienation from the beauty of the world, and it is a fact that most serious sufferers are middle aged and older. It is also a fact that 9 out of ten recorded sufferers are female. This of course may well reflect our social gender expectations in that men find it much harder to admit to being frightened of anything.

Paul Hillyard reports that when 18,000 children were questioned in the 1950s about the animal they liked least the spider came second with 10% of the vote (snakes won). In 1988 the Spider was still second but now the Rat had slipped into first place. In the USA in the 1980s the Cockroach was a clear winner and spiders were way down the list. Theodore Savory analysed the reasons why female school students in England disliked spiders and the 3 most important reasons were:

1) spider size

2) the black colouration

3)the length of the spiders’ legs.

In the UK nearly 50% of woman and 10% of men admitted to some degree of arachnophobia when questioned. About 3% of people claimed an extreme fear, and the most people claimed some apprehension. Scientists agree that there are 3 components to a phobia:

1) the experience of fear

2) physiological responses (sweating, heart-rate etc.)

3) motor responses (immobilisation or flight)

However they is very little agreement as to where the phobias come from. Many people seem to inherit at least a predisposition to arachnophobia and that otherwise it can be conditioned into people, but otherwise there are a large number of unproven theories as to the causes. The most accepted form of treatment is aversion or behaviour treatment. These tend to involve a mixture of education and experience, most arachnophobes (in fact most people) have little real knowledge of spiders. Learning allows the sufferer to use their own mind to counteract the rising emotions. Familiarisation or experience has a similar effect, giving people the opportunity to gain perceptual evidence of spiders as being basically harmless, to desensitise them. Although the details of all treatments depend on the therapist as well as on the age and experience of the sufferer a large degree of moral support is essential.

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ACs Fear of Roaches

Video of Anderson Cooper trying to get over his fear of roaches.

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EFT Works For Eliminating Phobias

Emotional freedom techniques or EFT works for the immediate and permanent elimination of various phobias. Many EFT practitioners have cured all sorts of phobias of people who have battled with it for years or all their lives.

The EFT in solving phobias involve redirecting the old thought patterns or response mechanisms of phobic people to the thing or situation they have a phobia about and basically creating a new set of more useful patterns or mechanisms of behavior to replace the old phobic response.

Thousands of testimonies from people who have been cured of their phobias have spread the word about the success of EFT. There were even known instances of phobias being cured in a single EFT session only.

In fact, EFT can be used as a self-help treatment for phobia. There are online or printed resources that offers step-by-step guide on how to cure phobias successfully in self -help treatment. At one point, you still need to learn the EFT from an expert or practitioner via courses, trainings or, studying manuals or video presentations. You cannot rely on your own because phobias are complicated and intense emotional and psychological conditions, thus proper training is necessary.

Then the process of facing one’s fear will begin. This is not as simple as it sounds since people with phobic response cannot even think about or even verbalized the object of their fear as it gives them extreme stress, anxiety or, fear. This process should not be forced under any circumstances. Phobic people should not be forced to face their fears. It should be done comfortably, gently, and in the most natural way. Each person should progress following their own timeframe, it differs for everyone.

Likewise, there is a different starting point for every person, it is not uniform. The important thing is that the person is relaxed or comfortable enough so that the process of eliminating his or her phobia can start. There has to be acceptance that despite the phobic condition, the person is loved or the he or she loves himself or herself. Eventually, the fear or fright will be replaced by curiosity and there will be lesser resistance and anxiety.

When this happens, the actual process of phobia elimination begins. It entails distancing one’s self from the object of phobia. Most of the time, the phobia is actually a direct or indirect effect of a stressful situation. So the underlying causes need to be identified and uncovered.

EFT has cured all types of phobias including anthrophobia (fear of people), agoraphobia (fear of heights), arachnophobia (fear of spiders), astraphobia (fear of stars and celestial space), claustrophobia (fear of enclosed efforts), dentophobia (fear of dentist), dystychiphobia (fear of accidents), enochlophobia (fear of crowds), felinophobia (fear of cats), genophobia (fear of sex), hematophobia (fear of blood), insectophobia (fear of insects), koniophobia (fear of dust), lygophobia (fear of darkness), monophobia (fear of solitude or being alone), nosocomephobia (fear of hospitals), onomatophobia (fear of hearing a certain word or names), ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), ochlophobia (fear of crowds or mobs), pharmacophobia (fear of taking medicine), parturiphobia (fear of childbirth), pteromerhanophobia (fear of flying), pyrophobia (fear of fire), tachophobia (fear of speed), theatrophobia (fear of theaters) and even the so called hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words).

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How do I get over my intense fear for bugs?

I’m really scared of bugs, every time I see one, no matter how tiny it is, I’ll just freak out. Especially when they occasionally appear in the kitchen, I’ll totally freak out and fear to go into the kitchen anymore. How do I over come this?

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