“That second when you twirl into a ninja because a piece of your hair fell on your arm and you thought it was a spider.”- ever experienced this? If the response is yes then let me tell you one thing that fear of spiders is in the top 10 fear list. So you see not only you, many people have this fear and that’s why it is such a widespread fear in the world. This fear is called Arachnophobia.

 

UNDERSTANDING ARACHNOPHOBIA:

 

The intense fear of spiders that allows you abrupt fear and anxiety when you see or even think about spiders is called Arachnophobia. In simple words, Arachnophobia is a fear of spiders. If you see the statistics of phobias then one piece of information must grab your attention that Arachnophobia is the number one ranking phobia around the world. Fear of spiders is so common in the United States. According to a YouGov poll in 2014, 48 per cent of people have a fear of spiders. So now you can understand how common this phobia is.

 

From a study, researchers found that some of us may be born with the tendency to be terrified of spiders. Now the question is what underlies this fear? According to some investigation, it has been denoted that phobias may accumulate from a traumatic experience. But fear of spiders can also accumulate for their body structure. Like the ” leginess” or unexpected movement or its frightening peek make it look so terrible that it turned out to be a fear. In some cases, this phobia can be severe enough that it disrupts people’s sleep or those who are afraid of spiders.

 

THE REASONS BEHIND ARACHNOPHOBIA:

 

Some theories recommend why it might develop.

They are:

• Evolutionary: This theory suggests people develop arachnophobia due to a developed preparedness in dealing with potential dangers.

 

• Social theories: This theory suggests that the media often depicts spiders as scary and dangerous. Like in movies one common component will be spiders so that it gets intense. Additionally, if a person grows up in an environment where they see that most of the people are scared of spiders, they find it as learning stuff and end up with this phobia.

 

• Past experiences: Experiences always make people learn something new. This phobia also grows in the mind by experiencing something terrible in the past.

 

SYMPTOMS:

 

• Dizziness
• Sweating
• Shivering
• Avoiding situations where there might be spiders
• Overestimating the chances of encountering a spider
• Screaming or crying to see a spider
• Breathing difficulties
• Fainting

 

Now the concept is clear why this phobia is so common that it ranked as the top 1 phobia.

 

FACTS ABOUT ARACHNOPHOBIA:

 

1. To be evaluated with an intense phobia, it must hinder your daily life and stave you off from being able to conduct daily tasks normally.
2. Hypnotherapy is one of the remarkably common techniques or treatments for someone’s suffering from Arachnophobia.
3. Many people with Arachnophobia start searching for spiders after entering a room. They want to confirm whether they are safe from spiders. If there happens to be a spider, they begin to stay away from that place or remain anxious if there are more.
4. Thousands of years ago, many ancient civilizations thought of spiders as contamination of water and food which developed a drastic fear of spiders.
5. Thousands of years ago, civilizations assumed spiders were the reason for the Bubonic Plague.
6. A phobia must be developed from trauma or the worst experience.
7. Psychiatrists use VR glasses and VR gloves to stimulate the idea of a spider crawling on a patient until they overcome the fear. Therefore, virtually they stay so near to a spider and confront their fear. This is a virtual method to overcome fear.

 

5 FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH ARACHNOPHOBIA:

 

Subconsciously we always assume that all famous people are a superman and they are not frightened of anything. But this is our wrong theory about them. They are also human and living with a phobia is normal for them as for us. Let’s introduce 5 famous people who have Arachnophobia. Some have come in direct contact with a spider and entirely freaked out or got upset by the experience because it accelerated their phobia. One of them is so afraid of spiders that he has even refused to visit  Australia.

 

These 5 famous peoples are –

 

Halle Berry:

Halle was disturbed to find spiders all over her yard. According to her statement, she found hundreds of spiders under a lawn chair where they all sit every other day. Then she found a small village of spiders there and she left the place because she can’t stand spiders.

 

Rose Byrne:

One day Rose found a spider inside her car while she was driving. It spread out its legs in front of her and she was finding that it was looking at her. Immediately she came out from her car screaming. Then she agreed to go to her car again but the spider was then coming to her which made her walk home instead of riding the car.

 

Jennifer Lawrence:

Jennifer was frightened of shooting scenes in the Hawaiian jungle because of her spider fear. She said,” Everybody told me there were no spiders, so when I saw three, I started crying. Jungles are not easy when you’re scared of everything. I think I am a valid boozer. No, what’s it called? An Arachnophobic.”

 

Derren Brown:

This celeb can not stand spiders near him.

 

Rupert Grint:

His fear affected him several times throughout his life. Even fear of spiders also dominated his life. All-time he inspects his shoes, bed sheets, pillow and ensures himself that no spider’s there and he is safe. Even he refuses to visit Australia because of Arachnophobia.

 

So now what do you think about the treatment of this phobia? According to researchers, any phobia can be treated by confronting fear or coping up with fear. The same goes for Arachnophobia. But in most cases, it has been noted that Arachnophobic end up consulting professionals because of the severe level of fear which people cannot cure by themselves.