What is the unreasonable fear of spiders?
Arachnophobia, otherwise known as spider phobia, is the intense fear of spiders and other arachnids. Classified as a specific phobia, arachnophobia causes clinically significant distress that can impact an individual’s quality of life.
What causes spider phobia?
Several theories may explain why someone can develop arachnophobia. This includes evolutionary threat responses, social depictions of spiders, and past trauma. If a person wishes to treat their arachnophobia, a doctor can suggest exposure therapy, CBT, or counseling.
What percentage of the population has arachnophobia?
Arachnophobia affects 3.5 to 6.1 percent of the global population.
Is Arachnophobia a mental illness?
Both the intense fear of spiders and spiderwebs are types of specific phobias. These types of phobias center around single items compared to more complex phobias, such as social anxiety. Arachnophobia is one of the most common specific phobias you can develop.
Do you have a phobia or fear of spiders?
Not many people like spiders. When many people see one, they have a reaction from trying to kill the spider to running from it. While arachnophobia, or fear of spiders, is one of the most common specific phobias, not everyone who dislikes spiders is experiencing a phobia.
When do you know if you have arachnophobia or phobia?
Phobia symptoms most often occur when you’re put in the situation you fear. With arachnophobia, you may not experience symptoms until you see a spider. It’s also possible to experience your symptoms if you’re just thinking about spiders, or perhaps if you see pictures of them.
What kind of therapy do you use for spider phobia?
Stuart combines psychoeducation, cognitive behavioural therapy and clinical hypnotherapy (including cognitive behavioural and visualisation based models) to address spider phobias and other phobias.
What causes people to have an aversion to spiders?
Arachnophobia may be caused by experiencing one or multiple traumatic encounters with spiders. Arachnophobia may also be caused by: An evolutionary response: Research suggests that arachnophobia or a general aversion to spiders is hard-wired as an ancestral survival technique. 2
