Arachnophobia and it's details

Hey Guys, I had written about Triskaidekaphobia few days back now its time for Arachnophobia.

Arachnophobia is defined as an inordinate fear of spiders. This phobia can often be triggered by the thought of or sometimes even a picture of a spider. A serious case of arachnophobia is much different than someone who doesn't like spiders. Many people who are afraid of spiders have feelings of panic entering into a situation where spiders may be present.

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 peoples fear of spiders occurs irregularly, while many African peoples exhibit a general fear 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.

Symptoms of Arachnophobia include excessive sweating, rapid breathing, a quickened heartbeat, nausea and dizziness. Some arachnopohbics will, on entering a room, search it for a spider. If they find one they will monitor its progress very thoroughly. Others will do all in their power to distract themselves to avoid seeing the spider.

The most accepted form of treatment is aversion or behaviour treatments. These tend to involve a mixture of education and experience, most arachnobobes (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 desensitize 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.

Signing off is K.Priyadharshan [will be covering about more phobias in the future]

Sources: Internet, Hey Madan Part-6