Arachnophobia
[/’spʌɪdə/] n.Fear of Spiders
The fear of spiders. This phobia can cause breathing problems, excessive sweating and even panic attacks. It is totally irrational, promise. They’d never hurt you…
Arachnophobia is one of the world’s most common phobias
If you don’t like scuttling things with eight legs, don’t worry – you’re not alone. Arachnophobia is one of the most common fears, with 165,000 people searching for it across the globe every year. This is a slight decrease of -18% compared to the year before, but in 2020 we were all trapped inside with nowhere to escape…
Arachnophobia is most popular (for want of a better word) in the USA, where 74,000 people look it up. That’s more than in the UK, with 14,800 searches, Canada with 6,600, and Australia, which despite having some of the world’s biggest spiders, only racks up 390 searches.
They’d never hurt you…
But there are30 species
Of spiders that are deadly.
Eight legs. Six too many?
It’s believed that arachnophobia developed in early humans as a form of survival. Back then, there were lots of creatures that saw us as a nice bite to eat, and our instant – and quite sensible – response was to run away. We weren’t to know that spiders actually play a crucial part in our ecosystem, and for the most part, can do us no harm.
That instinct has stayed with many of us. See spider, fear spider.
Now, while nearly every spider we see in our homes can do us no harm, many people still react with sweating, shortness of breath, crying, screaming and even panic attacks when one crawls along.
How to stop your
spider screams
Unfortunately, the best way to fight your fear of spiders is to face it, eight legs and all. Exposure therapy has been proven to make our furry friends far less frightening and could cure your fears in only a day. Sorry.
- Watch videos of spiders. They can’t hurt you from there
- Visit spiders in zoos, where safety is still assured
- Handle small spiders in your garden