Fear of Spiders, Arachnophobia : My Extreme Animal Phobia

FEAR OF SPIDERS, aka Arachnophobia

By Shanna Freeman, HowStuffWorks.com

Eight-Legged Freaks

Like the fear of snakes, this is another animal phobia that seems, on the surface at least, to be experienced by most people. After all, these odd-looking creatures can bite — and some are venomous. They're also fascinating, many of them spinning webs of silk from their abdomens in order to capture their prey (or to spell out words, at least in the case of Charlotte's Web). It's easy to accidentally walk into a spider web, and even a professed lover of all things arachnid probably gets a little grossed out when trying to wipe those sticky strands off his or her face. Of course, if you can avoid their webs, it's actually a good thing to have spiders around — they tend to eat flies, moths and other insects that we don't care to have in our homes.

Along Came a Spider

Even if you hate spiders, the big question is whether you lie awake at night wondering if one of them might land on your face, or whether the feel of something spiderlike on your arm is enough to make you leap away. If the answer to these questions is no, then you probably don't have arachnophobia. One has to wonder if the spider did anything particularly nasty to Miss Muffet to frighten her away from her curds and whey. Fear of spiders may also have an evolutionary component; learning to avoid venomous ones grew into a general anxiety about all spiders. According to a 2010 study published in The American Naturalist, baby crickets can be born fearing spiders if their mothers were exposed to them during gestation.

Wisdom From Dr. Zasio: Suffering in Silence

"It's hard to get a good read on [animal phobias] because so many people live in silence and fear. They know it's ridiculous to be afraid of a dog or a cat ... or living in New York City and being afraid of a snake when the odds are you're not going to encounter a snake. But it's very real to them. A lot of people don't know that there is help; they just think that's the way they are."

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FEAR OF SPIDERS, aka Arachnophobia

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