7 Simple Tips to Overcome Your Fear of Spiders

Do you feel like you’re short of breath when you see a spider?

Do you scream the whole neighborhood together when you find a hayride in the bathtub?

Do you avoid the basement because you think it’s full of cobwebs that could stick to your hair?

If you recognize the above situations, then you suffer from arachnophobia .

Arachnophobia or spider phobia is an extreme fear of spiders.

There are more people who shudder when they see a spider, but if you suffer from arachnophobia, your fear of spiders is so great that it can lead to a panic attack.

Fortunately, fear of spiders is easier to overcome than you think. In this article you will learn what you can do about this!

Table Of Contents

What is arachnophobia?

The causes of arachnophobia

Symptoms of arachnophobia

How do you get rid of arachnophobia? 7 treatment tips

Purpose of this blog: In this article you will learn everything about arachnophobia and where your fear of spiders can come from. I briefly discuss the symptoms of spider phobia, but more importantly: I give you 7 effective tips to overcome your fear of spiders.

What is arachnophobia?

If you suffer from arachnophobia, your fear of spiders or arachnids is so extreme that you can completely panic when confronted with one of these animals.

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This panic can come over you when you even see a photo of a spider and especially when you are confronted with a spider in everyday life.

Arachnophobia is one of the most common animal phobias and is five times more common in women than men!

Studies  have shown that most single phobias, such as spider phobia, develop in childhood. However, it is quite possible that you will develop a fear of spiders later in life.

There are few Dutch people who are big fans of spiders. About 23% of the population thinks spiders are quite dirty animals and would rather not come into contact with them.

Arachnophobia occurs in approximately 3% to 6% of Dutch people. This fear can cause you to avoid certain places, which can affect your normal life.

If you belong to this last group of Dutch people who avoid certain situations due to their fear of spiders, then you probably want to know what the causes of your spider phobia could be.

The causes of arachnophobia

Cause 1: negative experiences with spiders

One of the most obvious causes of fear of spiders is negative experiences with spiders.

If you have ever been really shocked by a spider – be it as a child, teenager or adult – you may have developed a spider phobia.

Cause 2: myths about spiders

There are truly the most horrible stories about spiders.

For example, it is often claimed that spiders crawl into your bed and that you eat them while you sleep…

Or that spiders live in the drain of your bathtub or that they can lay eggs in a wound on your skin.

These terrifying stories are not true at all, but they can cause you to develop a spider phobia.

Cause 3: Watching scary movies about spiders

With a few exceptions, such as Charlotte’s Web where Charlotte the spider saves Wilbur the pig from death, most films about spiders are so scary that they can give you arachnophobia.

Just think of the 1990 horror film Arachnophobia in which a house is completely overrun by spiders. After watching a movie like that, you’ll look under your bed twice before you go to sleep!

Cause 4: Caffeinated drinks

Caffeine in small amounts is not bad at all: it increases concentration, makes you more alert and combats fatigue.

However, large amounts of caffeine cause restlessness and promote feelings of anxiety. A 2003 study even found that high amounts of caffeine can trigger your fear of spiders.

Cause 5: Evolutionary cause

Some scientists see an evolutionary cause of arachnophobia.

Primordial man had to arm himself against all kinds of dangerous animals.

Mammoths and predators were considered dangerous, but also smaller animals such as snakes, insects or spiders.

Researchers from the  Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences  in Leipzig and  Uppsala University  in Sweden conducted research on six-month-old children.

Such young children have no idea what is dangerous and what is not, but a special reaction was still visible. When these children were shown images of spiders, their pupils suddenly became much wider, as if their bodies were experiencing some form of stress.

Although some other scientists question this theory, this evolutionary cause is considered an acceptable theory.

If you suffer from arachnophobia, your body, under the influence of fear, prepares to attack against possible danger and that can trigger numerous symptoms.

Symptoms of arachnophobia

Research has shown that if you suffer from arachnophobia, you often overestimate the likelihood of coming into contact with a spider.

You also tend to think of spiders as bigger than they actually are.

These things make you anxious and can cause quite intense symptoms and even panic attacks.

• The feeling that fear takes your breath away, causing you to become short of breath or even hyperventilate.
• Palpitations or the feeling that your heart is pounding very hard.
• Becoming dizzy or light-headed.
• Suffer from nausea or diarrhea.
• Sometimes you literally tremble with fear.
• Excessive sweating.
• Uncontrollably crying or screaming.
• Feeling like you could faint or lose control of yourself at any moment.

Above all, realize that these symptoms – no matter how intense they are – are the result of your anxiety and that you do not have a physical condition at all.

Spider phobia can also limit you in your daily life.

• You avoid certain places because you think you might come into contact with spiders.
• Your fear of spiders can prevent you from functioning properly and make it harder to concentrate.
• Your spider phobia can have such a major impact on your life that you become socially isolated.

Does your fear of spiders indeed determine your life and do you want to get rid of this fear for good? That is perfectly possible!

I would like to give you 7 tips to overcome your spider phobia.

How do you get rid of arachnophobia? 7 treatment tips

The good news is that arachnophobia is quite treatable.

Learn how to get rid of your fear of spiders using the tips below.

Tip 1: read more about spiders

The fact that you are reading this article is a good sign! You want to inform yourself about your fear.

Because believe it or not, spiders are very useful animals that really don’t harm people. On the contrary, just as you are afraid of spiders, these animals are afraid of you.

Spiders do not like coming into contact with people at all and prefer to live at a safe distance.

If you try to learn more about spiders, how they live and how useful they are in the animal world, a first step towards healing has already been taken.

Tip 2: take a spider course

Following on from the previous tip, you can take spinning courses in various places in the Netherlands.

It is mainly nature associations, zoos, pet shops or spider lovers (yes, there are those too!) that offer these courses.

Not only will you learn a lot about the life of spiders and how to become familiar with these animals, but during such a course you will also learn to overcome your fear of spiders.

Tip 3: meditation techniques

Joseph Wolpe  was a South African psychiatrist who focused his career on treating phobias.

He developed a special method,  Systematic desensitization , to overcome all kinds of simple phobias.

This method is based on applying meditation techniques while thinking about what makes you so extremely anxious.

If you can apply this method perfectly in situations that are not real, then these techniques can help you when you are actually confronted with the object of your fear.

Specifically for arachnophobia, this means that you imagine in your mind that you are confronted with a spider. Okay, you’ll probably feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up now…

Try to concentrate on that spider and breathe deeply from your abdomen so that you can control your breathing.

Then imagine that you are in a place that is very relaxing for you and consciously relax your muscles.

This causes both your body and mind to relax completely.

If you can apply these techniques to an imaginary situation, you’ll be able to control your anxiety much more easily the next time you’re confronted with a spider.

Tip 4: Exposure therapy

Many people were freed from their arachnophobia through exposure therapy , also called in-vivo exposure.

Exposure therapy assumes that being confronted with spiders reduces your fear of what might happen if you come into contact with a spider.

During this therapy you will notice that you do not have to be afraid of spiders at all because – even if you go very far in your exposure to spiders – nothing actually happens.

Tip 5: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy

I know…the name for this therapy is quite a mouthful!

This form of therapy, which has been used since the 1980s, is very effective for single phobias that are the result of negative experiences.

In EMDR therapy, patients think about what makes them anxious while following certain actions of the therapist with their eyes.

Under the influence of your eye movements, your fear decreases so that it can be processed better and you can thus overcome spider phobia.

TIP 6: Medication

I must disappoint you if you think that medication can immediately help you get rid of arachnophobia.

However, some anti-anxiety medications can help you control your anxiety.

Possible medications that can help you with your anxiety include beta blockers, antidepressants and tranquilizers.

Never take this medication on your own initiative, but always be guided by your doctor.