Of all the varieties of phobias, arachnaphobia is one of the most common types of fear known to man. The name of this disease comes from the Greek (arachne - spider, and phobia - fear). Arachnophobia is a fear of spiders - frustration is expressed in uncontrolled fear of spiders, regardless of their size, shape and appearance.
Statistics data say that about one in five men, and about one in every three women, are affected to a certain extent by this phobia. Man and spider have a long history of contacts, because when our ancestors lived a primitive life, even then they came across spiders. In addition, as it is known, there are several tens of thousands of species of spiders on the earth, and they live practically everywhere, from cold forests of northern latitudes, to arid deserts, from high plateaus to marshes and reservoirs.
Where does this fear come from, do they have real motives? Among the possible theories, the assumption is advanced that the more living organism is externally different from the person, the stronger it provokes rejection in us.
Of course, spiders are difficult to call attractive, they do not differ aesthetic beauty, such as dragonflies, butterflies, or some beetles. In addition, spiders appear unexpectedly and move with great speed, often completely disproportionate to their size. And finally, their behavior, often defies human logic, a spider running away can throw itself in your direction, suddenly "go sideways," and some species can also jump a long distance.
As people say, who have such conditions, they are physically disgusted, giving spiders a characterization as ugly, disgusting, repulsive. Externally arachnophobia fear of spiders manifested in increased heart rate, sweating, weakness, the desire to move as far as possible from the object of fear.
Reasons for fear of spiders
Despite the long study of arachnophobia, the causes of its origin are still not fully understood, but there are several versions on this subject. Most experts agree that most likely, the source of these fears is in the childhood of the person, when the child unconsciously adopts adult behavior patterns, and at the same time adopts their fears. Conducted over monkeys experiments showed that primates grown in captivity, do not fear the snakes, but being among the relatives of the grown up in the wild, begin to quickly copy their line of behavior, and begin to show fear of the snakes. Proceeding from this, scientists say that arachnophobia is a behavioral model that emerges in the early stages of human development. Among the reasons for the prevalence of arachnophobia, mention should be made of the role played by folk folklore, and especially the modern film industry, which depicts the spiders of murderers, dangerous, insidious and poisonous enemies of man.
Perhaps, therefore, the most common is the spider-fear in Western Europe and North America. And this despite the fact that in these countries, poisonous spiders practically do not occur. At the same time, the inhabitants of many underdeveloped countries do not know the problem of arachnophobia, on the contrary, in some countries spiders are even used for food.
Arachnophobia - treatment
As a treatment for arachnophobia, behavioral therapy is recommended. The patient in no case should be completely isolated from the source of his fears, before getting rid of arachnophobia. On the contrary, it is recommended to observe the life of spiders. After, at later stages of therapy, you can physically contact spiders, take them in hand, so that the patient is convinced that the spider is not in any danger.