Guys and girls...

Gemini and I have had a conversation last night about Arachnophobia, or rather the treatment thereof...

Yes the phobia is an irrational fear of spiders in our case here.
How do you help someone who's scared witless to overcome their fear? Provided that they are willing?

Educating is probably the best.
To such an extent that the "patient" sees the irrationality in his fear, and starts to realise these are amazing creatures.

Even have the patient look at a tarantula if he/she's willing.

What we really wonder is this - how does one treat Arachnophobia?
Is there anyone here that suffered from it and overcame it?
If so, how?

TH

I overcame it recently, while staying in hoedspruit. I came face to face with a baboon spider while on the crapper at 3am. It was a life altering experience

PS: That was a true story!

Well if i take myself for example, before i started i was extremely scared of spiders any spider for that fact. Once i started reading and getting more informed then it became better.

I think my biggest fear was getting bitten thinking you can die, you see pictures on the internet or hear stories of how bad the bite is. I mean i was too scared to even pick up the crickets or roaches.

Now i am proud to say that i handled my Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (Green Bottle Blue) and starting to get way more confident.

Moral of the story is that you need to get educated on the species.

Well the person would need to want to overcome their fear. The first step is to get educated (as the Animal and Dimitri said).
Perhaps giving them some facts is a good start. Like the color of their 'blood' being blueish in cases due to the copper in their blood instead of having red blood due to Iron on the blood. Or like that the hair on Tarantulas do not actually grow out of hair follicles but instead form while preparing for a molt and is their skin.
I guess also to get educated on when Tarantulas are defensive and when they are more calm will help them understand that Tarantulas are not out to attack people.
Seeing people handle tarantulas helps. Eventually handling tarantulas will help but I will never let an inexperienced person try handle any of my T's out of fear of the T being dropped or flicked off the noobs hand.
We as humans fear things we do not completely understand.

I am currently working with someone who is scared of all spiders, had to remove a daddy long legs from his presence he was that scared. He is willing to try overcome his fear.

Now baby steps need to be taken not to feel like he is being pushed or forced. Yes education is the main factor here but now what i need is idea's on how to handle it.

For instance his first assignment is to look around him, take note of all bugs around him. To see the beauty in the simpliest insect. I want to open his senses to the world that most ppl dont see.

I am unsure what to start with after that... Dimitri what information got ur attention on a Tarantula in the beginning? what did u find interesting as a none T "believer" (if that makes sense )

Despite my love, passion and respect for all living things, I was very arachnophobic until maybe 3 years ago. What creeped me out most was the speed and unpredictability of those 8 legs.

As I don't enjoy living with fears, I decided to take things into my own hands. I think that's anyway the best way to get over it.

I went to an exotics expo, and that's where my plan hatched to grow my own tarantula(s). So I did a lot of research beforehand, until I felt that a sling or two would be safe in my care, and then I went out to buy some at the next expo!

What can I say, I never really looked back and got more confident by the day. Now I'm not even scared of the more aggressive specimens, I just have the normal (and healthy) respect for these... :woohoo: