Tan Mei Kuan: Arachnophobia: fear of spiders

Hello everyone. I am Tan Mei Kuan and my blog post this time is about arachnophobia. I have organized my research in three parts:

1. Definition and statistics
The Oxford Dictionaries defined "arachnophobia" as an "extreme or irrational fear of spiders". The term "arachnophobia" is a combination of the Greek word "arakhne" (spider) and "phobia". According to www.earthlife.net, almost half of the women and 10% of the men in the UK think they have arachnophobia. On the other hand, www.mentalhealthy.co.uk reports that about half of the women and 18% of the men in the Western society experience a fear of spiders to some extent. This website also points out that although the aggressive Australian funnel web spider must be avoided, there are only two recorded bites (not deaths) per year.

2. Examples from research and personal experience.
Arachnophobics will always check their surroundings for real spiders and any representations of spiders in the form of drawings, pictures, soft toys and others might scare them too. According to www.disabled-world.com, arachnophobics will experience "excessive sweating, rapid breathing, a quickened heartbeat, nausea and dizziness".
The reasons for arachnophobia to occur can be found from the historical point of view. Some evolutionary psychologists think that arachnophobia is a survival skill and a misplaced fear passed down from our ancestors.
As for personal experience, I do not have arachnophobia. If I were to find a spider in my bedroom, I would probably alert my parents and monitor every movement of the spider. When it displays any sign of movement towards me, I would probably run away screaming.

3. Treatment options
According to www.disabled-world.com, there is a treatment named "systematic desensitisation" where arachnophobics learn to face their fears and thus conquer their phobia. For example, sufferers will be initially exposed to the mild photos of spiders and then gradually to the live spiders. There is also a virtual reality treatment where arachnophobics will learn to face a computer-generated spider by wearing a VR helmet. I think that it is also important for arachnophobics to educate themselves on spiders to dispel any unfounded fears and misunderstandings.

Thank you.