Last time I saw my Counsellor, I asked her if she could help me with my Arachnophobia as it's so difficult to live with. She said that all the symptoms that I get when I see a spider or indeed even the word gives me the creep.
Apparently, it's nothing to do with spiders. It's the anxiety that I allow myself to get when I see one that is causing me the problems. The hyperventilation, the dizziness, the nausea, the feeling as if I got things crawling all over me, etc.
The first thing I need to do, she said, was to learn to say the word as I always try to avoid it. She had me saying it repeatedly, again and again until it no longer bothered me. I can no say "spider" and it means nothing. Over the years I had allowed the vision of a wolf spider to connect with the word which made it impossible to hear or say the word without seeing it.
Gill taught me to break that connection. I was allowed to connect it with something else so I chose to use the vision of a plastic, multi-coloured Fisherprice toy called Webster. Therefore I no longer have a problem saying it.
She also told me that as from now I am not to run out of the house screaming, when i see a spider. I should calmly just leave the room and shut the door and get someone to remove it for me. When I see a spider, I must think of Gill sitting in the room telling me to keep calm and leave the room.
I got to put this to test yesterday. I went to have a bath/shower and got in without realising that there was a fairly biggish but short legged spider in there. How in earth I managed to calmly just get out of the bath without screaming is beyond me. I never uttered a sound let alone screamed. I even managed to calmly wrap myself in a towel before going downstairs to get my friend to remove it for me.
She was amazed how calm I was and I said I was quite proud of myself. What amazing start. I can't wait to tell Gill about it.
Apparently, it's nothing to do with spiders. It's the anxiety that I allow myself to get when I see one that is causing me the problems. The hyperventilation, the dizziness, the nausea, the feeling as if I got things crawling all over me, etc.
The first thing I need to do, she said, was to learn to say the word as I always try to avoid it. She had me saying it repeatedly, again and again until it no longer bothered me. I can no say "spider" and it means nothing. Over the years I had allowed the vision of a wolf spider to connect with the word which made it impossible to hear or say the word without seeing it.
Gill taught me to break that connection. I was allowed to connect it with something else so I chose to use the vision of a plastic, multi-coloured Fisherprice toy called Webster. Therefore I no longer have a problem saying it.
She also told me that as from now I am not to run out of the house screaming, when i see a spider. I should calmly just leave the room and shut the door and get someone to remove it for me. When I see a spider, I must think of Gill sitting in the room telling me to keep calm and leave the room.
I got to put this to test yesterday. I went to have a bath/shower and got in without realising that there was a fairly biggish but short legged spider in there. How in earth I managed to calmly just get out of the bath without screaming is beyond me. I never uttered a sound let alone screamed. I even managed to calmly wrap myself in a towel before going downstairs to get my friend to remove it for me.
She was amazed how calm I was and I said I was quite proud of myself. What amazing start. I can't wait to tell Gill about it.
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