Hypnotherapy for arachnophobia?

[Linya883]

I'm currently 8 months pregnant and have spent the whole of September a nervous wreck.

I know that spiders won't harm me, that they're more scared of me, that it's irrational etc. but I have such a severe phobia that seeing one makes me feel lightheaded, sick and I completely panic. I end up constantly checking walls, floors and crevices when I go into a room.

I've got a spider spray that I spray around the place which does seem to help, but other than that I've just been waiting for spider season to end (I thought it was August/September but now people are telling me September/October so we aren't out of the woods yet).

Unfortunately, my DH is also terrified of them.

I'm starting to worry that I am going to pass this phobia to our DC and really want to get help for it. I'm aware that London Zoo does a day course, but we live in the North-West and so it isn't the easiest to get to for one day and the travel would be expensive too. I can't seem to find any zoos around here that do anything similar.

I've looked into hypnotherapy privately but I guess I'm sceptical about it as it seems sort of... woo? Has anyone tried it and had a good experience?

The other type of therapy on offer seems to be CBT but I'm almost even more sceptical of that - I had CBT previously for anxiety and found it useless. When it didn't work for me, the woman seemed to be under the impression that I wasn't trying hard enough but to me it felt very "think happy thoughts".

Now, the thought of being told to replace my thoughts with positive thoughts about spiders, when my phobia is such an instinctive, irrational reaction, just seems ridiculous.

Has anyone cured their severe arachnophobia and how did you do it?

CBT doesn't work for everyone or for every type of problem, so if you've already tried it for anxiety I wouldn't expect it to work for a deep seated phobia. I don't think the London Zoo thing would work for me as its a one day course, and its taken me years.
I've managed to gradually desensitise myself to the point I can catch a big spider under a jug and put it outside. But I still make a fuss while I'm doing it, and if I even think there's one on me I'm hysterical.
I started off by looking at photos of small ones, and those furry ones that don't look too much like spiders (jumping spiders). And weirdly I'm not at all affected by harvestmen, which look almost identical to spiders.

I'm really frightened of house spiders....I think its because they are fast...but my OH has a pet tarantula and I can hold her (she is a goliath bird eater)....but because she is big and quite slow i can cope with her.

I hate spiders too, I can kind of cope if they are small but the big ones really freak me out.

I just trap them under a cup or bowl and then have to wait for DH to deal with it lol.

I have actually read some where of someone who cured their spider phobia by keeping some as pets. I guess exposure therapy… I’m not sure I could do it though, just the thought of it is giving me goosebumps.😱

Let the cellar spiders stay in your house. I have a few living in the room corners in my living room, kitchen, hallway and I have not seen a house spider this year.

I used to freak out at all spiders but now the cellar ones don't scare me as they move quite slowly. But hate the fast moving house spider but I live alone so have to deal with them. As said haven't seen any for a while (watch one turn up now!]

I know it's hard but it's your fear and flight kicking in and the more you get used to removing spiders from your home, the easier it gets. I still freak out but have no choice

I went with my kids to an animal handling place in the north east and inevitably they wanted to hold a tarantula...and I managed to do it too, I couldn't quite believe it.

Since then (a few years ago) I am much less bothered about the spiders in the house, I'm not exactly overjoyed to see them but I can at least live and let live now, so long as they don't climb on me...

Could you try something like that, I couldn't believe how amazing this tarantula was, so light, and it didn't move at all, just sat there in my cupped hands and we looked at each other...