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Arachnophobic teen

4 replies

aracena · 25/05/2026 01:02

15 year old ds is terrified of spiders. Tonight I had to get rid of tiny tiny spiders I could barely see in the bathroom. He’s always been scared of insects and it’s not getting better really. This morning he spent 10 minutes telling me about hearing a bee buzzing at his open window (he has a mosquito net up so he knew it couldn’t get in). Otherwise he is calm and rational - he is not an especially anxious teen.

What can we do to help? He gets nervous round all insects but especially spiders. I thought it was getting better last autumn but it really isn’t at the moment. I have looked at arachnophobia courses at a couple of zoos but think maybe he needs some therapy or something - not sure being lectured by spider enthusiasts would really help? Has anyone found anything that helps?

OP posts:
Ponderingwindow · 25/05/2026 01:28

We did CBT and got to the point of daily exposure. It did not help.

I’m not really
convinced CBT works for level
1 ASD, which my child has.

OutOfSynnc · 25/05/2026 01:34

Buy a bug zapper for his room?

aracena · 25/05/2026 09:20

Oh dear - sorry to hear CBT didn’t help. A shame - I was hoping to hear success stories!
And thanks for zapper suggestion but he wouldn’t do that - despite his fear I still have to ‘humanely’ remove the spiders which makes it even more difficult…
We are going to thoroughly clean his room today which will help a bit but I am hoping he will grow out of it!

OP posts:
ImaSpringChicken · 25/05/2026 10:37

I used to be terrified of spiders until ds started keeping tarantulas. I never completely got over my fear of them, but it did minimise my fear of house spiders!!

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