To ask your advice - has anyone cured a phobia through therapy etc?

[LeaveItItsNotWorthIt]

I am considering paying £330 (which i would have to save up a long time to afford, but can do it without cutting back essentials) to phobiagone a company who say they can cure my phobia through various therapy and hypnosis techniques.

My phobia is of spiders, it affects my quality of life (i am jumpy from april-November, avoid sitting outside, wont use the loft or storage cupboards, spend time checking every room etc) I genuinely think if there was one between me and my child, i wouldn't be able to go to them (i would step through fire for her but not over a spider) PLEASE don't judge me for this.

I KNOW its ridiculous, i KNOW spiders wont hurt me, are more scared etc and i am a rational and fairly intelligent woman but if one is in the room i literally want to kill myself.

Am I crazy to consider so much money when it might not work and i cant afford it very easily?
Has anyone ever had a bad phobia cured by therapy or indeed anything else?
Please don't laugh at me as so many doctors have, i cant go through another summer so miserable.

Would this be worth a go, if you have a smartphone?

Have you seen this?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27186022

It is an article about Phobia Free, an app which works with desensitization, but in a fun way. Looks really good and worth a try!

On the NHS you would be seen by your local IAPT scheme who almost certainly would do CBT with you. If referred by your GP they will have times other than just a Wednesday morning.

Phobias are very ameable to therapy as shown by all the positive stories above. CBT has a lot of evidence to show it works for phobias and as people have shown above, you often don't need many sessions.

As we approach Halloween those who suffer a spider Phobia are subjected to a lot of horrible anxieties.

Some threads have asked the difference between CBT, Hypnotherapy and NLP.

All deal with the mind - however CBT deals only with your conscious reactions and helps you become more aware of your behaviour, and sessions can last a long time. Hypnotherapy deals more with the unconscious, where images, feeling and reactions are held, and can help with changing the way you respond to something that frightens you, but wont necessary get to find the original trigger, leaving it there to possible re-surface later.

However NLP is the fastest and quickest and most thorough method - you don't have to go anywhere near what you are frightened about, look at it and even think about it very much.

Similar to Hypnotherapy it also deals with the deals unconscious part of the mind and memory where images, feeling and reactions are held BUT it also finds the original trigger - a 'hidden' memory that started it in the first place, and deals directly with that. So having taken away the trigger and anything associated with it - phobic 'program' just can't run anymore.

And afterwards all you will recall is the once you had a phobia, and now its gone.

It really is the most effective, and also the gentlest and kindest way to help anyone who has any type of fear, anxiety or phobia.

I hope this helps you as I will be helping a lot of people this time of year using NLP

My daughter suffered from arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and she was about to do Duke of Edinburgh award expedition and she was terrified. I came across an app “Chill pill” and as in-app purchase has hypnosis against “fear of spiders” for £2,99 (Apple App Store ,not sure for playstore but somewhere along that price)
It worked like a charm! For £3 and she listened to it every night for a week and she completed the expedition with no fear. She told me that she saw a few along her way but she didn’t scream or panicked. She completely ignore them like ,in her own words,”ok,it’s a spider,whatever”,
I hope that helps.

I was having CBT for my phobia. I won't mention it as it's very outing as it's so unusual but it was affected by seasons and also every day stuff within the house. It was ruining my life.

I don't feel as bad as I was, I'm definitely still scared and have that awful sick feeling but no where near the extent I did. I've gone from total avoidance to gritted teeth and getting on with it. The real test will be the next season it occurs which I haven't had to deal with yet.

If your phobia is that bad, I really don't think you have a lot to lose by trying therapy. The London zoo suggestion sounds really good.

For what it's worth, I went on the zoo spider phobia day and was able to catch them (big house spiders) in plastic and let one walk over my arms etc. But it made absolutely no difference when encountering them in my own home - the day sort of depended on you being egged on by everyone else and it didn't feel real, and the brave effect didn't last.

I've had some success with (expensive mind) CBT and mindfulness but it's a slow road.