Re the spider awareness course: my daughter and I had a phobia. We moved out of the house if there was a spider and nobody to remove it. We never used the garden and we never opened windows. I’ve been known to strip naked outdoors when I thought one was on my back. Couldn’t sit on the ground outdoors, picnic benches were a no no. Wouldn’t go anywhere near a corner in the house and we’ve called people in the early hours of the morning to rescue us. I also told my daughter to climb out of her first floor window once because a spider was in the doorway and I couldn’t even go up the stairs to help her. It seriously affected our quality of life.
We went on the course after dismissing it several times previously, because, quite simply, we knew we had to do something.
When the fear of doing nothing outweighs the fear of doing something, you’ll try that something.
We were determined to give it our best shot because we simply couldn’t carry on as we were and, for us, it worked.
What worked best was them repeatedly letting a house spider loose at the end. They did it so many times we began to trust how they behave and what we’d been told all evening.
It was more than telling us about spiders - that wouldn’t have worked. Heck, my children couldn’t even have the book, Charlotte’s Web, because I couldn’t even look at a cartoon picture of a spider.
Nothing will work for everyone but the next step for us would have been therapy of some kind. Have an open mind and give it a go I say. One woman turned up and we knew within 5 minutes she wouldn’t last the evening - she didn’t want it to work - she just wanted to know a more effective way of killing them, not how to deal with her fear or phobia. She left half way through the hypnotism part and I’ve thought since what a shame for her that she paid the money but wasn’t prepared to face her fear.