Arachnophobia Culture

Arachnophobia culture

When I was a young girl I can remember asking my mother if she would check my covers for spiders before going to bed at night. On some nights I would lie in bed, wide awake with the fear of the possibility that the slightest tingle could be a spider crawling on me. My thoughts would race with exaggerated images of its eight hairy legs, numerous beady eyes, and fangs dripping with poisonous venom ready to attack at any moment. For as long as I can remember I have had a phobia of spiders and as with most phobias you always expect the worst.

Arachnophobia is considered to be the most common phobia to have, with some cases more extreme than others. People who suffer from arachnophobia have the tendency to suffer from an abnormally high amount of fear causing it to interfere with their daily lives. Although I have overcome a lot of my fears from when I was a little girl, I still considered arachnophobia to be a serious phobia. It's not so much the fear of getting bit by a spider that scares me; it's more of the ideas of having them crawl all over me leaves me feeling twitchy. Spiders have this sense of omnipresence about them; knowing that they're everywhere all the time. This paranoia comes from the thought of losing control of my environment, and feeling outnumbered. Even if I actually encountered a spider, a simple brush off would not be enough to calm the nerves. Instead, I would feel the phantom spider crawl for moments long after the spider was gone. I find it hard to even look at pictures of arachnids without getting that creepy-crawly feeling all over.

The root cause of my arachnophobia is a mystery to me. I don't know where it came from or when it started. I'm not sure if it happened to me early on in my childhood or if it has been ingrained in my ancestors for means of survival. I do believe the majority of our phobias are conditioned by the culture we live in. Our way of life and our portrayal or spiders are what cause us to fear them and fall a prey to their frightening mystique. Our culture has shaped the images that come to mind when we think or hear the word spider. To us we picture a venomous creature out to harm us, but other cultures view it quite differently. If you compare Americans to certain indigenous tribes from South America, or certain parts of Asia, their fear of spiders are drastically different. Many cultures around the world consume spiders and other insects as a main part of their diet and some find it to be a delicacy.

As a culture we are taught to fear of all the poisonous and potentially harmful creatures in the world without thinking twice about their purpose or natural instincts. Our image of spiders and other insects are often portrayed in scary movies as...... The fact that we are disconnected with nature is tied in with our fear of spiders. My fear of spiders grown out of my over stimulated imagination. Every now and then