50 Painfully Uncomfortable Pics No One Asked For Ever

According to the Cleveland Clinic, around one in ten American adults and roughly one in five teenagers will, at some point in their lives, deal with a phobia.

However, it’d be difficult to calculate exactly how many people are afraid of insects, but anywhere between 3% to 15% of the US population has a phobia of spiders. Arachnophobia, like other fears, is usually developed when someone is a child or teen.

Broadly speaking, people can develop phobias due to traumatic experiences with certain animals, things, or conditions in their past. Say, if an insect hurt, severely frightened, or grossed you out when you were small, you may be more averse to dealing with them at all. 

Similarly, if someone in your family or network of friends has a severe phobia, they might accidentally pass it on to you. Nothing traumatic may have happened to you personally, but you simply emulate the behaviors and attitudes of the people closest to you. Especially if they’re authority figures you trust, love, and respect.

Phobias, fortunately, can be treated whether by the person themselves or with the help of a health specialist. You’d need to talk to your therapist or doctor for a personalized plan, but it’s likely that they’ll suggest either exposure therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

The former essentially means becoming desensitized to what you fear by exposing yourself to it. You could look at photos of insects, talk about them, and visit them at a zoo or local park.

Meanwhile, CBT, often used alongside exposure therapy, provides you with fresh new perspectives so that you change how you view an animal, object, or situation. By doing this, you can also change how you react to them.