I have arachnophobia and there’s something I dread every year. Spider season.
Typically starting in September and ending in November, it’s the time when randy male spiders, on the hunt for ladies, are most active and therefore most noticeable.
I’ve gone through most of my life with a severe fear of spiders.
The mere sight of a photo or video of the eight-legged fiends on my TV or phone screen can turn me into a shrieking, sweating, quaking wreck.
I know it’s ridiculous. They’re good for the environment, eating flies and other disease-spreading insects, and there are few, if any, in Scotland that can cause harm.
But still. It’s all to do with their long, crooked legs and the way they scuttle so unpredictably.
Can hypnotherapist help cure arachnophobia?
In a bid to deal with my phobia, I booked in for a series of hypnotherapy sessions with Dundee-based Stewart McDonald.
Dad-of-three Stewart welcomes me into his west-end home, and his warm, friendly manner immediately puts me at ease.
First up, we discuss the origins of my fear. I recall my mum spotting a massive black spider on the lounge wall when I was about four.
To this day, she tells me that while she was scared, summoning my dad to remove the thing, she tried hard to hide her fear. But I must have sensed it.
Around the same time, a spider ran across my bed. My bloodcurdling screams brought my grandma, who was babysitting, to the rescue.
Stewart believes my phobia has been transmitted from my mum, and therefore is socially conditioned.
So if being scared of spiders is something I’ve learned, it’s also something I can unlearn.
What’s the first thing we do about my fear of spiders?
But where to begin? We start by creating a “hierarchy of anxiety” of spider-related situations, personal to me, from the least to the most intensely fearful.
I’ve no issue with tiny ‘money spiders’, so that’s number one.
Talking about spiders causes a slight shiver down the spine, so that ranks as number two.
Seeing photos or videos of the critters on social media or TV? Number three.
Further up the fear chain? Seeing a spider on my bedroom wall. Even worse – a spider running across the wall or carpet.
And right there, up top – having a spider ON ME.
Hypnotherapist says my reaction is ‘disproportionate’
When I tell Stewart how I react to spiders – hysterically – he tries to help me understand just how irrational this is. And how much I’ve blown things out of proportion.
My reaction, he reckons, is “disproportionate” – and I have to agree.
He wants me to be able to take control: to be able to deal with spiders in a calm and measured manner.
That doesn’t mean I have to form a spider fan club.
“I don’t expect you to love spiders!” he smiles.
“I’m not going to ask you to pick up a tarantula or stroke a house spider – unless you really want to!”
No, thanks!
So when does the hypnotic trance come?
Once we’ve had our spider chat, Stewart invites me to sit back, relax, close my eyes and breathe freely. All I’ve then to do is listen to his voice.
Before long, I feel my limbs growing heavy. Soon enough I’m in a hypnotic trance.
There’s nothing worrying about this – Stewart assures me I’m fully in control and could wake up and be fully alert in an instant should I need to be (if there’s a fire, an emergency, or whatever).
But no, I’m content to go with the flow.
During the session, he encourages me to imagine spiders in various scenarios, with the logic behind this being that the more chilled out I am, the more relaxed and therefore less fearful I can be about any arachnid encounters.
How did my first arachnophobia hypnotherapy session go?
Even after my first session I feel a weight lifting, and leave full of the belief that should I meet a spider that I’d be able to deal with it more calmly.
Sure enough, there’s one on the bedroom wall that night. I don’t scream. I don’t run. I simply call on my mum (I’m staying at her place) to kindly remove it. Job done.
My next session sees us delve deeper into hypnosis, and again, we address my fears.
This time, I’m to raise a finger on my right hand if the answer to: “Can you deal with this?”, is “yes”, and those on my left hand if it’s a “no”.
For example, having envisaged a spider on the wall, could I deal with it? I lift a right finger.
Dealing with it could mean anything – ignoring it, calmly asking someone to remove it, or, as an absolute last resort, squashing it.
As an animal lover, I really don’t want to have to squash anything. And, as Stewart reasons, spiders have as much right to inhabit the environment as we do.
What about the last session?
During our third session, Stewart takes me on a journey in my imagination where I stand on a balcony (in my mind, it’s in Greece and there’s an amazing view) and walk down steps into a “special place”.
Again, I imagine this to be a Greek island, with palm trees swaying in the breeze.
Any time I feel a sense of anxiety, I can return here in my mind’s eye.
Back to the “rank of fear”, and this time I reach the spider scuttling across the floor. Can I deal with it? I could, possibly? But I suspect it might take me a wee bit longer to desensitise.
As for being able to stroke a spider – I don’t think that will ever come. But then, who ever wants to stroke a spider?
Ultimately, Stewart has helped me in ways I’d never imagined possible.
How do I feel about spiders after hypnotherapy?
I’m so much calmer around spiders. I don’t scream like a banshee when I spot one, and I try not to regard them in negative terms.
Previously I’d have regarded the creatures as ugly, sinister, evil and nasty, but really, they’re none of those things – although, OK, I might still argue they’re pretty ugly.
When I see one in the bath, I shrug. On the wall? No problem – as long as they don’t drop on to me.
It’s about putting things into perspective.
The reason they scuttle? Not to scare the bejesus out of me. It’s more likely they’re desperately trying to hide – to escape from a potentially murderous human.
I’ve yet to attempt the glass and sheet of paper spider removal trick but that’s my next step.
And while I swore I’d never go to Australia because of the giant Huntsman spiders, you never know, I might one day book a trip to Oz.
I’ve found hypnotherapy to be brilliant – so brilliant, in fact, that I’ve signed up for sessions with Stewart to treat my insomnia. It’s early days but so far so good.
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