Getting my sister over her "phobia".

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A few years back after a gathering with a friend with arachnophobia, my little sister later decided she too had it. Initially it had been just a little "Eek!" or another if she saw one about, saying she found the smaller spiders cute. Since it has escalated somewhat exponentially. For example a few minutes ago she wailed at me to dispose of one in her room. After forcing her into the ever-so-forbidding task of actually pointing out where they were, I managed to make them drop under her bedside cabinet, about which she's been loudly gibbering about since, refusing to go back into her room.
Of course, we've an oldish house with house spiders settling in there for the winter in every damn room. But she's behaving ridiculous to me. Personally, I've had a life-long phobia and one I feel is more genuine, which I live through every day (such is where it turns up) without anyone noticing, and I'm even getting completely over it. Can anyone suggest anything for hers?

I'd be curious to find out myself. I don't like spiders, either. I know my hatred and disgust for them is irrational, but dammit - they're just so scary looking. Have you ever seen a close-up picture of a spider? Pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel. Thank God they aren't capable of killing humans (except babies and sick people).

A lot of them are pretty frightful and I can sympathise with a little flinch, 'specially at a close-up picture, but top-of-voice whimpering is bloody annoying.

Show her how easy it is to kill them (I find that scrubbing bubbles is an interesting way to kill them)

I'm not sure she'd approve, but all the same I'd refuse to do that: I maintain a vegetarian ethos.

Fears grow and evolve; I've develop a terror of jellyfish in the past five years that wasn't there before. It's a slippery slope deciding whether another's feelings are true or not. As for coping with her fears, I'm afraid that I don't have answer - everyone responds differently.


M.

Learn about them, the more you learn the less there is too fear.
(that applys to alot of things, knowledge is power). How you
approach making her interested in learning depends alot on her
i guess.

I used to have a problem, i tackled it by studying them and
keeping a 7 inch tarantulla at home for a while. Now i have no
fear of them anymore just a healthy respect for the very
poisonous ones - nothing to fear but fear itself.

The more one avoids a phobia, the stronger it grows over time.
Better to just break them asap, they can easilly be broken with
the right approach, better that then living a life in needless fear.
Takes a little work but hey, most things do. And when its gone,
its gone And this is not our fault, to fear and then avoid spiders
is hardwired into us from cavemen times, it was a important instinct
to have to survive. Nowadays, not so much (depending on where
you are and what you do), but the caveman residue is still there
Thats it, simply put. Or thats what i think anyway.

I've had a multitude of fears that left me literally left me paralyzed. The only thing to do is to work through them. For example, it took some time, but I conquered my fear of driving. I was terrified to get behind the wheel of an automobile, & I was horrid as a passenger. It can be done. It's called baby steps...just go slowly. Btw, any phobia is real...at least it is to the affected person. No point in belittling anyone for any fear no matter how silly or irrational it seems.

Reassure her that they are not poisonous and won't hurt her, unless you have that stuff where you come from lol.. In which case I don't know.

If she is a little girl, it will just make it worse if you push her i think,
i know, annoying, but if she is a little girl she needs support and
as i understand you are the older brother, this is a part of the "job"
that has been handed to you, brothers look out for their sisters.
I`m my sisters little brother, sometimes she annoys the hell out
of me, but i would kill if i had too to protect her any day of the week,
day or night. Its family, and anyone wanting to mess with my family
will have to go through me first, its part of my "job" in the family,
if i like it or not doesn`t matter much, its just the way it is being
a son and a brother, we`re the familys bouncers

All these people talking about baby steps are wrong, what you need to do is to shock it out of her by over exposure. No that is a terrible idea, but I always say it, also I guiltily do use my siblings phobias against them, when my brother was a baby I would freak him out with a big toy spider. At least it is not afraid of the dark, my sister can be a bit of a bugger with that, whenever we go somewhere where we all sleep in the same room like some hotels, she needs to have a light on and I realy can not sleep with a light on. Probably the best idea would be understanding them and going from, looking at a picture of a spider, if realy detailed doesnt work have less, then move onto toy spider, first looking, then holding. And then if possible move onto real.

^
""All these people talking about baby steps are wrong, what you
need to do is to shock it out of her by over exposure"""

poor girl

""when my brother was a baby I would freak him out with a big toy spider""

probably scared him for life, you play hard Bradleigh

I don't have any issues with spiders, but my sister-in-law does. There could be a spider way across the room and she will freak like crazy, she saw a spider one time and screamed, my brother and I came running thinking something happened to her.

Phobias like that can be a big problem, because it is like the boy who cried wolf, most of the time she screams we assume she seen another harmless spider, but it could be something serious so we go to her anyway.

I was scared of spiders until I was six. I was on the top bunkbed in my bedroom, and saw a spider on the ceiling - bear in mind every time I used to see a spider I'd scream the place down. My throat closed up, I paralyzed, and then thought "hang on a second, this is silly". I then began talking to the spider. I went "Hello mr spider, are you having a good time on the ceiling there? I hope so. What is your name? My name is Emily." - and with that my fear had gone. Why logic pricked its ear that day I will never know. But I am not scared of spiders anymore!

Now moths.. uuurggghhh.

let him kill one like me "hi would u mind to get f**k out of my room?" give spider 20seck to move to door if not "die b***h"
...ok now that makes me look like spyco