Arachnophobia - 1

Phobia is described as a strong, irrational fear and avoidance of objects or situations that are usually considered harmless (Huffman, 485). Phobic disorders can be categorized into three categories: agoraphobia, specific phobias, and social phobias. In this paper I will be talking about a specific phobia called arachnophobia and how it affects my cousin whom is suffering from this phobia. Before I can begin this paper, I must explain arachnophobia. Arachnophobia is described as the abnormal fear of spiders (Arachnophobia). One must understand that arachnophobia is not just the refusal to a pet a tarantula from the zoo guy, but rather the panic about the mere thought of spiders. People who have true arachnophobia may experience a panic attack just from seeing a spider in a movie. Arachnophobia is actually the most common of all definite phobias. Almost half of women and 10 percent of men part are victims of this specific phobia (Looking At Arachnophobia). Arachnophobia is of a European origin. Spiders, during that time, were associated with the Black Plague resulting in an epidemic fear. As my case study, I will be using examples from my cousin whom is a sufferer of arachnophobia. For as long as I can remember, my cousin Caron has had an immense fear of spiders. She cannot watch them on television, see them on a photo, see them on Halloween rings, and certainly not see a live spider. There was one instance when she was about 16 years old that I got a rare glimpse into her extreme fear. One day my cousin decided to play a joke on Caron. He put a put that had a huge picture of a spider on the covers of Caron's bed. Once she pulled back the covers, all the saw was this gigantic spider. After her initial shock and symptoms of a heart attack, Caron ran after our cousin and tried to beat the daylights out of him. She held a grudge for our cousin for a very long time. After that incident, I asked Caron why she was so terrified of spiders. She told me