Arachnaphobia.

Essay by codybanxUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, December 2005

download word file, 6 pages 4.0

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Ah Sunday morning your only day off. As your eyes flutter open and focus on your alarm clock a smile crosses your face and you hit the snooze button. Just as you begin to drift back into lala land, you sit straight up in your bed and you feel the cold sweat drip down your back and a shiver runs down your spine. As if it can smell your fear, the small black dot on the ceiling begins its terrifying decent, your about to scream, your mind is working a mile a minute, your heart is beating, you breath is short, you are frozen. The intruder in your room is now hovering inches from your nose. Although the spider is only about the size of a pea it is the most terrifying experience of your life.

"19 million American are directly affected by anxiety disorders, including specific phobias but less that 25% of them receive treatment."

(Gorman, pg. 48) "Every tomorrow has two handles we can take hold of, if by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of faith." (Gorman 49). It's a fact that millions perhaps billions across the globe suffer from specific phobias, and a very common specific phobia is arachnophobia, or the fear of spiders. "Arachnophobia is defined as the inordinate fear of spiders." (A.II, p.1) Having arachnophobia is like suffering form any other disease; however symptoms and the stimulus for this disease are very different from your common cold. The symptoms can be like extreme fear, panic attacks, cold sweats, temporary paralysis, and extreme emotional distraught. These symptoms vary from person to person as does the stimulus, one may only be afraid when actually seeing a spider, others can become terrified when just thinking about an arachnid. (Lekka pg.67)

What causes this horrible...