Itsy Bitsy......

Hi G-Fans!

For those of you who maintain a watchful eye, you will recognize the spider pictures.  These were accidently sent out last week when my paw slipped and I hit "publish" instead of "save" when working on various blog thoughts.
Well, I just lost a paragraph of writing.  I am not happy with the way this blog site is behaving lately!!
So, to try and retrieve my thoughts.... where is Raphael when I need him?  (snoring)
So, we will try again.
It is that time of year again when the spiders start crawling into the house and taking up residence in the nooks and crannies of the ceiling.  All shapes and sizes will take shelter and leave their dust collecting webs draped here and there.  The concierge is happy to have them keep any other bugs under check.  But, sometimes they get overboard and she will scoop them up and send them back outside.  Raphael likes to watch them as they come scuttling in....  I know a human who is very unhappy at the sight of spiders.  She will scream and freak out, Raphael would be happy to get them for her, but the screaming gets him....
May the webs in your life decommission those nasty bugs that seem to buzz around in your life:)
TTFN
-G

P.S.

Well, Apparently my efforts from last night never made it to anyone.  It did the usual thing that it does so we thought we were ALL SET.... but I guess not!  So, you will be getting another installment shortly.  Enjoy the double up!

Arachnophobia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the fear of spiders. For the 1990 movie, see Arachnophobia (film). For other uses, see Arachnophobia (disambiguation).

Sometimes, even an object resembling a spider can trigger a panic attack in an arachnophobic individual. The above cartoon is a depiction of the nursery rhyme "Little Miss Muffet", in which the title character is "frightened away" by a spider.

Arachnophobia or arachnephobia (from the Greek: ἀράχνη, aráchnē, "spider" and φόβος, phóbos, "fear") is a specific phobia, the fear of spiders and other arachnids such as scorpions.^[1]

The reactions of arachnophobics are often irrational (though not all arachnophobics acknowledge this irrationality). It is one of the most common specific phobias,^[2][3] and some statistics show that 50% of women and 10% of men show symptoms.^[4] It may be an exaggerated form of an instinctive response that helped early humans to survive,^[5] or a cultural phenomenon that is most common in predominantly European societies.^[6]

The fear of spiders can be treated by any of the general techniques suggested for specific phobias. As with all phobias, the strength of the associations means the individual must not actively pursue the consequences, and outsiders should not in any way undermine and "play" with the phobia in the meantime.

Contents   [hide]  1 Symptoms and effect 2 Evolutionary reason 3 Culture 4 Treatment 5 Notable people with arachnophobia 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit]Symptoms and effect

People with arachnophobia tend to feel uneasy in any area they believe could harbor spiders or that has visible signs of their presence, such as webs. If arachnophobics see a spider, they may not enter the general vicinity until they have overcome the panic attack that is often associated with their phobia. Some people scream, cry, have trouble breathing, have excessive sweating or even heart trouble when they come in contact with an area near spiders or their webs. In some extreme cases, even a picture or a realistic drawing of a spider can also trigger fear.

Arachnophobia can be triggered by the mere thought of a spider or even by a picture of a spider in some cases. Some arachnophobics will, on entering a room, search it for a spider. If they find one they will monitor its progress very thoroughly. Others will do all in their power to distract themselves to avoid seeing the spider.^[7]

[edit]Evolutionary reason

An evolutionary reason for the phobias, such as arachnophobia, claustrophobia, fear of snakes or mice, etc. remains unresolved. One view, especially held in evolutionary psychology, is that the presence of venomous spiders led to the evolution of a fear of spiders or made acquisition of a fear of spiders especially easy. Like all traits, there is variability in the intensity of fears of spiders, and those with more intense fears are classified as phobic. Spiders, for instance, being relatively small, don’t fit the usual criterion for a threat in the animal kingdom where size is a factor, but nearly all species are venomous, and although rarely dangerous to humans, some species are dangerous.

Arachnophobes will spare no effort to make sure that their whereabouts are spider-free, hence they would have had a reduced risk of being bitten in ancestral environments. Therefore, arachnophobes may possess a slight advantage over non-arachnophobes in terms of survival. However, this theory is undermined by the disproportional fear of spiders in comparison to other, potentially dangerous creatures^[8] that were present during Homo sapiens environment of evolutionary adaptiveness. Studies with crickets have shown that a fear of spiders can develop before birth.^[9]

Scientists figure humans may be born with a fear of spiders and snakes, which are healthy phobias that up the odds of survival in the wild. It's not known how such an inborn fear might develop, however. Now researchers have proven that unborn crickets can gain a fear of spiders based on their mother's harrowing experiences. In humans, research also suggests the widespread fear of spiders and snakes (arachnophobia and ophidiophobia, respectively) may be innate. A study in 2008 found that both adults and children could detect images of snakes or spiders among a variety of non-threatening objects more quickly than they could pinpoint frogs, flowers or caterpillars.^[10]

[edit]Culture

In the Dark Ages spiders were commonly considered to be a source of contamination of food and water.

The alternative view is that the dangers, such as from spiders, are overrated and not sufficient to influence evolution. Instead, inheriting phobias would have restrictive and debilitating effects upon survival, rather than being an aid. For some communities such as in Papua New Guinea and South America (except Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia), spiders are included in traditional foods. This suggests arachnophobia may be a cultural, rather than genetic trait. In western societies as many as 55% of females and 18% of males are estimated to experience arachnophobia.^[11][12]

[edit]Treatment

Arachnophobia is the most common of all the phobias, and a way of treating the disorder would be cognitive-behavioral therapy, or medications. Some medications someone with this phobia might take would include anti-anxietymedications or anti-depressants. Also, a therapist might choose to have the subject partake in what is called "exposure therapy" where the person is exposed to virtual spiders and then eventually live spiders little by little until they have overcome the phobia.

With the help of a therapist, the sufferer will slowly learn to face their fears. First they will be exposed to pictures of spiders. Later they will come face to face with real spiders. When they are able to hold a live spider without feeling anxious, they will have conquered their phobia.

[edit]Notable people with arachnophobia

• Justin Timberlake^[13]
• Kim Kardashian
• Kirsten Dunst
• Chloë Grace Moretz
• Rupert Grint
• Frank Iero
• Emma Stone^[14]
• Jessica Simpson
• Phill Jupitus
• Andre Agassi
• Simon Pegg^[15]
• J.K Rowling^[16]
• Ricky Gervais

[edit]