Feel the Fear

All my life I have always hated spiders. Most people don’t like spiders, but I’m really scared of them. When I see a spider in a place, I never go in. I have stayed at my friends’ house four times because there were spiders in my house. You can’t understand what I’m saying if you haven’t got a phobia.  

 

It’s difficult to live like this, so I decided to overcome my fear. Two months ago, my mom took me to a specialist named George Tames. George has helped a lot of patients with phobias. Some people had normal phobias, like being afraid of dogs, or cats, or being alone. Some people had really weird phobias, like phobias of apples, or sleeping in a hotel. He has helped a girl with a phobia of school. The girl hasn’t been at school this year because of her phobia.

 

I have seen George a few times and he has been very helpful. He did everything step by step. First, he showed me the photos of spiders and we looked at them together. Then we watched documentaries about spiders. Next, he gave plastic spiders to my family and they hid them around the house. The last one was really unpleasant, but it has helped me to become less phobic.      

 

I’ve looked at hundreds of spiders with George and I have improved a bit. That’s the idea of ‘exposure therapy’. You aren’t afraid of spiders after seeing them many times. My therapist says that I must touch one next week. I’m not ready for that. I have never touched a spider before and don’t think I can do it.