life help: I’m deathly afraid of bugs. - Help.com

go to a therapist. it definitly works.

Me too. But Anon is right if it’s getting to the point where it’s interfering with your life, aversive therapy should work!

yeah. my friend is afraid of spider,and it has helped her a lot. slowing but definitly has worked. im thinking of getting therapy for my fear of people choking.

Try hypnotism with a properly qualified practitioner. It can really help.

Squish em. lol jp…I was afraid of spiders soooooo bad. But one day I was home alone and a giant one was crawling on my shoe. I tried everything to get it off…And it had like a grip so tight…It wasnt coming off. So I had to pick it up and take it off. I peed in my pants. Literally. I was sooo scared. But after that I just sorta got over being scared of spiders…Now other bugs…Idk about that.

i hate bug too.

it’s like they are attracted to me.

Face your fear. Hold a lady bug. She’s pretty. No bite, no sting. Lots of bugs are cool. Do not disrespect their lives they were given. Don’t squish, dont kill. How many things in life were you already afraid of and now know there’s no need to be?

Take a deep breath. A fear of bugs? It’s natural. Saying its ruining your life is a bit overreacting, right? Plenty of people fear things, but try not to let it get to them. You’re not alone. Heck, my best friend wrote “ode to bug spray” since she hates everything creepy crawly.

Try taking books out from the library on the bugs you don’t like. If they’re just pictures, they can’t hurt you, right? Try learning about them. If you can’t deal with that, just close the book. Simple. Also isn’t there that saying “know thy enemy”? At the very least you’ll sound intelligent as you shriek out the bugs scientific name and demand for it to be killed.

Stock up on items that kill bugs but aren’t harmful to humans or pets. Often people forget to read the little warnings and end up sick. Try not to over use anything because you’ll create a series of bugs immune to everything you have and that is not the sort of place you want to be in. Kill the things in the lawn first, since it has to get in somehow. If it flies, hang up one of those mosquito catchers that work for other bugs too. Bugs are attracted to light, remember, so if there’s something in your room, turn the hall light on and your light off. Usually it’ll fly to the light and leave you alone long enough for you to grab your trusty fly swatter.

Don’t wear sweet-smelling things, bugs will be attracted to you. Bright clothes as well attract bugs. Leaving food out on the counter overnight, sticky things that leave a residue they can eat, and an overlay of trash all lead to those icky vermin. Keeping your house clean also helps shove them out of your home. Check in the corners of your rooms for spiderwebs, then with a long broom, twist them away. If you live with someone else, scream in a girly way, point to it, and demand it’s death. Call the exterminators if you really need to. They’ll kill the bugs, but then you’ll have to sweep up little bug carcasses, which is no fun at all.

If worst comes to worst, try moving. Are you living in the country? Often there are less bugs in the city. Living by still water increases the number of bugs, as does living in an area with trees. Of course, there are bugs for all situations, but there are some easy ways to avoid the really mean ones. For instance, ticks live in tall grass and woodsy areas, mosquitoes live anywhere near still water, and bees or wasps live in places with clover and a place to build a hive. A word of cation about wasp nests: try to not enter a child’s playhouse during the summer. Often wasps will house there and you’ll be unsuspecting.

So, other then “kill it” or “avoid it” I’m sorry to say I can’t magically make your fear go away. Only time will tell. People go through their entire lives without getting rid of their fears: but they learn to cope.

Good Luck.

I’m no help here. I am freaked out by bugs. I have nightmares about them! =O They get to me bad. Bees scare me the most though.

Im VERY afraid of bugs. But in my everyday life I gotta kill them, because there are just so many. Eventually i was just FORCED to deal with it cus i constantly am confronted with them. I freak out each time. Stand back. Wait till they stop moving. Get a shoe. Smoosh.

I hope you get better!!

Eat them.

I’m very serious about this. You can buy real bugs from many different ethnic markets that taste anywhere from very good to interesting. And I’m not talking about chocolate covered ants. They look like chocolate covered raisins and don’t really taste all that different. I recommend deep fried crickets. They still LOOK like bugs mostly, they have a wonderful crunchy nut-like texture, and taste very nutty too.

The entire time you are eating your snack, say to yourself;
“I am not afraid of bugs, I’m so NOT afraid of them I can even eat them knowing they will cause me no harm and I’m bigger than they are!”

If you can hold or eat I bug, I promise you will loose your fear of them.
Bright blessings ~ Richard

your doctor said it was OCD? wow, i really don’t agree with that. more just like a natural fear. would explain why the pills don’t work. well, i’d suggest either facing your fear as some have said before, but if you find that thought too repulsive you might just try some basic meditation. start by imagining an unthreatening bug in your mind, maybe a dragonfly or lady bug. stay calm while you picture the bug. once you can do that, imagine it crawling on you, and again you want to make yourself stay calm while imagining this. it may take a while. but once you’ve mastered that step you move on to maybe a more threatening bug like a bee or spider and imagine it and then imagine it crawling on you. so on and so forth but your goal throughout the exercise should be to remain calm when you think of these things. start from step one each time you do it. fears are all in the mind, so if you practice this regularly it will do considerably more than pills can.

“Deep-fried and salted, the crunchy insects are particularly prized by drinkers as a counterpoint to alcohol, but non-drinkers, especially among women, are top consumers too, the cricket vendors say.

Sok Teak, 25, a cricket-vendor at the market for five years, said her business is good, but she admitted it is down from recent years, apparently because of drought that has hit some of the prime cricket-catching areas.

Still, she is selling about 50 kilograms of fried crickets a day, she said and on good days, particularly when tourists seek packages to take back home, she can sell 10 kilograms to 20 kilograms more.

A young Cambodian woman, who dropped by Sok Teak’s stall while she was talking with Kyodo News, ordered a package to take back home to France for her sister, even though she knows French customs officials will confiscate the crickets at the airport in Paris if they discover them.

‘’I like fried crickets. They are full of taste and worth the risk at customs,'’ San Chanthida, who has been living in France for three years, said.

Sok Teak sells her crickets by the milk can for the bulk customers and or by a 52-cricket count for snackers.

The 52-cricket pack costs between 4,000 riels and 5,000 riels ($1 to $1.25) for a satisfying crunch while browsing the market’s other attractions.”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cibergai…

I’m not going to lie richard, but that sounds disgusting. I also said the same thing about ketchup on eggs, so if I ever get the chance I might have to try some.

you saw the picture yes? I swear, as God is my witness… IF someone can pick up one of those suckers and chew it down (NOT just swallow it) they will loose their fear of bugs. lol

I believe I would also lose my appitite.

[quote katlover1]your doctor said it was OCD? wow, i really don’t agree with that. more just like a natural fear. would explain why the pills don’t work. well, i’d suggest either facing your fear as some have said before, but if you find that thought too repulsive you might just try some basic meditation. start by imagining an unthreatening bug in your mind, maybe a dragonfly or lady bug. stay calm while you picture the bug. once you can do that, imagine it crawling on you, and again you want to make yourself stay calm while imagining this. it may take a while. but once you’ve mastered that step you move on to maybe a more threatening bug like a bee or spider and imagine it and then imagine it crawling on you. so on and so forth but your goal throughout the exercise should be to remain calm when you think of these things. start from step one each time you do it. fears are all in the mind, so if you practice this regularly it will do considerably more than pills can.[/quote

Hi Kat, reading your reply was the most logical I thought when it comes to getting over insect fears….It’s coincidence that i used your theory even though I’m not the type afraid of bugs, But I had a related situation reflecting this topic of fear just a day or so ago . After reading the front page of my internet news on the topic “Growing increase of reported lice in classrooms, and homes,” I was in a situation where I take public transit to work in the morning… And this woman who looked like she was in an unfortunate state of appearance, took a seat right next to me. That was no big deal, I’m not to prejudge anyone for being unfortunate and it appeared to me she was homeless. She has much a right to sit anywhere on the train like anyone else. Even though she looked a little disturbed, I’m not the type to be rude where I could’ve just got up and move. I was gonna ride this one out.
The seats are small and we were pressed up together arm to arm to shoulder to shoulder. Her hair was very unkept and her hair (afro) at times went in the direction on my arm and shoulder.
So where I’m getting at is after she left the seat to leave…I noticed a small dark bug on or above my sleave. I shook it off and thought nothing else of it.
Until i got to work, I have a seperate office and constantly being on the phone, I’m not conversing to much with my employees most of the day for them too spot them. But for the few workmates that came in to drop off documents or had a question, I noticed a few looked at me strangely, until one of the ladies in the other department told me I have a few small black bugs on my blouse. She brushed a few off my shoulder and picked a few right off my chest and under the collar. I was wearing a white button down shirt that day and it wasn’t to hard not to see them as small as they are on me. Well I thought my problem was solved as the day went by….until I was leaving for lunch, when a lady I knew pulled me aside to the door to go outside and told me if I was aware that I have these little blackbugs clinging on my back and shoulders. Even though she also picked and brushed me off, by the time I went home…I found more on me like they never left. I went to a mirror and found several more on the front of my chest and crawling under my collar. I Turned around to check my back, and found twice as much. Most on my upper back, collar and shoulders. I was wondering where these were coming from more then I was freaked out and embarrrased.
I didn’t have time to change because i had a night course to attend to …like now.
I just went and tolerated these bugs for another 2 hours and I’ll deal with this when i get home. A friend at the class gave me a more thorough brush job during break as she found them mostly in the back of my shirt collar as she lifted it up. She was laughing and I was embarrassed, and I started to realized that this woman who sat next to me on the bus , It’s cruel to think it, but that’s where i picked it from. I told my boyfriend not to drop in that night as I fear that they were breeding on me. These bugs look like small little black greenish microscopic beads. Hard to pick it off with your fingers , you have to brush them off. Even though when i got home , I immediately washed out my blouse, and skirt, but I wonder if they’ll be slowly breeding back somewhere in my house or on me. Or if i’m gonna need a certain medicated soap or detergent from them possibly breeding on my clothes. So far, no trace yet. What would you do?