Tens of thousands of people are diagnosed with entomophobia every year. For the uninitiated, that’s a fancy term that means having an irrational fear of bugs.
While bugs, even to nonphobia sufferers can be scary, it’s important to understand that most are harmless and unworthy of the level of negative attention your child may be giving them. Therein lies the purpose of this post.
Below, our team lays out various strategies you can incorporate into your child’s life that may help them beat their bug phobia once and for all. Keep reading to start improving the quality of your loved one’s life!
Face the Fear
There is an endless number of ways people suggest you can beat phobias. While several of those strategies are effective, we’ve yet to find anything more helpful than controlled exposure to the root of one’s anxiety.
By exposing your child for a minute or so to a bug they’re afraid of, you give their brain the chance to process that the fears it has attached to the insect are unfounded.
If you’re going to experiment with exposure to phobia-inducing stimuli, do so under the supervision of a psychological professional, if possible.
Change Associations
Chances are, whenever your child thinks of bugs, their body automatically has a negative response. By training your child to instead have a positive response, they may be able to overcome their fears.
Reconditioning associations entails exposing yourself to something you dislike and then disrupting your knee-jerk negative response by doing something positive. That might be seeing a bug and choosing to do a cartwheel rather than screaming or running away.
Over time, your child’s natural response to bugs will start to fade.
Laugh
Laughter is powerful medicine when it comes to having a phobia of bugs. It allows you to discharge negativity towards inspects in the same way that changing associations can.
So, whenever possible, have your child laugh when thinking about their disdain for bugs. Have them affirm that their fear is silly and that they’re going to beat it.
Get Professional Help
Serious phobias require serious intervention. The best place to get that intervention is via a professional.
Several physiologists specialize in helping people with irrational fears. Some can even help their patients largely overcome their issues in just a couple of sessions.
Talk to your family’s primary doctor about fear of bug phobia treatment options to see who they may be able to refer your child to.
Get Bugs Out of Your House
If your child’s bug phobia stems from bugs being in your house, consider hiring an exterminator that can find signs of moths, ants, roaches, etc. and get rid of identified invaders.
Bug phobia or no, living with bugs is unsanitary and uncomfortable. A quality exterminator can help you reclaim your house from inspects which may bring your child peace.
Overcome Bug Phobia and Change Your Child’s Life
Bug phobia is a real illness that can create conditions where people become debilitated in the presence of bugs. If your child is suffering from a serious fear of insects, stop having them live with the problem and start pushing them to beat it.
We hope our insight helps to improve your family’s life. If you’d like more information on entomophobia or related topics, explore additional content in our blog.
Great advice – my daughter is afraid of pretty much anything that flies or crawls. I’m hoping having a pet reptile will ease the fear since she will need to feed the pet crickets and mealworms. We shall see!
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