Grappling With Nature Series No. 4 (Arachnophobia and Me) | Mixed Media Project

Ever experienced an unpleasant or frightening episode while among nature? Now, you're afraid to return to the wild? You're not alone. Millions of individuals have encountered events, animals, outdoor circumstances, or natural phenomena that frightened or upset them. Thus, the experiences overshadowed the pleasantness they may have first experienced and turned them away from enjoying the beauty of the natural environment. The condition if severe enough is classified as a "phobia". And more specifically,

First, I wanted to define exactly what is a "phobia". A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically occur as a rapid onset of fear and sometimes remain present for more than six months. ¹

The reason a phobia is classified as a fear is that "Fear" is an emotional response to a current perceived danger. This response is different from anxiety, which is a response in preparation of a future threat. Phobias may develop for a variety of reasons. Childhood experiences, past traumatic experiences, brain chemistry, genetics, or learned behavior, can all be reasons why phobias develop.

Research has suggested that there are phobias that may run in families and be passed down from one generation to the next. ²

Individuals affected go to great lengths to avoid a situation or object, to a degree greater than the actual danger that may be present. If the object or situation cannot be avoided, some may experience significant distress. Other symptoms can include fainting. This appears to be an extreme reaction and may occur in blood or injury type phobias, and panic attacks. Around 75% of those with phobias have multiple phobias. ²

Myself, I have a phobia. It concerns my encounter with an arachnid when I was about eight or nine years old. We visited family in another state who continued to live in the rural area we moved from.

As a child, you expect certain comforts to be enjoyed when visiting family. Good food. Old fashioned desserts. Plenty of simple fun with cousins. And pleasant memories to take home.

I enjoyed all but the last one. Living in tiny country homes was the rule. I don't remember much before the move, but what I do remember is the quiet and quaint surroundings of nature when returning to visit family.

One one such occasion, we were asleep on a small mattresses on the floor due to many cousins visiting and not enough bed space. During the night, suddenly I woke with a feeling that something was crawling on my face. I screamed to the top of my voice for so long that I made myself weak and sick. My parents and other family members couldn't calm me. That something was a spider. I was paralyzed to the point that I couldn't raise my hand to remove it. I couldn't get up. I just lay their screaming, sweating, trembling. But I couldn't move.

So concerned about my reaction that when we returned home, I began to have upsetting nightmares about larger-than-life spiders chasing or attacking me. I'd wake in a panic, crying. That's when my parents consulted a doctor.

The diagnosis: Arachnophobia.

The episode didn't even take place outdoors. But the lasting effect was to ensure that I would steer clear of spiders in any setting. And the best way to avoid them was to remove myself from their natural habitat. In the area of Texas where I live are extremely deadly species of spider. The Brown Recluse.

I began learning all I could about the different type spiders so that if I ever encountered one, I'd know whether they were harmful. Once an adult, I overcame my fear of the outdoors and the possible interaction with spiders enough to enjoy nature.

Still, my anxiety persisted. Who knows when a spider may fall into your hair? or attach itself to your clothing without your knowledge. That was my reasoning, silly or not. I no longer have regular, debilitating nightmares about spiders. Only occasionally mixed with other monsters, such as excavating equipment trying to scoop me up into their claws.

Throughout my life, I've learned to live with it to the point that I can view pictures of spiders without the paralyzing effect that something is crawling on me. To view a spider in an art setting has helped me overcome certain aspects of the phobia.

I conducted limited research on phobias, especially related to the natural environment and discovered that this particular phobia is a condition many face. As reported in Fears N Phobias, natural environment phobias are external specific phobias of particular conditions in the natural environment. ¹

These type phobias are different from situational phobias, which are more related to particular circumstances people find themselves in that occur indoors or in other environments.

Natural environment phobias include a fear of:

• lightning and thunderstorms (astraphobia, brontophobia, ombrophobia);
• heights (acrophobia);
• the night (nyctophobia) of the dark;
• the sea (thalassophobia);
• the sun (heliophobia);
• the wind and air (anemophobia); and
• water (hydrophobia) ²

Like myself, many individuals may experience anxiety at some point in their lives. But when an anxiety intensifies, then a problem may develop.

Related to nature is the phobia that deals with the fear of wide open spaces. This phobia is known as agoraphobia. The fear isn't necessarily the openness, but the anxiety related to instances where imminent escape might be difficult or assistance not immediately available. If an incident occurs where one suffers an injury that results in loss of blood and attention is required to save your life, then the fear of being left to die is real if no one accompanied you. ³

For me, I have a fear of crossing bridges that extend for longer than a few minutes to cross over. Part of my anxiety is the actual space on the bridge that's too narrow for my liking; the other part is the water underneath that I'm fearful.

I can attest to the fact that learning to live with a phobia isn't easy. To others in my family or friends, my rationale for the way I feel doesn't make sense. But I tell them that it's irrational, and that's what makes it a fear.

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Have you experienced an episode or phobia with regards to nature?

For my current mixed media collage project in my series Grappling With Nature, I wanted to explore the part of nature that I grapple with. Phobias. Since I have a phobia related to my fear of spiders, I decided to design an art piece depicting an arachnid on my face, which is what happened to me to bring on my phobia.

Below are my steps which I began with uploading the different type images into Canva. For the female with the spider on her face and one of the flowers, I utilized StarryAI, the stable diffusion program. Other images I included are free-sourced.

Using Canva, my design program, I blended the different type images. I leave with you my procedures which began with a blank, white canvas. I then added layers of elements.

StarryAI	StarryAI	Free	Free	Free	Free
Text Input: "Close up of beautiful female of color with glowing skin and lush red lipstick with a cracked head. Inset in the crack and continuing down to the shoulders is a beetle on her cheek with branches flowing from its head, red eyes, and a devilish smile." Style: Twisted Whimsy	Text input: "Original Peach flower on long stem with one bud hanging down." Style: Twisted Whimsy	Source	Source	Source	Source