Psychologists Have Figured Out How You Can Get Over Your Fear Of Spiders In Two Minutes

Experts from the department of Clinical Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, Marieke Soeter and Merel Kindt conducted an experiment to see if they could cure arachnophobia.

They put 45 people in a room with a tarantula, gave them a single dose of pharmacological treatment (to help them cope with the increased stress levels) and said that after just 120 seconds they were cured.

Kindt revealed that her technique really did cure the participants’ arachnophobia. Speaking to the Washington Post she said:

“Here we show for the first time that an amnesic drug given in conjunction with memory reactivation transformed avoidance behaviour to approach behaviour in people with a real-life spider fear. The new treatment is more like surgery than therapy.

In a nutshell, the brain associates the spider experiments with the feelings activated by the drug, therefore when coming into contact with a spider again, you are less likely to be afraid.

Source.