Joanne, one of the sufferers featured in the Discovery film, sealed up the doors and windows of her home, kept all her clothes in plastic bags and would sit on them to kill whatever might lurk inside. She even went to great lengths to sweep her drive and disinfect her car before setting off for work. All because she feared spiders. After twenty emotionally-crippling years of fear, Joanne sought help. After ten hour-long sessions, using a new virtual reality approach to treating zoophobia, she was cured.
Hypnosis works with some people.
Sowing the seeds of phobia It is important to remember that phobics are not mad. Neither are they neurotic, or immature. Rather, their brains have acquired an extreme reaction to something that most other people shrug off. Phobias often begin in young children between the ages of three and eight. Sometimes they learn a phobia from someone in authority - fears are often transmitted within families.