ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case of a 20-year-old woman who comes to see her general practitioner (GP) saying that a fear of spiders is causing her significant problems. She needs to get out of the room very quickly and requires family members to come and remove the spider. She cannot re-enter the room until she is certain the spider is gone. She cannot sleep in a room if she has seen a spider there and could not go on two school trips because of worries about encountering a spider. She has not revealed the extent of her difficulties to her boyfriend. She requests diazepam tablets, because her aunt uses these for her fear of aeroplanes, and believes them to be effective for phobias. She explains that they are 'irrational' and she knows that most spiders are harmless, but nevertheless experiences very intense anxiety. She has no evidence of other mental illness and no symptoms or signs of psychosis or depression.
