Case presentation A 20-year-old woman comes to see her general practitioner, saying that a fear of spiders is causing her significant problems. When she sees a spider, she becomes fearful. She sweats, shakes, and her heart rate increases. She needs to leave 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 fear of encountering a spider. Mental state examination When she comes in, she scans the room quickly and explains later that this was to check for spiders and that she does this routinely. Once she has done this, she is relaxed and discusses her fears. She explains that they are ‘irrational’ and knows that most spiders are harmless and yet experiences very intense anxiety. She has…
