[whinenot]

I once had a wasp hiding near my center console start stinging my arm as soon as put my arm down as I started driving. Fortunately, I was still in my residential neighborhood so I was able to pull over and jump out of the car without causing an accident but it's easy to imagine the poorer consequences had I been a little further in my journey.

[lacrimacida]

I have unpredictible behavior when spiders or roaches are crawling on me, it’s an automatic reaction I can’t seem to control. Im not really afraid of spiders or roaches so no phobia involved. Once I almost broke my arm, I hit it really hard to a wall to get the thing off.

Is there any hope for me to tame these reactions?

[schiem]

If you're serious about it, the way that I (accidentally) found that works is to keep some spiders and roaches as pets. I used to be the same way, involuntarily flinching whenever a large enough insect would crawl on me until I adjusted to being around them all the time. The roaches and smaller spiders don't trigger any kind of involuntary reflex anymore. I do still flinch when the largest spiders (> 5 inch leg span) move very quickly while I'm doing maintenance but I'm pretty okay with that, especially because one of them could put me in the hospital.

[jacquesm]

> it's easy to imagine the poorer consequences had I been a little further in my journey.

The wasp would have been fine.

Makes you wonder how many cause unknown single vehicle crashes where the driver dies are the result of insects.

[whinenot]

Some people may view this scene[0] as overly dramatic, whereas I think it's perfectly understandable once it happens to you.

[0]https://youtu.be/nJ_pVgV1EZQ?t=216