Exposure to a fear does not help one get over it. I don't just dislike insects, I am incredibly and irrationally afraid of them. Actually, scratch that, I think my fear is completely justified and rational. Insects are all spiny and scaly and scary-looking. Since I've been in this apartment, i've spotted many a cockroach, and many a neighbour has been called on to help me get rid of them. I've spent a small fortune on traps, bait, this gel stuff that you squeeze into cupboards, and sprays. And I thought it had been working, as I hadn't seen any for a while. Ahh, such naivety! The evil little monsters were just trying to lull me into a false sense of security before launching a full scale attack! Little f*ckrs! (sorry Mom, I know you don't like coarse language, but this too is justified!) 4 cockroaches in ONE HOUR, IN MY KITCHEN! So, because I feel a little bit shaky if I think about finding cockroaches among my cutlery again, and because I love tupperware, I went on a late-night panic-induced taxi-run to Homeplus (yay, open 24 hours!) and bought two giant plastic boxes. My whole kitchen is now packed into these, and my kitchen cupboards now contain enough cockroach poisen to hopefully kill them. exterminators (i chose them because of their name: Roachbusters) are coming on Friday afternoon. anyway, my point is that I am STILL ridiculously afraid of cockroaches, despite having being exposed to them a lot. Also, that whole "they're more scared of you than you are of them" line is also a load of bollocks.