This phobia is dumb and unhelpful and I’m tired of it. I live in a spider-y area, and it’s about to be spider season. But they’re so* oogy*. Bleh.
Has anyone here gotten over their arachnophobia? Advice?
This phobia is dumb and unhelpful and I’m tired of it. I live in a spider-y area, and it’s about to be spider season. But they’re so* oogy*. Bleh.
Has anyone here gotten over their arachnophobia? Advice?
What you need to do is stand on a high mountain top and bark loudly–then the spiders will know you mean business!
Lynne-42, who hasn’t been around lately, went from arachnophobe to a spider enthusiast/expert. There’s probably an old thread about her story, but I can’t find it.
I did, by telling myself exactly what you said in your OP. I got rid of all my bug issues that way (except centipedes, they’re horrifying).
I wish you every success in this. For me, no chance in hell. I get all squishy inside just typing the word “spider.” Ick. Not, not, not good. Shivers and shudders.
Phobias are damn weird things.
Snake / rat shot. They make shells for pistols.
Nope, I did not. Instead, this year I paid $375 for exterminator treatments.
I am super good about letting spiders live outside, FWIW. That’s the best I can do - I have a deal with them that they can live outside, as can any of their creepy crawly friends. But if you come indoors, and I have something to smack you with, you’re gone.
I think it might depend on if you are really very arachnophobic, or you just have a natural “ieeee” reaction to spiders.
Spiders, with their legs and their quick movements, do give me that initial oogy feeling in my tummy when they come close. But for me it’s enough to forcefully remind myself that I am much bigger and that they can’t hurt me. I just practice that thought, and I got better at it with time.
I also have a friend who is petrified of spiders. She’s so frightened she freezes with her mouth open when she sees one. That helped me, because it made me want to protect her. On holidays I always check the bedroom for spiders for her and get rid of any I find. Doing that, and doing it for someone you care about more than you are afraid of spiders, that worked for me.
Of course, that wouldn’t work for her. She is really, really scared of spiders.
The way it worked for me was to have grandkids!
I’ve always been leery around spiders, but my ex-husband was a certified arachnophobe. Despite being a burly 6’1" with an equally burly attitude, he’d scream and quiver like a tizzy-girl if he encountered a spider, no matter what size. Unfortunately, my kids inherited his fears despite my best efforts to counter them.
But I was damned sure that my grandkids were going to have a healthier approach…so every opportunity, I pick up small spiders and let them run up my arm to show the kids they are harmless. I’m clear about which spiders to pick up and which to leave well alone…“Anything bigger than your little-fingernail should be left where they are”. They’re still wary (which is good) but instead of running off screaming in fear, they come get me to check out the new spider they’ve found in the garden!
T’was funny the other day though when I found the most gorgeous praying mantis and presented it to little Si who’s two yrs old. He BELLOWED out to everyone who could hear…“BIDER, BIDER, BIDER” then intently watched the mantis from an inch away as it crawled up then down my arm, across my belly, then finally onto a vine. Sweet!
I used to be quite irrationally scared of them and then decided to do something about it. My local zoo runs arachnophobia classes and I went on one of those. I am, of course, inordinately proud of this pic Yes, it contains a spider so be warned taken at the end of the workshop.
It hasn’t solved my problem completely but I am much better able to deal with spiders if I find them in the house and I am very much calmer about the whole idea of sharing space with them.
Are any of you as scared as Phil Jupitus> (no spiders, some swearing)
I believe immersion therapy is the way to go.
For when you’re out somewhere and encounter a spider, you mean?
Just walk away, Renee; they ain’t gonna follow you back home.
Sorry, that was just impossible to resist.
I had an awakening a few years ago (literally) and came to the conclusion that spiders really only want to be our friends.
Sure, they’re ugly, but some great friends are ugly (and at least spiders don’t stink).
To this day, I regret what I did to that little guy in the link above. Perhaps I could have put him on his own pillow every night, then we’d wake in the morning; I’d go off to work, he’d go off to hunt nasty insects in my bed.
sigh
I’m sorry, sweet, beautiful little spider (ok large), I was the monster, not you.
Actually, that linked post above still gives me the creeps! :eek:
Advise for the guys here: if a woman offers to make love with you preying mantis or black widow style, thank her for the offer and RUN AWAY!
My sister is beyond scared of spiders. If she sees one in her bedroom, for example, and no one kills it, she won’t go back into her room for a few days. It’s ridiculous. Doesn’t help that her paediatrician diagnoses every unknown skin infection as a spider bite.
As her little sister, I do my best to send her every single spider pic I can find. She doesn’t appreciate my efforts.
Spiders give me a bit of a moral dilemma - they terrify me, but I feel guilty about killing them. Just last night, I saw a spider on my bedroom wall crawl into a hole in the wall (LONG story about why the hole is there), which then made me freak out, imagining a colony of spiders living in my walls. So I taped a piece of paper over the hole, then spent a ridiculously long time imagining the little spider cold, starving, and alone in my wall before taking off the piece of paper because I felt bad.
You do know why she hasn’t been around, right?
They got her.
Have you considered becoming Navajo or Hopi? Not sure you can do that, but some Indians hold spiders as sacred.
Aww I’m sure he will eat lots of mosquitos for you to show his gratitude!
An arachnophobe friend met somebody whose career was studying spiders, who helped him become familiar and even fond of spiders. He started him playing, for example, with a small jumping spider. These are small and compact, and they dart around rather than creeping in leggy fashion. My friend had one jumping back and forth between his index fingers by alternately raising one hand and then the other.
As a final step, the spider expert remarked that spiders generally have a pleasant nutty taste when eaten. So, one evening, while seated at some big formal event and finding the people on either side of him focused on conversations in opposite directions, he noticed a spider slowly descending a thread from the floral centerpiece at the table. He grabbed the thread and swung the spider into his mouth and ate it.
And only then noticed the entire dinner party staring silent and slack-jawed at him.