Arachnophobia

I'm on antidepressants for other concerns and I've noticed it has helped me cope. Still don't like them.

I don't buy into the peppermint round doors or conkers stuff - the speed they go I doubt they even notice!

Keeping the cellar spiders helps a lot but we've still had a few. I just keep a glass and card in every room so I can be quick to trap and remove.

I did the friendly spider course too, it changed my life and now I can cope with them whereas before I'd be a wreck. I'd recommend it to anyone.

I introduce them to my hoover, then I hoover the floors to be sure they're smothered.
If anything, my floors are clean.
I keep spindlies though to help.

I've stopped them getting in buy placing a dab of lemon eucalyptus on a cotton bud and putting it around the places they get in. Its £2 a bottle on ebay and its a lifesaver - it also wards off biting insects.

You can practically play bingo with all of the 'helpful' suggestions that are offered by people who think we're stupid 😭.

Therapy - such as paying money to zoo's
Logic - they can't hurt you in this country
Shame - you are ruining the eco system by killing them
More logic - just 'pick' them up with a glass / cardboard ect.
More shaming - you don't want to pass it on to your children

The shear lack of empathy is trolling at this point 😖.

Nobody wants to have a phobia. I wish I didn't start sweating and my heart didn't start racing whenever I see a huge spider, but that's just what happens, I have no control over it and it has absolutely nothing to do with needing to 'grow the fuck up' 🙄 Plus my phobia was passed on to me by my Dad...you know?...a man...who was equally as petrified of them as I am.

I don't like something....so I kill it 😑really?

Reading the first page of this thread has made me feel sick. I have this phobia too & feel I really can't put up with it any longer - can't even explain the feeling they give me but it's dreadful.

I'm going to find a good hypnotherapist and pay on a credit card. Can't afford it but it feels necessary. I'm in my 30s now and don't want to live the rest of my life with this phobia!

I've been and didn't see any. I did sack of going to Laos and Cambodia because of them and I feel a bit stupid about that now

I love this. Naming them and giving them back stories 😊 so cute

I will start this by saying I'm not cured. I don't like the huge ones, they make me jump and I would not like to go to Australia. But I am much better than I was and there's a few ways that's happened. When I was pregnant I suffered horrendous anxiety. I was a few weeks gone when I saw one of the big bastards in my bedroom in our flat. It ran under the chest of drawers, it was late at night and DH couldn't be bothered chasing after it. I remember crying myself to sleep in his arms but like I said the anxiety was awful anyway. Next day I forgot about it, put my Toms on (the ones you wear with no socks). Felt a crunching, yes it was in my fucking shoe! 🙈. I screamed and ripped the shoe off then spider ran out and I battered it with the hoover (not proud of this and I realised this reaction actually made me more scared of them.
Anyway fast forward to me taking sertraline for the anxiety. I started to feel braver around them and was determined I wouldn't pass the fear on to my child. So when DD was 2 we went to a creepy Crawley Halloween event at a local museum. They had a tarantula and me being me decided this was my chance. It was a beautiful creature and I let it run up my arm. No photographic evidence unfortunately but it definitely happened. We also went to London zoo and to the spider forest thing.
When she was 3 we moved to a house with this horrible lean to which had loads of those old man creepy ones. I used to try to battle them and get rid of them and we used to get quite a few in our bedroom. The highlight was the one I discovered above my head in bed one night. DH was off to India so I'd wound myself up about it that much he got me a spider catcher. This really changed things as if I see a big one now I just get the catcher on it and evict it. I'm now chief spider catcher (except for the cat). There was one the other day on a bed sheet in the garage and it really helped that I could calmly evict it instead of getting fighty with it. I really thing that makes the whole thing so much worse as it gets the adrenaline going. Did you know if we are scared of something the human eye enlarges it? I also keep any of the spindly ones I see in the house as they kill and eat the big bastards and I had a chat with the cat the other day and told her to up her game as the same day I saw the garage one I saw two smaller ones. Sorry this is super long and I hope you make it to the end without falling asleep but honestly the spider catcher is a game changer 😊

I cured my phobia (and I was full blown phobia of them!) by doing the friendly spider program at London zoo

i was worry about the cost but can honestly say it has been worth every penny I have been officially cured for years now

in fact I hardly ever even see them now cos I am no looking for them all the time.
Even today a colleague brushed something off the back of my top at work, I was like what was that and she say a spider. I just did say good job I am no scared of them

10 years ago I would have barely functioned at that

I second @dadandtwokids suggestion of CBT. I am bird phobic, and it got to the point where I thought I was going to have to stop driving, because the urge to duck and cover my head every time a bird flew towards the car was becomming near impossible to resist.

I had six sessions, and while I still couldn't go into a room where a bird was flying free, I'm so much better than I was. It's really manageable now.

I really feel for people with arachnophobia, it must be awful. My house has been full of spiders this summer, I feel really lucky that they don't bother me.

1. Men can be arachnophobic too.

1. Look up the definition of phobia - an irrational fear. Which means that - gasp - it may turn men hysterical too.

Someone shaking or sobbing due to a phobia doesn't give anyone the right to label an entire gender, some women really are quite ironically misogynistic it would appear.

Literally saw it out the corner of my eye running from my chest to my neck, huge brown, thick legged beast. I actually ripped my necklace off in sheer panic which I'm upset about as DH bought it for my 30th in June and it has a pendant that represents me and DD who was born in May 😢 it landed on the floor and somehow I managed to chuck a T-shirt over it and stamp.

I still feel bad, I really don't like killing them but I was beside myself.

Exactly!! This makes me fume.

I adore spiders and find them so graceful.

We live near fields and get massive ones. I absolutely hate it!
I check all the walls before bed and shake all pillows and duvets. I then lay in the dark checking all the walls till I fall asleep.

I wish it didn't affect me so much.

Oil of peppermint wiped on skirting boards window sills and doorframes deters the scuttling ba*@£rds. I loathe them and because we live rurally in a 100 year old house we are overrun every spring and autumn.

@elm26 Up your neck?! I am so sorry! That is literally my worst nightmare and would reignite my arachnophobia... I've managed to keep it in check over the years by gardening a lot and having the mindset that I'm on their turf (literally) if I find them outside. Haven't had the misfortune of something as horrible as that happening though. That's quite upsetting!

I think the previous owner of my house was one of these "don't kill any spider types" because the place was overrun with them.

I don't hate them but don't like them much either. I vaccuum them up. They can choose to escape the bag or not (largely not I believe).

I would probably be OK if there was one or two that stuck to the corners but they get everywhere and if you leave them they just breed.

Anyway, 3 years later house is largely spider free, which probably means there are still quite a few spiders, but they have learnt to keep the fuck out of the apex predators way.

This is good stuff, not the biggest bottle in the world (picture is deceptive) but it also smells lovely so makes the house smell nice.

Spindly ones I tolerate as they stay in the corner and kill the big ones. House spiders (large and fast scuttly bastards) are my worst fear. Although I hate to see them killed, I'd rather they be put outside, as long as it's not me having to do it!

I am at my wits end in my flat, OP.

I'm seriously arachnophobic, we've had around 11 huge ones and counting in the last 2 weeks. One ran up my neck from laundry I was putting away, another ran across me on the sofa. The rest have been spotted darting across the floor. They seem to be even bigger this year.

My aunt recommended Ardap spray from Amazon, it acts as a deterrent, I've coated my window frames, skirting boards etc with it. I put DD and dog outside whilst I done it as didn't want them breathing it in and I took them out for a few hours. I know Indorex flea spray is meant to be good too.

I'm praying this works. DH hates them too but will get close enough to kill it. Neither of us like killing them but have no other option because both of us are too petrified to try and catch it.

I've been waking up in cold sweats from nightmares about them, nervous to touch laundry so much so that DH has done the laundry for the last 2 weeks when he gets home from work. I'm anxious about where I'm stepping, walk around with sliders on at all times inside, it really does affect my life.

I've made peace with the spindly ones in the corners, and they are my friends now since I learned they kill the monstrous ones.

I'm looking at my options of hypnotherapy or a spider course.

If you have EMDR you do not have to hold or go near any spiders.

It is all done via your imagination. Fixed my terrible phobia in 30 mins, not saying it will work that fast for everyone but much easier than holding a bunch of tarantulas.

I hate them all - even the spindly ones and don't get me started about the massive orb spiders which are everywhere in my garden this time of year. I can't walk to the bins without brandishing something in front of me cos the mahoosive fuckers string their webs across the pathway overnight.

I have registered my interest for the friendly spider course. I hate this time of year