Has anyone been on a 'spider friendly' course at London/Edinburgh Zoo?

[Tolber]

I booked a place on one last year but now the day is nearly here I'm too scared to go.

I can't believe it'll work and have convinced myself it'll give me nightmares. An autumn of terror at all the fucking monsters that have already started invading my house seems preferable to doing the course right now. I feel so ridiculous. Is there anyone who's attended one of these courses who can reassure me that it might actually work and not just increase my phobia?

Good for you for trying OP!
So many posters busy killling these poor creatures because of their fear.

Spider poem

'i'm sorry for scaring you,. but i didn't know being seen would cost me my life.'

This is so interesting! My nearly 12yo has become so scared of them - she lets out an absolutely blood curdling scream when she sees one and is the on edge of hours afterwards. It's awful. Think she's probably too young to do this course though! Helpful to know how it affects you all - and that I definitely shouldn't get cross with her about it (sometimes it's hard as she terrifies everyone with her screaming)!

@hpertrophywife under 16s can attend the session at London zoo, they need to be accompanied by an adult and there's a consent form to fill in. London Zoo's courses are all full this year now but you can go on an email list to be notified. I think the London one is better than Edinburgh Zoo, which I attended.

Yes, please don't get cross at her. Phobias are awful and anyone bring cross honestly just makes it worse.

The only thing I've found that helps me (a little bit!) is when I realised that the spider isn't actually my problem, it's my own physical response to seeing one that's my problem - pounding heart, panicky breathing, shaking, screaming etc. So if I can get even a small bit of control over my physical response, the problem isn't so totally overwhelming. In reality this just means controlling my breathing, if I try really hard to breathe slowly and deeply then my heart rate and shaking lessens. Could you explain this to her and maybe help her calm herself by slow breathing?

Thank you! That's great advice. I managed to eventually get her to scoot past one on the stairs this evening (she'd got paralysed half way up when she saw it - could not go up or down!) without it becoming the total meltdown that last Wednesday night's visitor precipitated!