I am no longer scared of spiders - there is hope for you as well

[Emmanuelll]

For some reason I have totally lost my fear of spiders. I used to have a fear so bad that I would feel like I was going to vomit if one appeared.

For some reason, they now just don't really bother me. I don't love them. But now, if I see one I just leave it where it is because I know it's not trying to chase me around the house. It will usually disappear and I don't see it again.

I put it down to better mental health but who really knows.

DH empties the hoover😂

That thing is way too small for the spiders we get around here.

DH empties the hoover😂

@Devilsmommy Unfortunately I don't currently live with my DP. I think I'd have to chuck out the hoover!

That's awful

To everyone killing spiders because you're pathetic bullies I hope they invade your nightmares for eternity 💀
Get a fucking grip

It’s an awful feeling. My phobia has got so bad that I can no longer go next to them with a hoover. I have to get my neighbour to come into the house and remove them. You’re doing a great job honestly!

Used to be scared of them but not as much now. We had a huge one in the bath for a few days and I was wondering why it didn't leave as the window was open. Finally googled it and realised it was stuck as they go in the bath looking for water but the sides are then too slippery to climb out. As recommended online I put a towel over the side of the bath and popped back later to find it happily on its way up the towel. Actually found myself apologising to it for not realising!

Cats and dogs in our house eat any household spiders.
I blame the 80s/90s film arachnophobia for my fear of spiders.
Also allowing my youngest dc to get a pet spiders has also helped. We have a giant bird eating goliath spider who lives in a tank in their room. It's currently 1 year old and the size of my hand. It'll grow to dinner plate size. It has neon glow in the dark pink feet. Somehow that helps me

Tell me you can't empathise with other people without telling me you can't empathise with other people 🙄

Look, an extreme fear of spiders is all consuming to the point that you feel you can't leave the room until the spider is gone and is no longer able to move. Imagine going to bed and not being able to sleep because of this? Also, most people are like this because of how their own parents behaved about it.

Somehow, I have managed to reframe my feelings about the spiders and feel that I'm happy to coexist with them. This is partly due to improvement in mental health / anxiety. But also in understanding their existence.

I also thought it was pretty cool in the summer when a nasty big fly was buzzing around in the conservatory and I witnessed a big spider run out of a hole and pounce on it! I've a new respect for them.

I don't believe that they die outside. If you built a detached house in the middle of nowhere I bet it would soon have huge house spiders. But if they can't survive outside how would they get there???

They don't die outside, they are supposed to live outside. That's the perfect conditions for them.

I always love a good spider thread. So many funny opinions! Like the psychopath opinion... Although hoovering up spiders is certainly not commendable, it doesn't make someone a phychopath. If someone gets pleasure out of hurting/killing/torturing other living things, they might be showing psychopathic tendencies. But someone killing a spider out of pure fear is certainly not enjoying the process.

Also, putting spiders outside is not just giving them a slow death, that's a myth. They will simply look for somewhere else to shelter, like a shed, inside a wall or a tree. They may get eaten by a bird, but it's a chance they'll have to take.

And... The poster up thread who said spiders weren't animals. I think mammals was the word they were looking for!

Anyway, as you were.

I used to have really bad arachnophobia, but in the last 5 years or so it’s gradually diminished. I still get a shock - you know that spider heart jolt! - if I see a picture or video of one unexpectedly, but now I can tolerate the actual ones in the house and even take a big house spider out with a glass and cardboard - there was a real whopper in the bath the other day and I was able to just say “You’re going outside, big boy!” and do the covered glass manoeuvre.

I can quite happily go to sleep with a medium sized one above me on the ceiling, whereas ten or fifteen years ago I would have had to sleep in a different room (or even house 😂) I’m even quite fascinated by the small and thin ones.

I think it’s part getting middle-aged and less emotionally volatile, part having had a kid (and various medical and other traumas - much bigger things to frighten me than spiders!), and I also take citalopram on a long term basis and I wonder if that’s made a difference. I wouldn’t say I love the things - I wouldn’t be going near any tarantulas! - but I’m definitely less and less arachnophobic as the years go on. So there is definitely hope!

Yes @Julianatree I take sertraline and I think that is partly why my phobia has got better.

I had my first baby at 21 and now I'm 44 but the spider fear has only started to go away in the last two years. I think if you figure out that you can just move them and they are not following you around a the house, it's fine.

My children are also coping with having them in the house because they see I'm not bothered now.

I found out the other day (from a client who had* a spider phobia) that they have very little lungs so when they run away in a panic and suddenly stop it's because they're puffed out. How sweet is that?!

*Not any more 😉

I got much better recently but I have no idea what to put it down to.

i’m not as scared as i used to be either. i think it’s just acknowledging that they can’t be avoided and they really are more scared of us than we are of them.

mice, on the other hand. now there’s a phobia i didn’t realise i had until one scurried past me in the kitchen at 3am.

I live with a forest behind the house. There are / were constantly spiders in the house. I don't know the type but I saw one three weeks ago which was around 7 inches in the kitchen sink!

I'd always find a trail of baby spiders by my bedroom window.
I don't like them at all and, after finding the mammoth one in the sink, decided to purchase plug in spider repellents as well as soak cotton buds and cotton pads with peppermint and leave all over the house but particularly where I usually see them. So far, I've not been as inundated. In all fairness I haven't seen one inside at all although I struggle to believe it's worked so well. However the Amazon reviews were brilliant. I've put a plug in in each room.

The garden office is covered in webs and each day I clear them and each morning the webs are back!

I'm definitely not at the stage of living in peace with them.

I'm thinking i know who the real psychopath is around here.... 👀

I used to be terrified, and I mean terrified.

They really don’t bother me so much anymore. I still get that jolt when I see one because they just seem to appear from nowhere, but I can let them be. The way they pull their legs up when they’re scared is kind of cute, like they’re trying to hide almost!

I once rescued one that my cat was trying to kill but lifting my cat up and just letting it run off under the sofa. I would never have been able to do that a couple of years ago.