to be really fed up with being arachnaphobic?

[imonthefone]

Grrrrr...... I LOVE gardening; was just having a end(ish) of summer sort out...painting fences, moving sheds, getting rid of all the crap etc etc...

Im 40 years old...Ive always been frightened of spiders. i think Ive got better over the years. I can mostly deal with the harvestmen spindly things and the wolf type spiders if they dont touch me and I dont look directly at them. But what I really really cant abide are the BIG black ones that hang out in sheds....yeuck yeuck yeuck......Just come across 2...fighting, or maybe MATING (shudder) and thats the end of it....Had to come in, lost my breakfast in the kitchen sink. There are 5 bags of rubbish in the garden which I will not now be able to carry to the front of the house, put in my car and take to the tip..I will have to wait for a spider-hardy friend to come and do it for me

I am FED UP with it...I am otherwise normal, strong, independant, self sufficient kind of gal. Spiders reduce me to a hyperventilating shell......so humiliating....

what can i do?

TopCuppa
I've copied this from the London Zoo site to save you having to link there:

Quotes from participants on the Friendly Spider Programme:

?one of the best things I have ever done!? - Gail B., 2009
??I am free of the phobia and tarantulas fascinate me now? - Jardine K., 2009 (attended FSP 1993)
?From the moment I stepped through the doors, I felt I was in a very supportive environment.? - Sylvia R., 2009
?It was the most inspiring, amazing day and the staff and volunteers were so patient, kind and understanding.? - Gillian R., 2008
?The outcome for me was beyond my wildest hopes.? - Conrad W., 2008
??I was freed from 27 years of phobia in one afternoon!? - Lynsey A., 2009 (attended FSP 2008)
??it?s the best £110 I?ve spent in a long time.? - Jo G., 2009 (attended FSP 2007)
?My husband says, you've transformed our lives? - Judith H., 2009 (attended FSP 2007)

Here is a link to the course description, and I promise you there are no spider pictures on this page:
www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/whats-on/friendly-spider-programme,320,EV.html

Maybe my phobia is too extreme to cure? Not being able to even look at a photograph or one on the tv.

I'm definitely interested but skint...have childcare issues and work full time. Apart from that I'm totally flexible

I am keen and will try and overcome the obstacles

I might find London possible (easier perhaps?) as I have childcare close by

Thanks for posting that sally- I'm going to seriously consider it

ala I am scared of the thought of being cured enough to actually touch one....BUT....Im sick of the impact the fear has.

As an example, I want my garden to be nice...I am now half way through sorting it out. I was going to take all the sacks of garden waste to the tip. But I cant, for fear that those big mother-fuckas might crawl onto me whilst I am moving the sacks...or they might escape into my car. So now they will stay in the garden, in the way, filling with rain water until I can find a willing volunteer to not only take the sacks to my car...but take sacks to their car and transport to tip! Its a big ask really....

Im lucky in that the big ones dont tend to come into the house here. I have no idea what I will do if/when it happens. It is just me and the kids. I have been known to knock up a neighbour at 2am before when I had one in my bed room And like I said, I have slept in the garden too...

I HATE HATE HATE the feeling they invoke in me, more than I hate them. If one touches me I feel really really dirty and repulsed and sick...and a bit in shock/trauma

Totally relate to hurling things around the garden to dislodge any spiders....what a sight we must look! Should make a video 'Gardening with Arachnaphobes'

Does that make sense/answer your question? Probably not...bit of a ramble!

Don't you just want to not feel like that?

Toothbrush
My friend was referred by her GP to an NHS counsellor. She had to wait many weeks for an appointment but it cost her nothing.

My friend was so frightened of spiders that one day she was trapped in her flat because there was a single strand of web across the corner of the door. No spider in sight but the web meant one had been there. She had to wait until her DP came home to release her.
Now she loves spiders and bores everyone with talk about them.

I wonder what my neighbours think as I walk down the path at the side of my house flicking my hands and waving in front of me because of the cobwebs that get strung across ...

Ah well.

Sallying - I'll ask! I did one about 15yrs ago but as I say the therapist had obviously never done it before and it wasn't that helpful -I never felt that I reached any sort of point that I could say I had been cured

TopCuppa seriously I'm like you. The Dudley course is only £20 but doesn't seem to mention hypnotherapy on the website, more talking about gaining an 'understanding' of them.

I'm thinking more of travelling to Bristol if others are up for it now. I haven't got an endless pot of money but this would improve the quality of my life I think, so would be some expense. Definately a night in a Premier Inn

tell us! tell us!

i want to empty mine and move it....just too frightened....

No don't...

Seriously don't Raspberry - unless you are up for getting a round in for a gang of nervous women in Bristol

please can you ask the lovely man to come round her and help me?

well done though, for getting as far as you did!

why do they always run at you, instead of away?

Oh Raspberry you did Mine's a gin and tonic

I was living alone in a flat some time ago. A huge brown one was in the bathroom. I had to go in there eventually, so tried to get him with the Elnett. Bastard just sat there looking stylish

spiders dont get scared...

they are fearless

like little Jack Bauers