Arachnophobia

[Chickentikka567]

I know most people are not keen on spiders. It sounds dramatic but they just make my life a misery, it's a constant anxiety. I have occasional nightmares about them, I've had several bad experiences like finding one on my pillow, finding 2 large ones in the bath at the same time, and so on.
I dread this time of year and they seem to have started early due to the poor weather.
Have been lucky to not have many in our flat, but I can't escape them completely. It puts me off going to hot countries, I feel miserable about living in a world with them. I know that sounds dramatic and there are much worse things out there that would harm or kill me.
it's just frustrating but it's part of life I suppose. There was a therapy course but it was too expensive, something like £100 per session!
has anybody managed to successfully get rid of this phobia.

I can cope with very tiny ones, but even the spindly ones I dislike. The house spiders are unbearable.

The spindly ones will keep the awful big fuckers away, so if you can tolerate them make sure you leave them in your house.

No advice how to cope with it though, I have a crippling fear of them too.

I found Spider Spray gave me my life back. You can get it on Amazon and it basically evened up the power struggle for me between me and the spider (sounds dramatic but if you don’t suffer from a fear of anything you won’t understand). I know I can nuke it enough to put a glass over it. I also think my arachnophobia was at its worst when I was in a highly pressurised role. Does this apply to you? I manage now to not panic with smaller spiders (big ones make me jump still).

Agree with leaving cellar spiders to do their thang in the corners of the rooms.

That's interesting, how do the spindly ones keep the bigger ones away?
Unfortunately, we very rarely get spindly ones, I've seen 2 all year!
Thank you for the suggestion, I'm going to order it tomorrow!
I've had it since childhood sadly!

@Chickentikka567 so have I but I found reducing the stress in my life definitely reduced my reaction to them. I live in a very old house in a rural setting so there are a shed load of the fuckers.

The spray you want is made by Pet Shield. It’s in a red aerosol can. ‘Spider and creepy crawly killer’. Kills wasps too. And Hornets.

They eat them! Daddy long legs are the same, so don't get rid of those either. I don't know logistically how they kill much bigger spiders, and I won't look it up because it will mean pictures!

I have arachnophobia too. I won't ever visit certain parts of the world because of this. We pay a man to spray to kill and deter the spiders. It definitely helps.

Thank you!
Yes I am always stressed unfortunately, just seems to be my personality. If I could reduce it in some way that would help.
Wow, I can't believe they can eat ones much bigger!
I will definitely order the spray, or pay someone if I can!

Get a cat! We've had hardly any spiders since our DCat arrived - she eats them all

That sounds awful! I am fortunately fine with spiders (indeed find them very useful and fascinating), but I have had experiences with phobias myself.

What really helped me about 10 years ago was CBT. I know it depends on what services are available local to you but I was able to get on an NHS group course at fairly short notice (I think about 5 weeks waiting time). There are also plenty of self-help books.

The premise of CBT (not an expert, just summarizing how I am thinking of it) it that it is not "all in your head". On the contrary, the panic as a result of the trigger is a physiological reaction of the body. Basically your body has learned to react to the trigger with an adrenaline rush (much in the same way as Pavlov's dog). An adrenaline rush out of the blue is not a pleasant thing and will account for most of the symptoms (sweating, feeling queezy, racing heart, etc) that people will then associate with the trigger.

The way through this according to CBT is to 1) accept that this is a natural reaction of your body. You cannot fight the reaction (trying will only strengthen the link). But on the other hand there is nothing scary about either the trigger or your body's reaction to it. It is merely a nuisance. Nothing else.
2) Would be to try to "unlearn" the reaction to the trigger. This is were a CBT course and/or a professional can really help. But already classifying an episode for yourself as a nuisance rather than something scary will start to break the feedback loop.

Not reliable I’m afraid, my old cat used to climb on the sofa to get away from them 😂

Indorex. My partner is severely arachnophobic and as a result of my cat flea routine we have realised indorex has done the business.

I bought tarantulas, I'm much less terrified of the house spiders now and so are the kids!

I used deathlax to cure spider issues
Around the windows (and in my old cottage around the ceiling cracks)
It leaves a hard dry layer that kills them and lasts for 6 months.

In terms of holidays I recommend fuerteventura in the canaries. They have cockroaches but only teeny spiders - I've never seen one bigger than my finger nail and spent loads of time there.

The phobia courses offered at places like London Zoo, whilst expensive, can fix you in an afternoon. Definitely worth considering trying out as an investment, if your life is ruled by it.

all of this ^^
What you fear is the physical reaction you get when seeing a spider - understandable given the physical reaction is very unpleasant to experience. The spider itself can't hurt you at all, so it's not really the spider you fear. When you think of spiders, try to separate the two - the spider is perfectly harmless, and while the physical response to it is very unpleasant, that won't hurt you either - the more you are able to sit with the physical reaction, the less it will affect you.

I have recently done the course ran by London Zoo. £150 and whilst I don't think it has completely cured me I have been able to deal with a house spider without panic - for the first time ever. I am also able to leave small ones wandering about my house which I would never have been able to do.

If you can try and raise the funds I would 100% recommend it.

Please don't kill them with sprays. They are useful members of the ecosystem.

I watched a video someone posted on a football forum,it was fascinating;not recommended if you're scared of spiders though.

The Spindly ones are really poisonous but they can bit us due to tiny mouths so I imagine that's how they
Kill the big ones. They are also super fast when they want to be.

I can let them be as we have a cellar so they hang out there.

They can't bite us I meant!!!

Our dog chews them up and spits them out.

She'll eat anything(including non food items)so I can only assume they taste disgusting.

I feel dizzy reading this thread 😫completely petrified of them for no good reason! Currently pregnant and wishing I had done something to cure the phobia beforehand...it's not something I want to pass on to DC! Saying that, my sister is terrified and all 3 of her DC's are great spider catchers 😂

RAID spray all the way! I said to my friend I need to stock up this week now it is spider season about to start. It has reduced my arachnophobia hugely using this and the other day I managed to kill one with a tissue. No way would I have done that 3 years ago. I couldn't even cope if someone killed it, put it in the bin then I would have to leave the bin for weeks because a spider had been in there.

@WeeWillyWinkie9 if you can pick it up in a tissue why not pop it outside rather than killing it?