DonovanDuVal

Not sure where else to post this, I assume you could call it a mental health issue, either that or ethical philosophy, so I plumbed for this, the health forum. Anyhow the thing is this; I suffer from arachnophobia, although I have made attempts to get used to our eight legged friends and thought that I was going well in developing a mindset to deal with spiders until the other night.

As a fat bar-steward I often try and get healthy through the medium of exercise, and have a shed in which various exercise apparatus is set up, all easy and convenient to use. The down side of this is that I also share the space with lots and lots of house spiders. Funny thing is that when they are small they don’t bother me so much it’s only when they get so big that they are able to pass me the weight for the barbell that they begin to make my skin crawl. Okay I exaggerate there but you get the gist.

Well the other night I was warming up when I noticed a massive spider clinging to the wall which I duly ignored. That was until it made a dash for a way out and headed at full pelt at me which freaked me out and had me trying to kill it. God I am such a little bitch, I almost screamed. Anyway it got away and tentatively I carried on.

The next night I entered very carefully, (what I was thinking I don’t know, like it was going to be waiting to jump, it was big but not that friggin’ big) put the light on, inspected the walls and when I was satisfied that it wasn’t there began training. Then my eye was drawn to the inside of the door frame where it seemed it had been waiting for me all this time. This time I freaked and killed it straight away, it had been so close to me without me noticing which kinda makes the whole deal a lot worse.

Anyway I just wanted to know ‘what people thought about killing spiders?’ While I feel bad about killing anything the fact that they freak me out when I am using weights is what makes me justify it to myself. Those of you who indulge in self improvement will understand that, while exercising it’s not good to be looking over your shoulder at either a real or imagined fear. Actually the fear is always real it’s the spider that can be imagined. Any tips for surviving what I realise is essential my own mind fecking me over?

I had a friend who used to be afraid of spiders and he got over it by picking them up and, in fact began to enjoy the rush of his fear induced adrenaline. Can’t see that happening anytime soon and anyway the last I heard from him was he was on heroin. Not that I am say the spiders did that, although you never know, they are sneaky. I was toying with the idea of getting a tarantula as a pet, but then thought better of it.

BigBen

Man, this made me laugh. I knew spiders were bad news, but turning your friend onto heroin? That's really bad.

Seriously though, I have the same phobia. I cannot come anywhere near spiders. If a spider was to pass me the weights during a set, I would lose it just like you.

I am going to say that you will have to make your space "Spider-proof" or you will have to move the weights to a more suitable area!

What would happen if you were throwing the weights around and a spider scared you bad, so bad that you lost your form? You could be injured. I am not kidding.

No, I don't have any suggestions on how to spider-proof you wokout area, so I will leave that up to someone else. Ask in Tilted How-To, maybe...

And if a spider tries to tell you that heroin is a cool drug and everyone is doing it, JUST SAY NO.

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Rodney

For one thing, bring a bright light out to the shed and do a regular web patrol. Knock down every web you see. Eventually, most of the spiders will move on.

I don't know how your shed is constructed. If it's pretty tightly constructed, like a house, spiders generally come in through the doors and windows. Putting a tighter seal around them would help. Of course, if it's just a loose and drafty old shack you'll never seal it well enough.

Spiders are not entirely an imagined fear. Granted, the big icky-looking ones generally aren't harmful. But some of the little ones who make pitiful little webs in corners by the floor, or between the floor and wall, are actually poisonous. Brown fiddler, brown recluse, agressive house spider -- all of these.

Siege

Also depends where you live. Most of the common house spiders in Toronto are non-poisonous I believe (hope).

I used to have arachnaphobia also. You can deal with it the way I learned in psych course. Start by looking at pictures of spiders, then having a caged one in the same room, a caged one nearby etc.

I didn't look at the pictures, I just got used to them being far away, and then nearby.

If they really bother you that much, you really gotta kill them. Better you kill them, then drop weights and kill yourself.

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noodle

One of my friends is terrified of spiders. He ran through the woods on a dare and came out with two enormous banana spiders clinging to him. He promptly turned green, screamed and passed out. It was hilarious. It's the main reason, too, that I refuse the awesome hiking trails at Hanna Park here. Beautiful trails, fabulous scenery, and huge spider webs almost every three feet. At any given spot where trees lean the slightest bit close to each other over the trails, you can find anywhere from three to twenty spiders suspended. I hate them. But that's their habitat and they can have it. Come into my space, buddy, and I'm going to Raid or Adidas your ass.

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Catdaddy33

Call an exterminator, we live an brand new house and as the weather warmed up had a bug problem mainly spiders and ants. We called an exterminator and they came out did a sweep of the house and will focus on problem areas. They also treated outside the house so any that wanted in would die trying. After a month they were no longer a problem.

My wife had a real bad fear of spiders, when we started dating she would just scream and make me kill it, then she started killing them on sight, and now she just scoops them up (when possible) and put them outside. She just faced her fear and decided they are harmless (mostly). I woke up one morning and was about to take a shower and saw a brown recluse sitting in the tub, I leaned in to verify it was a recluse and it ran, luckly I had brushed my teeth and still had a partial glass of water and swished him back down the side of the tub, before I sent him to spidy heaven.

Mister Coaster

Yeah, spiders are scary. I think they originally came from Mars or something. I have screamed like a little bitch on more than one occasion because of a spider no larger than my thumbnail was on me. We have some pretty good sized spiders around my place, but as long as they stay off of me and out of my house, I'll let them live.

Actually, I'm facinated by them at the same time. Their webs especially are incredible. Here is a good shot of one that was between the eves of my roof and the staircase on the outside of my house. Yes, I had to walk under this beast to get inside. I hate wrecking the webs too, because I know how good spiders are, despite my fear of them. For reference, the size of it's abdomen was about the size of a nickel.


As for the shed, definately attempt to spider proof it. If I was doing a bench press and I saw a spider crawling on my chest, I'd flip out and probably drop the bar and hurt myself WAY worse than a spider ever could.

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f6twister

I don't see a problem with killing spiders. There are quite a few spiders that come around and once they are discovered, they die. Thankfully most of the spiders here are not poisonous or get very big. The one is Coaster's pic is bigger than any I've ever seen in my area.

Basically, if you don't like them, squish them.

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DonovanDuVal

Cheers to all for the great advice. The shed is definitely too rickety to be proofed, so I'll just have to keep on killing them and destroying their webs, tight I know, but with that last one it really was him or me! I may have been hallucinating, but I swear it growled when it ran towards me.

I am pretty safe where I live, (UK) none of the spiders are poisonous, but I have heard that all spiders can still bite even if they aren't venomous. I'm not paralysed with fear when I see them, in fact I stand looking at them almost daring myself to pick them up until finally giving in and flattening them.

For the time being I think that I am just going to have to keep on killing them and deal with the bad karma in the next life.

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Miss Ina

I share your fear of spiders 100%. I hate spiders (and almost every other bug) so much, but what I hate the most is when my friends say "But they're not gonna hurt you!" I know the ones in my house probably aren't dangerous. I am rarely afraid of a spider actually hurting me. I just find them so ugly, so repulsive, that I have to stay away from them or I'll be sick. It's the way they move, how they scuttle and crawl, with all those legs and tiny hairs all over them ... UGH!

And yet even when I try to explain this to people, they just say, "But what could a harmless little spider ever do to you?" when I just went through that! Honestly, do people ever listen?

If I were in your shoes, I would build a new shed and seal it tighter than a bomb shelter. Actually, if I thought it would keep bugs out, I'd just build a bomb shelter and live in that. Fuck I hate spiders.

Maybe I could live under the sea ...

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DonovanDuVal

I hear that Miss Ina. People who don't fear spiders just don't understand! Although I can't blame them really 'cos to be honest I'm not sure that I understand. I tried imagining spiders crawling all over me as a mental exercise once to try and get used to them, and after I while the idea didn't bother me so much, but then...

...well I saw that big one in my shed and it ran towards me, err, a bit too fast for my liking. All that coming to terms stuff I'd tried went right out the window. I think that you hit on something there, it is something about the way that they move.

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Kalibah

I try to live and let live- except for spiders.
I try to catch them in cups or whatever to let them outside- unless they are in my bedroom or bathroom. You don't invade a mans sleeping area and escape unscathed.
I am at a loss for why they bother me so much- something unnatural about them.

If your friend got a rush from holding em- imagine the stress relief from stomping em

El Pollo

Why do I always rad these spider threads? Thye just creep me out and keep me up all night. At least this one wasn't riddled with nightmare-inducing pictures.

highthief

And maybe see a psychologist, too. A little behavioural therapy might be the trick.

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canuckguy

I too share this phobia. You can get some pretty good spider repellant at the hardware store, you could even get outside stuff and but it all around the base of your shed. I had to do that once at our cottage. We'd get huge hairy spiders and it would drive me crazy. Thinking there crawling on me etc.
I am not that afraid as I was before. Its just when they pop out at you. Like you walk into a room and turn a light on and the spider is hanging, head level 1 ft from your face. That freaks me the hell out. But if I see it on the wall from a distance away its okay. I try and catch them and let them go outside. If not I'm up for some good torture or let my cat see it. She loves to eat them.
As well the psychologist suggested above could help if your into something like that. I remember seeing on the discovery channel they had a woman who was so afraid of spiders she could not even look at a picture of one without getting upset. After I think 2 weeks she could hold a tarantula, so it can be done. Although I am not sure I want to hold one of those bastards!

BAMF

I think I understand what the problem is. People say they are arachnophobic because they have heard of the word before and want to be "unique". I personally feel that no one is actually terrified of spiders. You should really ask yourself, "Am I really afarid of spiders? Or have I just convinced myself that I want to be afraid of spiders?"

My brother used to say he was arachnophobic...but then he grew up.

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Now, if you really are arachnophobic you just think I dont understand. If you are faking it then you are pissed off that I called you out.