I keep seeing spiders, and not just normal daddy-long-legs. I mean scary spiders. In the past 2 days, I have killed 4 spiders.
Normally, I don't like going around killings things, but since I think I suffer from arachnophobia, I feel that these killings are justified. If I let them live, they will breed and have lots more spider-babies that will terrorize me.
I don't know how I got to this stage. I just know that I am deathly afraid of spiders. When I see one, my heart rate goes through the roof (I think blood pressure follows, but I have no concrete evidence for this). I basically start to freak out.
I even have this reaction if I look at pictures of spiders. In fact, I react this way when I see drawings of spiders. I'm the only person I know who can get spooked by a hand-drawn picture.
One theory for how I got this way: In my childhood home, we had this big sign on the pantry door explaining the dangers of Black Widows and what to do if bitten by one. I have seen several of these infamous spiders, and my reaction usually involves running away.
It's pathetic.
18 comments:
I'm pathetically scared of spiders too. The little ones don't bother me, but black widows and the "normal" daddy long legs freak me out like nothing else. I'm so bad I even get creeped out a little by the spider that occasionally (re)appears in the "Garfield" comic strip. It's bad, I know.
Dude i even got a shiver down the spine while reading ur post
MURDERER!
haha just kidding :p
I'm afraid of spiders too. I can't even kill one because I don't want to get that close to it, so I just yell for Dad to come kill it.
I think it's worse seeing a picture of one (like in a textbook) because they're usually close-up, and that makes it even worse.
ick
Hey spiders are useful animals. They eat mosquitoes and other insects. Spiders are not interested in human beings at all. Do not allow arachnophobia to determine your life.
This link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia gives hints how to treat a phobia.
Wish you are able to overcome that phobia.
RR
It sounds like a pretty bad phobia, and I hope Anonymous's suggestion for treating it is helpful.
Most spiders don't scare me. I even sometimes try to save them if they seem to be in danger. And there are beautiful ones with sort of black and tan striped legs that sometimes build really large webs outside my kitchen window or beside the back porch. As anonymous says, most spiders do me a favor by killing insects. I've even tried to save spiders that show up when I'm taking a shower.
But there are a couple of kinds that do kind of scare me. I'm not sure why. But I don't kill them. I just keep my distance.
IOW — I kill flies. Spiders kill flies. Therefore, we're on the same side.
I agree with anonymous and naturgesetz on this. Treat it as a way your mental strength can overcome your gut feelings, make it a triumph of your will.
I love them ... they eat tons of other bugs ... lol Jason ... look away. When I was little my grams ... used to put them on me .. I had a blast with them ...still love them tarantula. here is a video of them . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PadauuWF94w
I was bitten by a black widow when I was about 4 or 5, doing what Dad told me not to do, which was exploring around the wood pile back of the house. I knew I was going to get into trouble so I lied to Mom by saying that I was bitten by a fly. (It's a early memory.) Apparently, I went unconscious and was taken to the hospital and I distinctly remember waking up in my room alone and very cold. I suffer from fear of spiders for obvious reasons. They are so foreign-looking and poisonous, and really creepy-looking.
One thing that reduced my fear, though, was reading a detailed book about the physiology of the spider body. It was fascinating, actually. Spiders have eight eyes, each with a particular focal length. Their lungs are called book lungs because they are folded over several times kinda like a book, hence the name. Their legs are hydraulically operated and each has a clasper at the end of it for manipulating the webbing they produce. Every spider drags a silken strand behind it as it walks just in case it falls, even the Tarantula. Each spider has 4 individual spinnerets at the back of the abdomen, each of which does different things with the silk, the combination of which allows the spider to produce at least eight different kinds of webbing. They have a heart that beats. When you see a spider that is crawling on the wall know that it is held there by nothing more than the natural attraction of one material to another, the proper name of which I can't remember right now, but that you know because you are so much smarter than I am, being young and all.
However, even knowing all of this, any spider I see in the house doesn't live very long. Outside, where they all belong, I can now watch them with a scientific detachment, and at night, when the moths are attracted to the porch light, I will capture one of the flying creatures, take it over to a harmless garden spider's web, and fling it into a sticky portion of the web, and watch with actual amazement as the spider will do its deadly dance to capture the insect.
If you ever see a big spider on the wall, know that it got so big because it has been greatly successful in catching food. That doesn't help its case much if I'm inside. Outside, I just want to stay away from it as far as possible, unless I'm feeling particularly curious that day.
I am exactly the same!
i too have arachnaphobia
i always have to call a parent into the room to kill the spider. lol
and if they're not around, i have a bottle of spider poisen (spray) that i ALWAYS keep in my room, just in case... lol
I'm terrified of spiders. Even daddy long legses. :S
I hate killing things too. Any creature, no matter how small, i hate killing, so even when it comes to spiders i hate doing it. :S
I use to be scared of spiders now it's just the deadly ones that scare me.
For some odd reason your title made me laugh I don't know why I guess I just have been too wound up
A phobia, though irrational, is very real. Any attempt to get over it should not be taken lightly, or even by yourself.
I too am plagued by this fear, I find the things completely unnatural, and they scare the shit of me. Though as I have gotten older, I am able to handle it long enough to dispose of them. Once that is done, I break down and shiver through a cold sweet!
I don't think anyone can really get rid of a phobia, but they can with time and a lot of work be kept under control.
Courage and Honour!
Octavius.
I taught a summer school special ed self contained class one summer. Like 8 weeks. The room had a rose? tarantula in an aquarium and I knew the teacher a bit so I agreed to keep it fed, etc.
Oddly enuf it was very therapeutic for several of the students (4th-6th grade). If a kid was wigging out* I'd suggest they go watch the spider or feed it a cricket. Often worked.
Sometimes we'd put the aquarium on the big round table and sit there for like 20 minutes being very quiet, just whispers. I was told by the owner that it was a pet and she handled it and it knew her! I was not that crazy ffs.
Sometimes we thot it was looking at us.
Daddy longlegs are totally harmless, I believe their bite can't penetrate human skin so their venom can't get into us.
I'm pretty apathetic towards spiders. If it's in the corner and not bothering me, I'll generally leave it alone. If it gets near me and doesn't back off, and keeps getting closer, then I'll probably kill it. If it's a small spider I'll blow it away. If it's a big spider I'll almost always kill it.
A spider almost landed in my hair once when descending from the ceiling. Instead it landed on my laptop and ran all across the keyboard. I got frantic. Suffice to say it lost the battle against me.
* wigging out: a private but very professional term, don't ta kno.
By the way, the Daddy Long Legs isn't a spider. It is an insect actually called the crane fly, and as for it being dangerous here is the official wikipedia quotation on that subject:
"An urban legend states that the daddy long-legs spider has the most potent venom of any spider; this same legend is attributed to crane flies where they commonly go by the name "daddy long-legs" (principally in the United Kingdom). In fact, the crane fly is innocuous, while the spider's venom is harmless to humans because of the small dosage. The commonly confused harvestman, also known as daddy long-legs but which isn't a spider, is also not venomous."
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