Spiders...help!

Ooonie

Hi everyone,

From a young age I have been absolutely terrified of spiders. Over the years it's gotten worse and worse, and I'd say it's a fully fledged phobia now. My problem is that I have just moved into a house by myself. In the past two days I have been confronted with nothing but spiders. I feel like I'm trapped in my worst nightmare.

At the start, it was okay. A few little ones that I could easilly take care of myself. But last night it got worse and worse until I was trapped in the house with eight massive house spiders and literally sobbing down the phone to my mother. It turned into a massive panic attack and I now realise that this is something I seriously need help with.

When I see a spider, my blood runs cold. I literally can't breathe and feel like I'm going to die. I have this ridiculous idea in my head that it's going to harm me in some way, even though, logically, I know that this is ridiculous.

It's really gotten worse, to the point where I can't even be alone because if I see one, I'm straight into a panic attack. I just started at a new college and I've found that I can't think straight these past few days because I'm so anxious about going home and running into a spider. I'm not sleeping and I am completely on edge. I really need help, I'm just completely unsure where to start.

I'd be really grateful if anyone could just give me some advice. What would be the best way to tackle this? Hypnosis? or maybe going to see an actual psychologist or something?

Any advice would help.

20goto10

I would start by giving the house a proper spring clean. Get into ever nook and cranny. Of course spiders can get into clean houses too but generally I would consider it a sign of a dirty house, especially 8 at s time!

Do you like cats? Cats eat spiders. They're also good company.

Pebbles68

Unlike other posters on other threads I had fantastic success with hypno-therapy. If you are near Dublin you should check out this guy www.aidansloan.ie
I had my doubts about hypnosis but he explained everything about hypnosis, the therapy, what to expect and how it worked. It really really helped me.
Good luck.

Stinicker

Maybe you confront it head on, I am a little afraid of spiders too and you should see the size of the monster I had in my bathtub today, I caught him up and threw him outside, calm as a whistle. I know a person who was afraid of flying and confronted it by taking flying lessons.

Simon Adebisi

Saw my first big spider of the year the other day. Was watching tv and for some reason i looked up and saw a big hairy fecker right above me. Literally ran out of the room and had to get someone to dispose of him.

Id love to be able to cope and not look like a wuss when i see one.

joach

Hello Ooonie (& Simon)!

On one level or an other, your reaction of fear towards spiders is a habit you have developed because, on a subconscious level, you are protecting yourself. And as you say (Ooonie), there is an other, more conscious part of you, that can see this is getting out of hand & knows that you don't have to react so strongly as you do. A lot of people who suffers from the same or similar phobias as you do, and there are people out there who also specialise in helping people overcome phobias.

There are a number of different treatments that can help you. In my opinion the best treatments today are FasterEFT, NLP, Hypnosis and CBT.


The price and lengths of these therapies varies.
Some hypnotherapists wants you to sign up for 10 sessions for the cost of around 100 Euro each session. That usually involves a more in-depth treatment, finding out & clearing other subconscious anxieties from your past & childhood.
Other practitioners will focus primarily on clearing just your phobia, and will usually be able to help you be completely free from your fear it in just one session. This faster type of therapy usually involves a mixture of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), Hypnosis & FasterEFT (Emotionally Focused Transformations). A session of this type of treatment can cost anything from 80-250 Euro per session. Keep in mind that the price doesn't necessarily equal the level competency of a practitioner. You want to look for testimonials to get a feeling for how good a practitioner really is.
CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) has very practical approach of dealing with phobias where you will be gradually exposed to your fear. Usually you will need 5 sessions of CBT to clear a phobia. The cost of each session in CBT varies between 80-150 Euro.

The simplest way to find a practitioner or therapist in your area that can help you is just google your perfered therapy and the area you live in. For example: "FasterEFT Dublin" or "CBT Galway". Again, I recomend looking for therapists that have testimonials written by people who have been helped with the same kind or similar phobia you have!

Hope that gives you some pointers! Let me know if you have any more questions.

Best of luck.
/Joach

hamsterchen

i suffer from arachnophobia and while I know there are treatments out there I don't believe it rules my life so much it justifies the expense. While I'd be always afraid of them, I believe it gives a bad example to my daughter so I keep my stress in check and squeak instead of a full-blown scream /sounds funny but I'd rather talk to a spider than a baby whose sleep has been interrupted/ because I know how irrational my fear is and don't want her to think they really are as dangerous and disgusting as I believe them to be.
Also, I know the poor spider is not responsible for my fear so why hurt them or whatever? Normally, dh disposes of them but in a civilized manner, i.ie. cover with a glass, slip a sheet of paper underneath and release the poor bugger in our garden.

smugchik

The glass and paper trick is the best as you don't have direct contact. A word of warning though: Be careful when you release them. If it is windy, when you tip them out they can blow back at you!

I used to be terrified too but my fear went away when I had my son. I didn't want him to be afraid so feigned bravery in front of him. In the end I wasn't scared anymore. Mind over matter I suppose. I don't even bother to put them out anymore. I wouldn't want one on my pillow or crawling on my skin though!

Personally I don't let anyone pick them up and put them outside - I get uneasy for days knowing they'll come back. That and my older bro used to throw spiders at me, so if someone picks up a spider I start to scream. I'd prefer to let it be than have someone pick it up. But personally, when I see a large spider, I cringe, I hyperventilate, I cry a bit, I shake, I am paralysed. But I have discovered that if you can get a heavy book, phone books are large, bibles also handy,m used to have a few of them around in my Jesus days, you can sneak quietly up to the spider, and just throw the book on them. Phone books are better, because they are larger.

If the spider is on the wall, it takes more guts. You have to be quick. I find a good slap of a flat soled shoe does it. When encountering spiders on the floor, they usually know you're sneaking up, gives them time t run. But on the wall, they don't always know it, so better time to smack them with something.

There was a spider called "Curtain Spider" lived on my parent's end-of-hall curtain for a week - this thing had a normal large house spider body, and three inch legs, all eight of them, she was HUGE. But because she lived on the curtain, we couldn't get round to smacking her. The cat had her in the kitchen in the end, missing a few legs the spider was still fighting, and the cat was baffled, and she's a mean cat, not a domestic type. My mother just put it out of it's misery with a shoe.

TBH if there is a large spider living in my room, if I know where it lives, and it doesn't deviate from it's usual home, I leave it there. Sometime trying to kill them displaces them and pisses them off, and if they get away, then you don't know where they will show up.