Owning horses and dealing with severe arachnophobia?

Hmm I had a baby and am needle phobic. I didn't have a needle near me until in labour, pinned down and high on gas and air. No use to you I know but I do understand the implications of a true phobia. Most folk won't. I suppose you either deal with the phobia or keep them outside.
 
You end up breaking the speed of light [and sound!] quite a bit, along with ninja air moves when moving old rugs stored. :o

I have a pathetic sounding '*guys name here*' to the nearest male when it comes to house spiders and hoover my room religiously.

I slept on a sofa for 3 weeks once because I knew of a spider residing in my room which noone could catch. It only ended up with 1 leg probably after I'd gone at it with a broom god knows how many times.


My true phobias are quite unoriginal...spiders, needles and wasps. Used to be bees too till I finally got stung the other week and it didn't actually hurt that much.
 
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If im handling rugs or saddles that haven't moved in months, i wear gloves. For some reason im far braver as i know they're not gonna touch my skin if one should appear. At home however, im well known for calling on a neighbour or my mum to come and remove spiders that are too big to fit up the hoover nozzle :D like this recent horror..
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worryingly thats one of the smaller spiders i get in my house :( they always appear when the OH is working :(....
 
Ewww eww ewwww! I find I can't use hoovers or shoes etc as I can't bear to be in indirect contact with them either! But yes, moving like a ninja is preferable in these circumstances!
 
I'm hysterically arachnophobic INdoors but can cope with them outside, where they're supposed to be. The terrifying thing with INdoor spiders (especially the huge black September ones) is that instead of running AWAY from you when frightened, they run TOWARDS you. Outside they tend to just scuttle off somewhere or can be brushed away quickly, no sweat because you know they aren't going to come and crawl onto your pillow when you're asleep! The only exception to this rule are the autumn Garden Cross spiders. They are the ones that hold their 8 legs together in pairs and hang in the middle of huge webs that they spin across open spaces and paths. Bridle paths for instance. Always at head height. True terror. *goes for lie down with aspirin*
 
Fear is something that only you can overcome and you can do it!

Many years ago, when I was only 4 years old (Perhaps that should be many, many years ago!) my mother needed to run to the corner shop all of 500 yards. It was dark and Dad wasn't in from work. SHe asked if I would be all right waiting with my weeks old sister.
She promised to run there and back. I said I would be. (I know it is very wrong to leave two small children and it was something Mum never did so what she wanted had to be urgent)
I waited and then someone was trying to get i the back door, the handle was rattling and Mum had been gone for hours. I gathered up my sister and wrapped her in a blanket and ran with her to the shop, to meet Mum running back out. She had been gone all of two minutes and felt terrible about having left me. She explained that I might have fallen with the baby and hurt her.
When we got home the rattling was the cat wanting to come in - a regular occurrence. Mum also said that had anyone been there the dog would have barked.
Even at that age I felt very silly though I was not made to feel this way. I made up my mind there and then that if something was frightening I would investigate before allowing myself to be afraid.

Many years later I was asked to take part in a psychological survey. One of the questions was "What are you afraid of?" I thought long and hard and eventually replied "Fear."
I had never thought about it before but, in doing so I realised that it was true.
I go not like insecure heights like a fully extended ladder not tied at the top but will go up it rather than allowing the fear to take a hold of me. Many other things too that I could well have allowed to 'take over'

You and only you, can overcome this quite rational fear. It is a matter of making your brain think differently. Not allowing the fear to take over.
Practice breathing exercises. See a spider and breath deeply - there are non in the UK that can hurt you anyway, make yourself look at it, watch it and be more aware of your breathing.
Think "What can this tiny thing do to hurt you?" Think logically rather than in a panic. Think of how many germ carrying flies and insects the spider eats and force yourself to think of them as what they are - harmless.

You do not have to like them but you can deal with them. If you want to remove it get a sheet of paper and a glass, put the glass over the spider and slide the paper under it - you have the insect trapped where you can release it outside.

You can do it, just a matter of training your brain to work differently.
 
I am often asked at work why I choose to work with horses when I have such a huge fear of spiders.
I can't explain it very well, but I know they won't hurt me, it is just the look of them that scare the absolute c**p out of me. I can't eat, sleep, drink or do anything if I see one. I somehow managed to touch one at work once and was disinfecting my hands for so long they started to bleed.
I make my horses spooking habits worse as when im hacking if I spot one I seriously freak out and obviously poor horse has no idea what's going on and also freaks out so this rules out hacking in the woods.
I don't have any advice apart from ask people to help. I ask people every day up my yard to check my boots/rugs etc. People are usually understanding and more than happy to help.

I actually don't think spiders are an easy fear to get over. I have had hypnotism sessions for my fear and it done sod all for me.
 
I'm failing to see what arachnophobia has to do with horses :confused:.
In years and years of horse ownership, I have had one spider who took up residence below my water drinker and have never found any in my rugs.

Maybe I've just been very lucky :)
 
I can not do spiders. I have a proper massive one in my tack room that however many times is removed comes back :o I keep my hat in my car and wear it to go in tack room as the ceiling is low and I'm terrified of it going in my hair or down my back, feel sick typing this!!

I have to get y/o, oh or mum to shake out rugs for me, I leave them hung out to air/dry they are then religiously sealed in rug bags until next use.

Everything is kept clean and clutter free.

I can only suggest keeping things clean and sealed up, vacuum bags are your friend as are old chest freezers! Kept organised and clean and closed nothing gets in and your stuff stays arachnid free!!!
 
I'm seriously arachnophobic, but absolutely will not have something killed because I! or someone else, is afraid of it. They are amazing creatures, that do a valuable job and don't deserve the treatment they get.

So I've spent years having to get hem out to prevent them being killed. Grit teeth, put glass over, carefully slide card under, wall to door or window and lob out. Shudder.

It gets easier, but I'd still scream the place down if one ran over me.

Paula
 
If someone has a severe phobia then I would suggest getting some counselling.

If however, it is just an over the top reaction to a spider, because this is what everyone else does, then man up! There are no poisonous spiders in the UK - they are amazing creatures (have you ever looked closely at a spider web - it is really beautiful), but they seem to have attracted this hysterical reputation as being scary. What do you actually think they will do to you? They are tiny compared to us - imagine how scared they must be with this screaming giant rushing around trying to kill them.

Sorry if this offensive to some, but there are so many worse things in the world to be worried about than a tiny house (or shed) spider.
 
I dont have a phobia but a couple of friends do. Friend 1 has me check her lorry cab and with both friends now I am happy to shake out a rug and do a spider inspection.

I get repaid a hundredfold by their help and support but basically I would do it anyway and I feel for anyone with this fear as Autumn is worst by far.

I would teach yourself to cope by gently introducing the levels you can cope with and being nice to yourself.
 
Urgh I KNEW I shouldn't have opened this thread :eek:
This is the worst time for those giant ones that suddenly appear indoors :mad: I've got one under a glass in the middle of the room at the moment that I'm psyching myself up to taking outdoors again :eek::o
I have been known to lob a spidery rug straight onto horse to avoid having to deal with the little critters :rolleyes: She doesn't seem to mind!
 
I used to work at a go kart track that was next to a food factory, where lorries from abroad came and dropped fruit off.
Staff discovered an enormous, and i mean ENORMOUS spider in the office of the go kart track that had come from one of the waggons abroad. They had to call a specialist but by the time anyone came the spider had disappeared. The next day i found a half eaten pigeon in reception, watched the cctv of the pigeon eating spider and quit my job. i kid you not.
 
Foxhunter49 said:
Many years later I was asked to take part in a psychological survey. One of the questions was "What are you afraid of?" I thought long and hard and eventually replied "Fear."
I had never thought about it before but, in doing so I realised that it was true.
I go not like insecure heights like a fully extended ladder not tied at the top but will go up it rather than allowing the fear to take a hold of me. Many other things too that I could well have allowed to 'take over'
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Fear is the mind-killer....

sorry couldn't help myself :)
 
LIZ66 said:
If someone has a severe phobia then I would suggest getting some counselling.

If however, it is just an over the top reaction to a spider, because this is what everyone else does, then man up! There are no poisonous spiders in the UK - they are amazing creatures (have you ever looked closely at a spider web - it is really beautiful), but they seem to have attracted this hysterical reputation as being scary. What do you actually think they will do to you? They are tiny compared to us - imagine how scared they must be with this screaming giant rushing around trying to kill them.

Sorry if this offensive to some, but there are so many worse things in the world to be worried about than a tiny house (or shed) spider.
Click to expand...

I don't mind spiders at all, except for one kind, the cellar spider (sometimes called daddy long legs). We have a massive infestation of them in our house. I left them be at first until I realised that all they ate were other species of spider! Soon our house was cleared of all other house spider species and any that dared come in, even the biggest, were quickly wrapped up in silk and sucked dry by the cellar spiders. So now I have waged war on them. We still have dozens around and more continually invading the house, but the other species have been able to return and catch more troublesome insects such as flies.
 
I think someone else has already mentioned one of those spider catching devices - I bought one for an aracnophobic friend and she found it useful in an emergency. My dad has recently put conkers all around his house because he read in New Scientist magazine that spiders have an aversion to the smell of them, and it seems to be working - he hasn't seen one since he started using them. Bit strange having loads of conkers lying about, but perhaps try some in the tack room? I don't mind spiders at all, in fact I find them fascinating, but WASPS - urgh! I'm terrified of them.
 
I now have the creeps after reading this! Keep checking around me/above my head. Absolutely terrified - have been known to, when house-sitting (family away), have someone come over from half an hour's drive away to catch the spider that appeared in my room at night - couldn't find it, so turned the room upside down! I can't even deal indirectly with them (except ones not much bigger than a money spider, when at floor level and in open space, where I can squish them with a shoe - though then even don't like cleaning up dead spider with loo roll as convinced it will come back to life and attack me!) Terrible phobia of wasps too, to the extent that I begin freaking out when people make fun of me with bzzzing noises. I refuse to eat outside at pubs!
 
I was lucky had a mother that taught me to love our spiders and that they are good for us! Catching flies and wasps. I would never kill one and have spent manyhours trying to catch them galloping across my lounge floor only to stop my dog eating them. I save spiders.

Its all in your mind!
 
LIZ66 said:
If someone has a severe phobia then I would suggest getting some counselling.

If however, it is just an over the top reaction to a spider, because this is what everyone else does, then man up! There are no poisonous spiders in the UK - they are amazing creatures (have you ever looked closely at a spider web - it is really beautiful), but they seem to have attracted this hysterical reputation as being scary. What do you actually think they will do to you? They are tiny compared to us - imagine how scared they must be with this screaming giant rushing around trying to kill them.

Sorry if this offensive to some, but there are so many worse things in the world to be worried about than a tiny house (or shed) spider.
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I just love the way that some people are so understanding and compassionate about others fears and weaknesses. Bless you for being so, well, warm and forgiving .......
 
I fully agree mcnaughty. Obviously some posters have never suffered from an irrational fear. Lucky for them that they've never had to go from shaking uncontrollably, to throwing up, to nearly fainting and then experiencing the inevitable sleepless nights.

In fact, I'm not sure in my case the fear IS entirely irrational. I was bitten on the hand by a spider one night (not abroad, up here in Scotland). My hand swelled to double its normal size and was very painful for about 3 days. I still have a tiny white scar.

And yet, I hate killing anything, including spiders. I will try to find an alternative wherever possible. But it's not just a case of "getting a hold of yourself". I deal with normal fear all the time - particularly horse-related issues. Real phobias are a whole different ball game.
 
You need to face your fear - only then you will realise that you can cope with your fear reaction and that the feared object isn't as bad as you think. Every time you run away from a spider, you are reinforcing your fear. Needle phobias are a little different but everything else just needs the same approach.
 
I love them, but probably because I spent my childhood removing them from my mother's & sister's vicinity. My daughter is also terrified of them - is it genetic and has skipped a generation?

Conkers work fantastically - just dot them around the room, in plug holes etc and you won't see any spiders. It's also the time of year for conkers and they last about a year.

The other option is to go to London zoo and do their friendly spider programme :p

http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/whats-on/friendly-spider-programme,320,EV.html
 
That's the thing Rockafella. I
HAVE faced my fear (and it's not "just" a fear, it's a full-on phobia to the extent that I regularly have night terrors about spiders) and it doesn't get any easier. I have obviously only done this when I have had no other choice - e.g. if a spider appears in my living room, I would still be unable to sleep in my bedroom, unless my OH has put it outside. If he is out and there is no other choice, I still have to spend a very long time building up to dealing with a spider and then feel ill for hours afterwards. Unless you've (generic you, not you personally) experienced the full-on effects of a real phobia, not just a "fear" you wouldn't understand.
 
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