Fear of Spiders

by Elizabeth
(United States)

Fear of spiders, Arachnophobia has plagued me for several years now, but recently took a turn for the worse. While walking with my friend, I nearly collided with a huge spider web with the little devil sitting right in the middle. I started panicing, backing away slowly, before screaming and running the other way. It wasn't a pretty sight.

We decided to research the type of spider. It wasn't venomous or aggressive, but that didn't ease my fear. I was having trouble even looking at pictures of spiders.

My friend thoguht it would be cool to send a picture of the spider to her friends, since it was pretty large. She asked me to take the picture for her. As soon as I got within five feet of the thing, I started panicing again and dove back into the car.

I read somewhere that a good way to cure phobias is slow exposure. I tried looking at pictures of spiders and realized that I'm afraid to even reach out and touch the computer screen when a picture is up. I keep my hands curled a safe distance away.

I can't so much as have a spider crawl by me without me freaking out. I couldn't even kill the tiny spider that crawled across my floor a few days after the near run in. I had to chase it around my hosue, throwing things at it until I was sure it was dead, and even then I was afraid to scoop it up with a napkin.

Stupid spiders.