Used to have Arachnophobia???

[Luminary]

How many of you used to lose it at the sight of a spider? I know I did...up until I forced myself to
hold a furry little jumping spider. Once it was on me I was amazed at how I wasn't dead! He walked
around on my arm for about a minute then hopped off and walked away. He was so cute & not scary.
From then on I've been fascinated with spiders :biggrin:

 

[arachnofab]

I still do actually. . . when I was fifteen I attempted to rid myself of it by adopting my G.rosea - it only made me like tarantulas as I have started collecting more lately. Jumping spiders are the other exception - they're too adorable to be afraid of.

 

[Luminary]

It's weird, when I was a real little kid I would always pick up Daddy Longlegs and let them crawl all over me. Now they just
creap me out. T's I have no problem with, but those things look like spider skeletons that run real fast. Ugh!

 

[Lenxx]

I had arachnophobia. To that degree i did not open my first tarantullas cage more that just enought to squeeze a cricket in there... I was terrifyed.
But that was the sole reason i started reading about this amazing critters... i hate, really hate, beein afraid if things. I hate that my fair controlls my actions. So i wanted to deal with my fair, and figure out what was so terrifying about them. Then i bought one. And had a terrifying time rehousing it into its enclosure. To be honest, that is still a little blurry to me if i try to remember... :giggle:

My first B. albiceps is still my most skittish one, but also my favourite, just a tinch above the rest.

Now i have foure of them, and have held my most mellow Avic "guyana". I still dont handle for fun, but i havent got any troubles if they decide to crawl on me while i have theire enclosures open for different reasons.
And man, its a relief to not be afraid of spiders anymore, big or small does not matter. They are not maneaters! Figure that... :coffee:
*lol*

 

[Kazaam]

I will never understand why people have phobias for anything that is smaller than them.

 

[Lenxx]

I will never understand why people have phobias for anything that is smaller than them.

A phobia is usually a fair of something incomprehensible. Thats what makes it a phobia.
And a phobic does not understand its fair either, most of the time. That does not make it more or less real.

 

[Alltheworld601]

I will never understand why people have phobias for anything that is smaller than them.

Logic prevails!!

I have always liked bugs, but there was a time when spiders gave me the heebie jeebies. However, tarantulas never did. Maybe because theyre furry. maybe because theyre generally behind glass in a controlled environment. also probably because they are too big to lose track of? (though after being in the hobby for a while now and reading the escape reports, i know thats not true! but it seemed it at the time anyway.) Little spiders on the other hand would make me run screaming. probably because they were there one second and gone the next, and who KNEW where they were?

Anyway in the end, logic did win out. Also, knowledge. I didnt set out to conquer arachnophobia...I just like learning about animals, and spiders eventually popped up in my web surfings for various interesting creatures. Once I knew what I was up against so to speak, I realized there was nothing to be afraid of and these creatures needed protection from us humans far more than we need protection from them.

In the end, if you want to get over your fear of something, the KEY is to learn as much as you can about it. You cannot be afraid of something you understand completely.

 

[Kazaam]

From what I understand now phobias are based on ignorance and affectation, does this sound about right?

 

[Lenxx]

Need me to explain ignorance and querulans for you as well, Kazaam?

 

[Kazaam]

Need me to explain ignorance and querulans for you as well, Kazaam?

No, explain how being afraid of something because you don't understand it isn't the same as being afraid of something because you are ignorant.

 

[persistent]

Never really liked spiders until I started the invert hobby. Wouldn't say I was phobic but large housespiders did creep me out a little. Now I just love em and everytime I see a spider I'm delighted

@ kazaam: As far as I know the definition of phobia is an irrational fear of something. No matter what causes that fear (be it ignorance or something else).
Educating yourself about you fear often helps a lot. But not allways. For example: I have a fear of heights. Even when I know I'm perfectly safe I will still feel afraid no matter what. Would you call that ignorance kazaam? Lots of phobias are a bit more complicated than just being ignorance imo

 

[argolupin]

i have always been super terrified about spiders, and i still am, with the exception of tarantulas now. in fact i was dusting at the doggie day care and had a huge black spider get on my rag and screamed bloody murder that my boss came out of her house to see what was going on. they are really teasing me now... For the longest time i would not go into the back part of my best friends house until i finally decided to see what a tarantula looked like then she pulled out her rose hair babies and my little rosea who was around an inch to an inch and a half a year ago crawled up my arm and just sat there like "will you take me home?" then 2 weeks later a coworker at petsmart had someone getting rid of a "mexican red led" for free and gave me the person's phone number. i called expecting it to be a gift for my friend and when i got there it was my 5 1/2 inch female rosea. after owning my baby for a year he is now 3 inches and keeps growing like a weed. hence why i believe it is a male, that and the smaller abdomin.

 

[Speg]

I got arachnophobia from a jumping spider that bit me actually... I lost it from this hobby

 

[Kazaam]

@ kazaam: As far as I know the definition of phobia is an irrational fear of something. No matter what causes that fear (be it ignorance or something else).
Educating yourself about you fear often helps a lot. But not allways. For example: I have a fear of heights. Even when I know I'm perfectly safe I will still feel afraid no matter what. Would you call that ignorance kazaam? Lots of phobias are a bit more complicated than just being ignorance imo

Your body reacts to that because it knows that it might be dangerous, it is not irrational it is logical, that is how instincts work, your body will react to height, fast moving objects, pain and loud noises.

Spiders are neither of these and will only trigger any instincts if the person thinks that they are capable of harming them, if they knew that they can't (or aren't aware of that they can) it wouldn't trigger anything, if you would put a gun to the head of someone that doesn't know what a gun is it wouldn't trigger any instincts (such as fear) and wouldn't lead to avoidance of that object.

 

[Dan Wulf]

No, explain how being afraid of something because you don't understand it isn't the same as being afraid of something because you are ignorant.

As far as I know fear may exist independently of knowledge related to the issue causing the fear. Ignorance may sometimes be part of the causal explaination but in many cases of real phobia, knowledge is of no major importance. Hence, a person suffering from arachnophobia may appear as highly knowledgeable about e.g. taxonomics, behaviour, venom aspects of spiders - but the person is still arachnophobic. Results of several studies suggest that fear of snakes and spiders may be innate - that at least some of us are (genetically?) disposed to develop e.g. arachnophobia later in life. In an evolutionary context it may also explain why persons from areas without dangerous snakes and spiders still possess a strong fear of these beings.

 

[Legion09]

Most fears and phobias actually stem from trauma earlier in life. When or what occurred is obviously different per person, but in the case of spiders...some common themes probably stem from being bit, having one surprise you by crawling on you while in a vulnerable state or having an authority figure over react harshly to the presence of a spider. There are also those studies Dan Wulf mentioned that find genetic memory may play a role in them as well.

Thanks to trauma (Which is very real), an irrational fear can overpower a logical response. These can sometimes be overcome from counseling and therapy. (As with many in this hobby who through the act of owning a T in effect give themselves therapy, while reading about them here is in essence a form of counseling.)

Traumas are not always easy to identify either. Some people who have experienced a trauma will not recall the actual event, just that they have a strong association of fear relating to the thing that caused the trauma.

Not being understanding of a person's fear is, in my opinion, the ignorant stance. Not the other way around.

 

[le-thomas]

No, explain how being afraid of something because you don't understand it isn't the same as being afraid of something because you are ignorant.

Not understanding something and being ignorant are basically, like, synonyms. Ignorant just sounds a bit more rude.

 

[prairiepanda]

Most fears and phobias actually stem from trauma earlier in life. When or what occurred is obviously different per person, but in the case of spiders...some common themes probably stem from being bit, having one surprise you by crawling on you while in a vulnerable state or having an authority figure over react harshly to the presence of a spider. There are also those studies Dan Wulf mentioned that find genetic memory may play a role in them as well.

Thanks to trauma (Which is very real), an irrational fear can overpower a logical response. These can sometimes be overcome from counseling and therapy. (As with many in this hobby who through the act of owning a T in effect give themselves therapy, while reading about them here is in essence a form of counseling.)

Traumas are not always easy to identify either. Some people who have experienced a trauma will not recall the actual event, just that they have a strong association of fear relating to the thing that caused the trauma.

Not being understanding of a person's fear is, in my opinion, the ignorant stance. Not the other way around.

I've never been arachnophobic, but I do have a rather embarrassing and totally irrational phobia stemming from a childhood trauma. I'm terrified of moths. Not the huge ones; those are cute and fluffy. But those itty bitty ones! Those ones that aren't even capable of harming a human, and wouldn't ever try to! Everybody thinks it's weird how I have no problem taking black widows out of the house but cower from tiny moths.

When I was very young, we went on a lot of road trips as a family. One time we had to stay overnight in some trailers at a friend's house. The trailer me and my friend were in was so full of moths! When we got in, we thought it was kind of gross but it didn't bother us so we just killed all the moths we could see and went to bed. But more moths materialized out of the darkness! You could hear them in the curtains, flapping their wings, and sometimes even fluttering by your pillow. We turned on the light and a swarm came from all the curtains(one of which was right above the pillows). Too many to deal with. We tried using a flashlight to lure the moths out of the trailer, but more came in instead. We left a light on outside to distract them and went back to bed. THERE WERE MOTHS IN THE BED. SO MANY MOTHS. I'll never forget the feeling of a moth crawling into my ear, or one fluttering against my eyelashes.

I can tolerate a moth crawling on me now, so long as I can see it, but as soon as it starts flying I flip.

 

[Alltheworld601]

Never really liked spiders until I started the invert hobby. Wouldn't say I was phobic but large housespiders did creep me out a little. Now I just love em and everytime I see a spider I'm delighted

@ kazaam: As far as I know the definition of phobia is an irrational fear of something. No matter what causes that fear (be it ignorance or something else).
Educating yourself about you fear often helps a lot. But not allways. For example: I have a fear of heights. Even when I know I'm perfectly safe I will still feel afraid no matter what. Would you call that ignorance kazaam? Lots of phobias are a bit more complicated than just being ignorance imo

fear of heights though is a justifiable fear, at least in my opinion. i did some research on the basis of fears when i first started out in the tarantula keeping hobby, because one of my main goals in this life is to help as many people overcome arachnophobia as possible. I found this really cool article that I wish I could link now, but it specified that all fears are based on just a few main fears that all humans share...and they manifest in different ways in accordance with how we relate our irrational phobias to the main fears we all suffer from. death, rejection by peers, loss, becoming useless...i think there was one more but, off the top of my head that sounds about right. now even if you are perfectly safe up high on something...being afraid of heights is still not irrational, because SHOULD you manage to fall, you could certainly die or become an invalid at least. Self preservation is built into us with good reason, so things like fear of heights, or fear of public speaking...they all translate back to the original core fears.

Spiders I guess for most people, due to lack of knowledge about them, would fall under the category of fear of death or loss of function. Even though there are very few spiders in the world that can actually cause you to die, even knowing that there is ONE kind is enough for some people to build up a wall of fear against everything of that nature. These fears are so deeply rooted that we dont often even recognize a source...the seed of fear can be planted in about one second at any given time in our lives (especially young lives), for example hearing about say, a brown recluse, even if you dont live in an area where they live, it gets into our subconscious and rewires our brain for self preservation. it becomes the sight of a spider, or anything that moves or looks as such...we go into fight or flee mode. it is a raw emotion, simple reaction without thought, as it becomes part of our instinct.

and then we feed our irrational fears. WAY more than we feed our justifiable ones. If you are afraid of spiders for instance, every time you see one and your blood pressure skyrockets and your heart goes crazy and you hit the fight or flight self preservation mode, our adrenaline up, we react. When you either run away, or squash it with a shoe, the fear is gone, as the supposed problem, the cause, is gone. It is self rewarding, and only feeds the fear more. Next time you see a spider, you will be quicker and even more prone to act in the same manner, because it worked last time to alleviate the unpleasant feeling. Therefore every time we react negatively toward a phobia, we give it even more power over us.

Knowledge is certainly the number one key. But after that, facing fears is the next step. I have to commend everyone who decided not to let arachnophobia control their lives anymore, not to be a prisoner of such a gripping fear, by going out and buying a species of the biggest arachnid on earth, and caring for it, loving it as a pet. There is NO greater cure for being afraid of something, than seeing it through the eyes of love. Love trumps knowledge, bravery, observation..and anything else we grasp at on our journeys to become more appreciative of the world around us, at the risk of sounding corny, I don't mind though.

 

[squidgafarious]

I used to be terrible with fear of spiders, but my girlfriends dad owns a 20yr old rosie so evertime i used to visit i would sit there and just watch for hours on end (didnt even do anything, very docile).Then one day walked into a petshop with my mother for a mooch and found ourselves looking at the spiders, the lady who owned the shop asked if i wanted to hold her, and because its something that iv never had the chance to do before i knew i would kick myself for not even trying. I let the spider walk over my hands then picked her up properly letting her walk from hand to hand and 5 mins later i had put a deposit on her. I really never thought i would have bought one that day tho. iv had her for over a month now and i must admit im still scared to an extent but it feels more like than respect than fear.