Arachnophobia:

[MrArachnid]

Well, I'd like to vent about some things so please feel free to listen and or ignore.

My Girlfriend had another couple over to her apartment for her birthday, one of the two people was her friend and her friend's boyfriend wasn't really. So, needless to say, being anti-social as I am, I wasn't looking forward to meeting them. So, when they came over they seemed like nice people, but I must say the guy was one of the worst people I've ever met.

I had some of my Tarantula books laying about right? and this guy actually screamed, grabbed one of my books and tossed it across the room. At first I was definately angry, but the more that I thought about it, the more it seemed humorous, and afterwards it went from humorous, to downright childish and pathetic.

He was claiming to be so "Arachnophobic" infact, that he was terrified of even a photograph on the cover of a book showcasing a spider. Now, in my own personal opinion, if a person is afraid of certain things or "phobic" due to a traumatic experience, then that is one thing. But if someone is just plain terrified of spiders for no one reason at all, then to me that is irrational.

I mean I just couldn't get over it, there are little girls who not only own but handle Tarantulas, and this guy wouldn't even look at a picture. So, needless to say the guy spent most of the night being very obnoxious and rude and it was often difficult to refrain from being physical, but the fact that he was a grown twenty one year old man and screamed like a girl and lunged a Tarantula book completely dismissed any sign of intellect and or substance as a human being. So I figured, why even waste my time. He had many belittling things to say towards spiders..."ugly, gross, ehhh, etc"...Something along those lines, you know the type...Judgemental, small minded. To people like this, I am weird, which given yes I am, but why because I like spiders? Ok then.

So anyways, I realized what I needed to do. Eventually, I will be making a documentary right now I'm thinking of calling it..."Lunch With Arachnophobes".

Its going to be a documentary with interviews with people concerning spiders, tarantulas, arachnophobia and many other things. The point is basically to show how irrational people are, and that things need to change because spiders are a part of nature, beautiful, fascinating and far more pure than 84% of the people who walk our countries streets, thats for certain.

So anyways, I needed to vent and thanks to all with whom may have listened, or well, read what I had to say. People need to be educated. Thanks so much for your time friends and keep Tarantula-hobbyism alive!!!!.

-Sincerely, Mr.Arachnid

 

[cichlidsman]

No time to read, trying to beat 275

 

[Socrates]

Sorry for your experience

Hey Mr. A.,

I'm sorry you had to go through that experience, and "hats off" that you kept your cool. I don't think I could have/would have been so patient. Unfortunately I can't relate to arachnophobic people at all. Before I purchased my 1st T I wasn't particularly "fond" of spiders, but I NEVER reacted like the person you unfortunately had to deal with either.

For some reason or another I think that tossing YOUR book across the room might have been a cry for wanting to be the center of attention rather than him being annoyed or phobic. (Of course I could be wrong.)

In any case, please let us know how you'll do with your documentary - I, for one, am VERY interested in the outcome.

---
Wendy
---

 

[tarantula_tom]

My g/f used to be very phobic of spiders. A picture would give her the willies everytime. But since i started the hobby back in Jan. shes gotten used to them, shes fine around them and even calling them cute, something i thought i would never hear from her. People fear what they do not know.

 

[averagebehr]

I Think You Should Have Look At Him Laugh In His Face And Told Your Girlfriend You Loved Her And Would See Her Later That Night At Home Instead Of Even Having To Justify The Respect And Love That Tarantula Keepers Feel For Our Pets

Keeping T's Is Helping Preserve Beautiful And Unique Invertebrates That Are Living Jewels Saving A Piece Nature That In Many Parts Of The World Is Disappearing Due To Human Greed And Ingnorance Of Our Enviroment

Take Care Guy

 

[spidergoddess]

Such a documentary would be a wonderful thing. Go for it!

People who have phobias are often embarrassed about it, and may act in unusual ways.

 

[mouse]

i am kinda arachnophobic...housespiders still make me jump whaen they just pop up from nowhere. tarantulas were interessting..as long as they were behind a glass wall, but i decided to face my fear and bought a rosie...now i got 13 T's - including a 2" t.blondi. i set up the cages, feed them, hold the rosie, curly hair and rio grandi gold (if hubby takes them out ), i refuse to hold the t.blondi.
maby i am not as badly arachnophobic as others, pic's never bothered me even if fake spiders did when they got thrown at me.
but if that guy was sooo arachnophobic shouldn't he have moved away from the book INSTEAD of touching it??
and you didn't let him know that you had actual live T's in the house ?
i would have told him to chill or i'd bring out a few ;P
i'm just a brat that way at times.
dianne

 

[cichlidsman]

My g/f used to be very phobic of spiders. A picture would give her the willies everytime. But since i started the hobby back in Jan. shes gotten used to them, shes fine around them and even calling them cute, something i thought i would never hear from her. People fear what they do not know.

the same with my gf, except for the pictures

 

[MrArachnid]

i am kinda arachnophobic...housespiders still make me jump whaen they just pop up from nowhere. tarantulas were interessting..as long as they were behind a glass wall, but i decided to face my fear and bought a rosie...now i got 13 T's - including a 2" t.blondi. i set up the cages, feed them, hold the rosie, curly hair and rio grandi gold (if hubby takes them out ), i refuse to hold the t.blondi.
maby i am not as badly arachnophobic as others, pic's never bothered me even if fake spiders did when they got thrown at me.
but if that guy was sooo arachnophobic shouldn't he have moved away from the book INSTEAD of touching it??
and you didn't let him know that you had actual live T's in the house ?
i would have told him to chill or i'd bring out a few ;P
i'm just a brat that way at times.
dianne

Yes he was told that I had four Tarantulas at home and he ended up saying something like "And you got seven!?!?!". And other things like "well, we won't be coming to "Tarantula-land".

The funniest thing even more so than the tossing of the book was the fact that this ignorant person actually thought there was a chance I'd allow him in my home...there wasn't even a 1% chance of that, ever.

I could've told him and ranted off at the mouth about my opinions, and what facts regarding T's I do know, but I can see right through people and I think its safe to say, I know when I need to waste my breath and when I don't.

-Mr.Arachnid

 

[Joe1968]

hey Matt, nextime buy some buy some toy spiders, get the one that look realistic, but about 10...hmm oh wait maybe 50 of em and place it under the couch, under to pillow next to couch, inside the fridge wher u keep the beers, on the sink, under the table, umm what else, oh under the toilet seat, then invite him for a poker game, or party or whatever.

this will cure 2 things, first it will cure his arachnophobia, this is called Desensitization technique.

and second it will cure your antisocial behavior cuz you will make a new friend out of him when you invite him for a poker game. :?

hmmm ok maybe not...ok will only cure the phobia thing.

 

[pitbulllady]

The vast majority of truelly phobic people cannot explain WHY they are so petrified of something, and have NOT had some bad experience that they can trace their phobia back to, though in many cases, their PARENTS' reactions often started the ball rolling. Understand that a true phobia, as opposed to merely being AFRAID of something, is a mental illness, a disease, if you will, and it is no more normal than schizophrenia, manic depression or other mental illness. A person with a phobia is really in need of professional intervention, just as a person with a severe physical disease, like Malaria, would be. Still, it is very difficult to be patient with such people, and no point at all trying to be understanding, and I doubt that I would have been as calm as you would in the same situation. I have an aunt who is severely phobic of rodents, especially rats and mice, and has been in several vehicular collisions because she freaked out when a squirrel or a field rat ran across the road in front of her, and she literally let go of the steering wheel and tried to jump in the back seat! I have a friend who is severely arachnophobic, and nearlly killed himself trying to jump out of MY car, in which he was a passenger, while I was doing 70 on the Interstate, all because he spotted a tiny little nearly-transparent spider OUTSIDE on the windshield wiper! He was saved from certain death only due to the fact that he unfastened MY seatbelt in his panic, while HIS seatbelt held him in the car, while I grabbed his hair with one hand and tried to steer with the other! Needless to say, I got pretty P.O'd at him for scaring ME like that, over a spider so small you could barely see it, but like my aunt, he has refused to seek help in getting over this potentially-dangerous phobia.
I came close to developing arachnophobia myself, and got to the point where I actually had difficulty watching a spider on TV. I could not justify it, nor could I be happy with it, so in my usually way, I met it "head on", as it were, by adopting a very nasty, large Rosehaired tarantula! Well, the near-phobia is now gone....replaced by yet another mental illness, I guess you could say...ARACHNOADDICTION! Oh, well, at least I am not likely to leap out of a speeding vehicle over it, unless of course, I happen to spot a sign saying, "TARANTULAS FOR SALE" while driving, LOL!

pitbulllady

 

[conipto]

Now, in my own personal opinion, if a person is afraid of certain things or "phobic" due to a traumatic experience, then that is one thing. But if someone is just plain terrified of spiders for no one reason at all, then to me that is irrational.

The definition of phobia is an irrational fear of something.

Bill

 

[Gir]

So, needless to say the guy spent most of the night being very obnoxious and rude and it was often difficult to refrain from being physical, but the fact that he was a grown twenty one year old man and screamed like a girl and lunged a Tarantula book completely dismissed any sign of intellect and or substance as a human being

ROFL!
Yeah its funny how disconnected most people are from animals. Irrational fear is a sign of ignorance. Its partly from how are culture demonizes animals that leads to peoples fears...spiders, sharks, and wolves are all common targets.

 

[thedreadedone]

arachnophobia

i am an arachnophobic
i know that it is something i learned from my mum (she is very scared of spiders), however, i also know it is totally irrational as i love all other bugs.
i have no problems with T's (they are like 8 legged mice) , although i dont really want to handle them. its big house spiders that freak me out. i dont mind them outside, but when they invade my space, i have a problem!
when i was younger, i couldnt even look at pictures of spiders. but i have always been fascinated by them

 

[MilkmanWes]

With Wendy on this one. As was stated he was not known or well known by anyone there except his gf. He probably needed to compensate for the fact that a lot of the conversation might bend towards matters between friends and leave him out.

'Hey look what I can do!' -- Stewart

Hey Mr. A.,

For some reason or another I think that tossing YOUR book across the room might have been a cry for wanting to be the center of attention rather than him being annoyed or phobic. (Of course I could be wrong.)

---

 

[8leggedrobot]

Hmmm. I had a bit of an encounter last night in a chat room I've chatted in for 4 years almost now... we are all very close, about 10 of us and we visit each other from across the country on a regular basis. They know that I love tarantulas, and a lot of other bugs, too. Well I was telling the room about the stange behavior of one of my Ts last night, and one member inparticular took it upon herself to joke about throwing MY T to HER CAT as a chew toy!!!!

This ticked me off, obviously... and she cannot grasp WHY. I've put up with her jokes about squashing bugs (she has severe BUG phobia) and ignored them, but this wasn't directed at just 'some bug', she said this about my pet, and I'm sorry but that is rude.

So I know that feeling you're having today about being annoyed with people who can't understand that you like tarantulas has been twisting in my side all morning. She wrote me and apologoized because last night I told her I didn't find that amusing, but she still doesn't get how she offended me. :? And she is a well educated, intelligent person otherwise so it's sad. I'm sure she will just try to play this off as another incident where I'm being 'strange'.

 

[Randy]

interesting indeed..

 

[Lilija]

Perhaps a little insight to phobias and irrationality: I have a phobia of squisy invertebrates. Slugs, worms, maggots, snails, anything like that.

I've been known to go into a full panic attack, if I see one, laying on the ground. I found out there was an earthworm laying under our tent, when we were camping once, directly beneath the air mattress, and I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks, and getting freaked out. There was a WORM under where I was SLEEPING. Only a little bit of my irrationality. We all know a slug isn't going to murder you in your sleep. (or a T, or a rodent, etc)

I happen to know where mine stems from, though. I was a child, playing in my grandfather's wood pile, in upstate NY, my mom called me over to her, and as I was walking, I noticed a slug on my arm...and on my leg, and on my shirt, and one smack in the palm of my hand. I was literally covered with the things. I started screaming and blacked out. I was about 5.

My phobia manifests itself in severe anxiety, I react with panic and fright. I can't see them on TV, without getting fluttery and freaked out, I can't read about them, I dislike when people talk about them. Typing this is very difficult. But, perhaps knowing about the nature of phobias can help.

I'm not justifying this guy's behavior, because you're totally right, it was very juvenile and immature. But maybe he's changed his base reaction from fright to anger. Like, it would be stupid for a guy to panic and get all flappy about a spider, so he throws the book, and acts angry instead.



Edit: It's still no reason to act malicious about it. I would be highly offended at someone threatening to sic their cat on any of my pets. You can be afraid of something, and not want to kill it.

 

[8leggedrobot]

Yes, I understand about phobias, I have one of driving in car by myself once I start getting 'too far' from my house. If someone drops me off at the airport and I fly 6 states away -- NO problem. But if I drive alone further than about 20 mins in any direction and no one else is in the car, I start getting severe chest pains and panic attacks. So, I understand... I'm insane. LOL *shrug*

But I don't diss people who are say... truck drivers, or have gone alone on a long car ride, just because they are immersed in doing something I think would probably kill me to even consider doing.

I don't get mad if someone says "ewww!" about my pets, not everyone thinks they are as beautiful as I do. But some people are just clueless jack@$$3$ about things they don't understand or agree with.

 

[Lilija]

Yeah, there's definitely no excuse for ignorance, or malice.