Spiders everywhere

Last time I wrote about my fear of spiders. Today I would like to tell you how the phobia has changed my life.

The place which reminds me of spiders the most is my basement. Since my brother has found Miśka there (the spider I wrote about in my last post) I no longer enter this place. I haven't been there for about 8 to 10 years. I even don't know how does it look like today. When I refused for the first time to go to our basement and bring some preserves my mother was surprised and she thought that I was joking. Now my family got used to my fear and they all know that it is useless to ask me to go down to the basement.

Another place where I can meet my eight legged enemies is our wooden summer house in Warmia. I used to go there with my family one or two times a year, during summer holidays and around Easter or May picnic. The house is situated near lake and it remains empty most of the year. Spiders like such places. When there is no human inside spiders are taking control of the summer house. Every time we come there for our holidays there are plenty of cobwebs and spiders. The problem is that I can't cross the doorstep until someone removes all the cobwebs and kills all the spiders. When it is done I enter the house and have a look around the corners. If I see even a small spider I run away crying. It happened some times that I didn't want to sleep in our summer house and I went to sleep in my grandmother's house. I preferred to sleep in a small room with mice which I hear chewing something under the wardrobe all the night than with spiders. When I finally decided to spend the night in our summer house it wasn't a calm night not only for me but also for my roommates. Before falling asleep I did detailed search of the corners and of my bed. A small lamp had to be on all the night. When I fell asleep after one or two hours it was a success. But the whole night I dreamed about spiders which were everywhere! And I talked and screamed during sleeping which annoyed my sister and my brother and didn't allowed them to sleep.

There are some unexpected situations when I feel the fear of spiders. Recently I was going by car with my sister. She was a driver and I sat next to her. We were out of city and the sun was shining straight in my face. I opened the car visor and noticed a spider which were hanging from a thread. I started to shout and wanted to run away but I couldn't do anything because I was in the running car. My sister didn't know what to do. She was afraid that I would jump out of the car so she stopped it on the roadside. I got out of the vehicle and my sister removed the spider from behind the visor. This way we could continue our travel.

I am an arachnophobe. I am terribly afraid of spiders and some weeks ago my brother started to breed a tarantula. Then he brought another three exotic spiders. How can I feel safe in my home now?

Face to face with a spider

I am a person who is afraid of many things, phenomenons and situations. In this post I would like to describe one of my biggest fears.

I'm sure that most of you, if not all of you, know what arachnophobia is. But have you ever been affected by this fear? I know this phobia very well. I think my case isn't the most serious one but my fear is rather strong. I don't feel the usual disgust for spiders. I feel really bad and I'm terrified when even a small eight legged creature is near me. I'm also afraid of spiderwebs and sometimes I wonder if they aren't maybe more horrifying. Does it seem strange? I can explain that. Seeing a spider I can control its location, observe its behaviour and predict its actions. It allows me to take action to defend myself against the enemy. When I see a spiderweb and don't see any spider I know that it is somewhere near me but I have no way to control it and in practice it can be everywhere. As well on my back or, even worse, ugh... on my head!

Some people tell me that my fear is unmotivated and absurd but it is the real nature of a phobia. What's more, it is obvious that some species of spiders are dangerous. A few years ago I was bitten by a spider and even if it wasn't a deadly tarantula it hurt and I couldn't walk for three days because my whole leg was swollen.

Being a child I wasn't afraid of spiders. The fear was aroused by a specific situation. One day my four years younger brother caught a spider in our basement and decided to keep it. He even gave it a name Miśka. It was a female of the species Tenegaria domestica and it was very big! Its body with legs covered the surface of 1-liter jar. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if my brother had been keeping it in a suitable and closed container. But he had not. That time he slept in my room and before falling asleep he always took out Miśka from the container and stroke it like a cat or dog. One night he probably fell asleep without putting the spider back to the container. In the early morning I woke up and saw Miśka right beside my face on the pillow! I started to shout and run around the room. It was a real panic! Since that day I am terribly afraid of spiders.