My Fear - Spiders
Do you have a specific kind of fear that you wish to overcome? If you do, you are not alone. I have a significant one that has been dogging me through most of my life—the fear of spiders. I think that it is the unknown and specifically the surprise factor of spiders that disturbs me. Do they bite? Are they poisonous? But mostly it is the creepiness of how they move—all eight legs in motion at the same time.
Much of our fears today have their roots in childhood and they tend to grow as we mature. Years ago I lived with my family in a rural area of southern Alberta. The climate there was rather mild, producing the perfect environment for the growth of large spiders. We lived in a small town which had no indoor plumbing, so trips to the outhouse became a regular occurrence.
On occasion when I would visit the outhouse, something creepy would welcome me and observe me with keen interest. It was a spider as large as my thumb with a balloon-like stomach. Unfortunately, he made his home on the header above the door where I could not reach him. There he would sit watching every move I made. As I would sit ruminating, I could see him crouching low on the beam with his beady eyes staring at me. I can assure you that my time spent in the outhouse was kept to a minimum. For years this picture of the ominous creature stayed with me in the deep recesses of my mind.
Unfortunately, as I grew into adolescence, the fear of spiders was reinforced with the many encounters I had with them. At that time, my bedroom, together with my siblings’ bedrooms, was in the basement of our house which was a haven for spiders. I recall one night as I lay in bed scouting the room for their inevitable, I spied four of them trucking along on the floor even before I closed my eyes. Thinking that my brother’s bedroom would be more spider-free, I spent the next night there, only to discover two of them trucking through his room as well. The next night I slept on the chesterfield upstairs!
This phobia of spiders has been my lot all my life. How am I overcoming it, and how can you deal with an irrational fear that may be dogging you?
I invite you to read my August 20th, 2007 newsletter to find the answer!
Till next time this is Nurse Audrey signing off!