[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Irrational childhood fears

[illyana delorean]

On Oct 26, 2003, at 9:01 PM, KathyK wrote:

>
> My irrational fear that just won't go away no matter how old I get
> or how hard I try to ignore them is *spiders.*  How I loathe those
> creepy crawley creatures.  Just thinking of them skittering around
> is making my skin crawl.  I can't even sleep in my bedroom if I see
> one sitting on the ceiling on the other side of the room.  So I
> either spend an uncomfortable night sleeping on the floor of another
> room or, more likely, spend half the night staring at the thing
> willing it to move lower so I can catch it without touching it
> (can't squish 'em, either) and dump it outside. 
>
> KathyK (whose worst encounter with a spider occurred when she was
> reading in bed and one fell from the ceiling right into the book in
> front of her nose.  An inch in my direction and it would have landed
> *on me.*  I then spent two hours looking for the thing all over and
> around my bed because it disappeared when I jumped up screaming.)

You think that's bad? I am also afraid of spiders - even dead ones - 
and one morning I awoke to find a spider in my mouth! Actually, it was 
half-way in my mouth, and I grabbed it and threw it across my bedroom. 
That was so disgusting. Another time, I was lying on the couch in my 
parent's house (when I was younger and still lived there), and I looked 
up to see two dead tarantulas hanging from this window sill that was 
probably ten feet above my head. We had this rectangular window that 
was kind of indented in order to allow the homeowner to display plants 
or other pretty things in the living room. Anyway, we never used it for 
that kind of thing, and I guess these tarantulas decided to hang out up 
there until they died. They were kind of hooked-together and one of 
them was dangling over the edge - imagine if it had fallen on me! I 
probably would have had a heart attack!

My parent's house was a nightmare for an arachnophobic person like me - 
we always had spiders hanging around, because my dad thought that 
spraying for bugs was unhealthy and unnecessary. Sometimes tarantulas 
would get in, but usually the worst were wolf spiders, which are a 
little scarier than tarantulas because they are faster and less docile. 
Tarantulas are usually quite timid and don't like being around people.

I have other frightening spider stories, like my stay at a summer camp 
that was infested with daddy long-legs (some of them enormous and with 
extra legs) when I was ten or eleven, but I think I have said enough 
for now! Plus, I'll probably have nightmares if I keep thinking about 
creepy-crawlies!

illyana, who is also fearful of elevators (only slightly), being a 
passenger in a car (I only like to drive), death (but who isn't?!), and 
images of the Earth as seen from space (and sometimes other planets, 
but usually only the Earth - this is my strangest fear and has only 
recently started being a problem)

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