I am terrified of spiders and that is not weird.  Lots of people are afraid of spiders, and why not, they are creepy.  Eight legs, too many eyes, and the way they walk around.  There is so much to be afraid of, including that they can KILL you!

Family, friends, and colleagues throughout my life have had big laughs at my expense with my fear of spiders.  They would hide them on me at work, send me trick emails with pics, and play doctor to try and help me overcome my fear.

Spider
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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That's the part I never understood.  Everyone wants to help me like they are Dr. Drew or something.  The best part is they try and accomplish this by scaring me with spiders!  I don't get the logic.

The worst part is I can't complain about it.  I am always playing tricks or pranks on people so I can't get mad when they do it back.  The problem is I don't think anyone realizes how much of a fear it really is.  It locks my body up, and I have trouble breathing.  I go into full blown panic mode and I am terrified.

I don't think that's a strange reaction, but that's what an irrational fear is.  This is why I am maybe more understanding than most when it comes to other people's fears, no matter how ridiculous they are.  Take these fears from the Maury show for example:

These seem absolutely ridiculous to me and probably most people but you can see that the person with the phobia is physically shaken.  We are all afraid of something, sometimes that something is a balloon, a pickle, or some jello!

With my fear of spiders, it doesn't matter if they are real or fake, they freak me out just the same.  The fake ones are made to look real and in my head they are just waiting to crawl at me and attack.  I am not about to let that happen, I know what they're planning!!

A lot of people are afraid of clowns and with the recent news stories of clown pranks on the rise, if I was one of those people I would never leave the house!  I am not afraid of clowns, but I see what the fuss is about.

To me, that is what every October is like.  I love the month of October, and the fall, very much.  Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year...but it comes with a price.  I have difficulty going into some costume shops because they have giant tarantulas on the ceiling as decor.  I tried checking bags at the airport once and had trouble because the airline decorated their wall with spiders.  WHO DOES THAT???

My point is that fears are fears and getting over them is not necessarily an easy thing or something that you should even do.  If it is holding up your life you should try and seek help but having a little phobia is completely normal.  No matter what you're afraid of I guarantee someone else out there is to.

Fears are irrational but they do not need to control us.  With that said, my co-host Val Townsend was recently bit by a spider (pictured below).  I personally think she should just cut her hand off and move on.  Plenty of people live great lives with only one hand.  Also, if that happened while she was sleeping, burning the house down and finding a new place to live is probably a good idea as well.  Better to be safe then sorry!

Val's spider bite
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