Buncha wimps. Spiders are not out to get you. In fact, they're out to get far more annoying insects like mosquitoes and houseflies. Do you know how many diseases those two spread? Do you know how many spiders spread? Spiders are your friends!
I used to knee-jerk-reaction freak out over spiders, too. I'd probably still freak out if I turned my head and a big old wolf spider were on my shoulder or something. I have gotten over a significant amount of the fear, though. Enough to handle them occasionally if one needs rescuing from the tub or something. It helps we don't have any actually dangerous ones where I live. I'd probably have a different attitude in Australia.
Where do you live that there are no venomous spiders? Even in North America, we have to worry about Black Widows, Brown Recluses, and Red(Brown) Widows.