My irrational fear of snakes...

**nibblets** · 08-08-2004, 04:12 PM

You know...I 'try' to be cool with snakes. I even got up the nerve to pet a Cali King Snake a man had at the pet shop one time..(it was velvety feeling), but my one true phobia is snakes.

Whether it is a tiny garden snake or a huge exotic snake, I have the same reaction. Chills, goose bumps, a deep fear in the pit of my stomach not unlike an anxiety attack...and it is all I can do just to contain myself from acting like a big idiot.

I am cool with lizards, fish, spiders, mice and all the fur variety of pets. I don't know where this snake fear started but I have had it all my life.

However- not to slight the snakes. I do appreciate that some folks really love them and make good keepers. I am not saying snakes are bad...I'm just freaked out by them.

P.S. I have an irrational fear of slugs and leaches too. I know that makes no sense...I would hope I could run faster than a slug. hahaha

but I have actually had nightmares about these things. I am pretty sure my older brother created that slug fear when I was a kid though.

I seem to remember him flicking one at me with a stick on more than one occasion just to watch me scream.

Any other animal/reptile phobias around here? Please tell me I am not the only weenie.

**GoldenRetrLuver** · 08-08-2004, 05:35 PM

Nope, not for me.

I used to be deathly afraid of spiders, but now I actually find a few kinda cute.

**Tonya** · 08-09-2004, 08:54 AM

I have a fear of Trantulas. It took ALL I had to pet my brothers. I only petted it once.

**Logan** · 08-09-2004, 12:05 PM

I am a "wienie" when it comes to snakes too. They scare the wits out of me, regardless of what kind they are.

**CathyBogart** · 08-09-2004, 01:16 PM

Dalmatians. I KNOW where the phobia came from so it's not entirely irrational, but it still seems pretty absurd to me when I consider how many perfectly nice dals there are out there.

**K9soul** · 08-09-2004, 04:57 PM

I understand why so many are afraid of snakes and spiders. Hollywood hasn't been too kind to them and that kind of thing can really take root. My grandma was deathly afraid of them and so she told my mom all kinds of ridiculous stories when she was younger about snakes chasing people to bite them and snakes killing people, etc. Mom ended up having quite a fear of snakes as a result, but she decided to really face that fear and went to a meeting once that I remember as a child. There was a man with many snakes there and he talked about them and had people touch them and hold them. Then Mom watched a lot of nature shows on snakes and read books about them. After awhile, education prevailed and she learned to be fascinated in them rather than to fear them.

She even got to the point one day where she picked up a baby garter snake on the road by our house one day and brought it in for me to look at, before releasing him into our garden. Thanks to her perseverence and determination, I was raised to respect but not fear snakes. I think it had to have been hard for her though, and I truly admire what it took for her to face her fears, and make sure that I wasn't raised the same way.

As for me, not too many creatures cause me fear or revulsion. I'd say parasites do though, I can hardly stand to look at them or think about them. Leeches, ticks, or anything that attaches itself to other beings like that repulse me. Yellowjackets I fear because I was once stung by one while washing my car and I had a pretty bad reaction to it.

The other thing that I'm fearful of though I've never even been around one is sharks. I have watched a lot about them and know how rare shark attacks are but that is one creature I have had nightmares about, thanks to Jaws.

**kingrattus** · 08-09-2004, 11:48 PM

I'm not really scared of any type of animal or bug. But I will kill a parasite at any cost. I hate anything that will eat me alive, or dead, squish evil maggots, muahaha. After kill it I have no proble picking it up with my fingers & looking at it.

I can get scared if a dog runs up to me & its barking with its fur up. Been attacked too many times. But I still love dogs. It took everything in me last year not to kick to kill a JRT that came charging, snarling teeth & all. But I couldn't kill it infront of the kid that it got away from. So I did the next best thing. I scared the crap out of it. I snarled & chased it with my arms up. the dog screamed & ran away. Then I yelled at the kid until he ran home crying.

I was so mad cause I knew if I had been walking cadeau, she would have freaked out & tried to run away at all costs. She is horrible scared of anything or anyone coming up to her during walks. If someone is heading in out direction. I get her to sit & put her between my legs & comfort her.

But this JRT could have hurt her, even if it didnt bite her, shes too old to get that scared.

I have never had a problem with dogs runing up to me & barking in excitement, but thats a different bark. I know the angry bark all to well & have the scar in my ear to prove it.

I have bad anxity & react poorly to things that upset me.. I lose alot of control & start to shake.

**cali** · 08-09-2004, 11:57 PM

I am afraid of snakes, spiders, horseflys, any kind of bug that stings or bits lol I like watching reptiles if they cant get to me in any way lol I know they wont hurt me, and I honestly dont have any reason why I should fear them, I am just scared of em! also Rotties, because many differnt Rotties went after me when I was younger, it happend for several years, at the beach one got away and started chasing me, at my old house a rottie that got loose started jumping on me when I went to close the back gate(I was VERY small when I was younger so a Rottie was extremly big in comparison to me at the time) and a frind of the family had a Rottie that was always jumping on me and clawing me.

**swimma253** · 08-10-2004, 08:53 AM

ahh! I am afraid of snakes too! When I ride my motor bike in my field... I am sooo afraid I am going to run over one!!! I have stepped on one before! Yuck!!!

But the thing I am DEATHLY afraid of.... is SPIDERS!!!!!!!! YUCK!
Dead ones fall in my pool all the time... and they just float around like big, nasty floaty things with big legs and... yuck! I am so afraid of touching one it is not even funny! If there is a spider in my pool... I choose not to swim in it! One time I started crying because there was this huge spider in my pool and I was afraid I was going to touch it!!!

And another fear I have... is Sharks!!! They scare me so bad! I used to go tubing in the lake all the time. But now that I watched JAWS.. I am WAY to afraid! There arent even sharks in a lake! I just get so nervous and I have a panic attack! Now I am so scared to go in the lake! One time I was sitting in the tube about to go... and I was shaking I was so nervous... and the tube floated over to the motor(it was not on thank god!) and it cut me! I was so scared it was a shark I screamed!

But its wierd because I am not afraid to go water skiing in the lake....?

WEll... thats all ogf my "live" fears.

Carly