Irrational Fears

Many people have fears and phobias. Some of which are simply dealt with by avoiding whatever it is we’re afraid of. Some people are afraid of public speaking, certain animals, small spaces, crowds, etc. The list goes on and on. Some fears go a little bit further and lead to involuntary paralyzing responses from the person experiencing them.

For example, I myself am TERRIFIED of snakes. It goes beyond a level of ew I don’t like them. I have regularly occurring nightmares, or sometimes I’ll even simply close my eyes to go to sleep and my brain pops up images of them. Immediately I open my eyes up and sometimes literally jump up out of bed.

I think my admittedly irrational fear of these creatures has gotten much worse over the years. About 10 years ago some friends and I had been camping. As we were hiking back to our car to leave alongside the path there was a coiled up snake. By the time we noticed it, we were right next to it. We took off running and luckily no one was hurt. I remember getting far enough away to stop and actually looking behind me as though it was going to chase us.

During that incident when I went to look back my friend joked that I’d seen too many Anaconda movies. I laughed at the joke, but in all honesty I cannot watch shows or movies with snakes in them. If one is shown unexpectedly I have to look away or change the channel. Obviously, I know that the snake can’t hurt me from my dreams or the TV or a movie. However, it is the irrational fear or phobia that illicit the reaction.

According to the Wikipedia article on Phobia’s they are defined as “a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding despite the fear, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational”. Essentially, you know it’s ridiculous and highly unlikely to hurt you, but the mind is a complex entity with lots of power to convince us otherwise.

I decided to write this article after I was sitting outside in my backyard last night while my dog ran around the back yard and my mind was racing wondering if any snakes were around or could they sneak upon me? Would I be able to get inside fast enough? What about the dog? I should point out that I have never seen a snake around my property even. Not to say they’re no where around but they don’t really like people sooooo they probably wouldn’t “step to me” like "what up I came to bite yo ass."

Something that I decided to look into was the causes and treatments for this type of thing. For the causes I read that it can be caused by a parent or sibling’s reaction to those stimuli even if you didn’t see whatever it was. I guess the thought behind this is that “wow if they’re freaking out this thing must be pretty bad”. Then the idea of it becomes much worse than the thing itself. I think this is what caused it for me. I remember my mom at least once freaking out seeing a snake in our yard. I didn’t see it and when I asked her to describe it the description she gave was sooo cartoonish that I know now it couldn’t have possibly looked like this. She just didn’t want to scare me. Well short term it worked. Long term OMG I feel like I’m ruint sometimes lol. I think she’s actually less afraid of them than me. A while back I was home and she was watching snakes on a plane. I couldn’t even go downstairs until it was over. So thanks Mom for robbing me of the viewing pleasure of that Samuel L. Jackson flick!

As for the treatments I’ve read about things such as virtual reality or imagery being used to desensitize the patient. Of course, this sounds like they’re going to show me pics of snakes and make me just deal with it. There are other treatments available besides those two of course, and for anyone with similar fears or phobias or just similar issues with their own fears I can only say that I am not a medical professional and would recommend consulting one if you feel you need help. My purpose in writing this article was simply to reach out to and bring some light to these type conditions. My hope is that those suffering as well as those who care about them can have a greater understanding of it.