Anyone have a friend who is terrified of snakes?

My daughter in-law is very scared of snakes. She's okay when they don't move, so long as she is not holding them. If they move, she very quickly backs away. She is good in that she is careful to not pass this fear onto her son~ especially since he comes over all the time to hold grandma's "sneeks"! Anyway, I am starting to work on desensitizing her to them, step by step. She's a very brave girl and I am very proud of her~ it is hard to face one's fears and conquer them.

Both my father and my boyfriend are scared to death of them. My boyfriend is slowly coming around. I've been trying to get him to hold my little BP hatchling but so far he's just been trying to manage to stay in the same room with her! At one point he almost worked up the courage to touch her with a finger while I was holding her, but he chickened out. He does make friends with the mice I bring home to feed her, though. We were having a conversation about what to buy each other for our 4 year anniversary that's coming up and the first thing he said was, "Please tell me you don't want another snake..."

My father will probably never change because we don't live in the same state anymore, so he doesn't ever see my tame snake. He only sees the ones on our farm, which like to hide in the barns and stuff like that and scare him. He actually does tolerate the rat snakes and other non-poisonous ones because...they eat rats :) The only snakes I'd say he *hates* are water moccasins because he has been bitten by one and because they're all over where we live, so it's a constant fear for him. I understand that more than people who just have an irrational fear (like my boyfriend!) because they've never had a good experience with snakes and only heard bad things.

You already said it...it's irrational.

I love snakes, lizards, any reptile...
but I will have a heart attack if you put a taranchula anywhere near me. Spiders FREAK ME OUT. and I know better...i know a taranchula is not going to do anything to me, much like my ball pythons, but it's just this unexplainable irrational fear that I have.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

My brother is actually terrified of snakes. When my stepfather and I wanted to get snakes when I was in elementary school, my mom and brother threatened to move out into our camper if we brought a snake into the house. Well of course they didn't but they wouldn't go near the snakes. My mother would sometimes hold the ball python but my brother never would. When I got my first snake, Zim in '06, I tried to show it to him and he locked himself in the room and wouldn't come out until I left the house. It was just a baby corn snake. Jeesh. Thankfully most of my friends are ok with the snakes and actually like seeing them, but not always hold them. I have an irrational fear of heights and deep water but as far as animals, I am very uncomfortable around big dogs ( I was bitten by a rottwieler) but afraid of animals, no.

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Hey, I have a fear of deep water too. I mean, I don't really mind swimming in a lake or ocean, but when I do, I always have this knowledge in the back of my head that the ground is 100-thousands of feet below me.

I have 1 friend who is freaked out by snakes and one who won't even let me talk about them. I don't understand it either, these are gentle creatures. Have you noticed a lot of people, when you ask them why they won't hold it, they say it's slimey? I dunno where that comes from.

Another one of my friends loves my snake and comes over anytime he can to take a look at it. Trying to talk him into getting one!

As far as me being scared of snake and bugs, i'm not. There are certain bugs I don't like and do run away from if they get near me or touch me. Wasp and Cockroaches. I had a roach on my foot one night and almost flipped my computer desk. It was scary.

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Originally Posted by Skoalbasher

Hey, I have a fear of deep water too. I mean, I don't really mind swimming in a lake or ocean, but when I do, I always have this knowledge in the back of my head that the ground is 100-thousands of feet below me.

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Not to mention there are two sharks right below you playing rock/paper/scissors over who gets you.

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

You already said it...it's irrational.

I love snakes, lizards, any reptile...
but I will have a heart attack if you put a taranchula anywhere near me. Spiders FREAK ME OUT. and I know better...i know a taranchula is not going to do anything to me, much like my ball pythons, but it's just this unexplainable irrational fear that I have.

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I actually want a big spider!! My girlfriend was reluctant on the snake, but said "You will never own a spider with me in the apartment".

I said, ok, see you later. :D


:salute:

I think everyone I know except for 3 people is terrified of snakes. Unfortunately when people think of snakes they think of vipers and giant retics not balls like most of us have. Until you get one in some ones hands, if they are willing, there is no way to get people to not freak about them.

It is interesting because I tutor a 10 year old in my apartment and she is afraid of snakes. However, she went slowly from entering the room where the snakes were, to watching me handle them, to wanting to hold their tails (the heads were scary), to holding my BP Meerah all by herself! If you say "snakes" she cringes and screams, or if she sees a pic of one she automatically recoils, but then if I remind her that she knows how to handle snakes, she becomes interested. Now she is obsessed with watching my corn snakes eat lol. I would says he is still scared of them, but as soon as she gets over the initial reaction she is OK.

I just hope that she grows up remembering my snakes and doesn't pass that fear down to her children.

My parents never told me anything good/bad about snakes as a child, but they brought me to nature centers where I would inevitably beg for shed snake skins. I guess since they were in the nature center, and I trusted the nature center, I trusted the snakes.

Since my parents never reacted strongly to snakes I never did either. I think parents have a lot to do with it.

My mother....

Not so much terrified anymore, but when I started, she could NOT understand why I would want to surround myself with "THOSE THINGS"

She touched my Pastel once cause it was freshly shed and "pretty"

But yeah... At least I don't have to worry about suprise visits.. :D

There are many people that are afraid of snakes, a few people mentioned that these fears were irrational. Fearing snakes is not really an irrational fear at all, it is in our genes. It is an innate fear that most babies are born with. I have seen studies where an infant is shown a snake and knows to be afraid of it. Our ancestors were afraid of snakes, because some were venomous and could kill you. This fear goes back that far. As mentioned before this fear can be worsened with classical conditioning.

All of this being said, once someone is educated about snakes: that they are not all dangerous, they are not out to get you, and they have many benefits to us (eg. rodent control), then most people will overcome this fear they have.

If you are scared of a harmless pet corn snake that you actually believe is harmless, then yes that is an irrational fear, but being scared of snakes in general until you learn better is perfectly rational. just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.