Irrational Fear
If you know me well you know that I have an irrational fear of snakes. I have no idea what caused this fear, but whenver I see a snake, I go nutty. I get paralyzed with fear. This includes seeing snakes on TV, or a picture of a snake in a book. As for going to the reptile display at a zoo, it's out of the question.
On Friday night I had an evening program I had to lead for work which was being held at the home of one of the families from the church. As I was walking from my car to the house, one of the boys who comes to our kids' club was walking past me on the street, and he called out to me, "Hey Miss Sue, I've got something to show you!" Innocently I wait for him to approach until I see that what he has in his hand is a snake. I assume it's a rubber snake at first until I see it open its mouth. He's walking towards me with a snake in his hands.
We had recently done a series of lessons involving animals. When the snake lesson came up, I was vulnerable and I told the kids I was terrified of snakes. This bright boy remembered that and thought he'd have some fun with me. He approached me with the snake and I had no choice but to run away. That's right, a 34-year old pregnant woman chose to run away from a 9-year old boy carrying a small garter snake. It was embarassing, but he wanted to touch me with the snake. I couldn't let that happen. Finally his cousin came and took the snake away from him so he'd leave me alone.
That was the last straw for me. It was so embarassing to react that way in front of kids who look up to me as an authority. I also thought about the alley behind our house. It's got a lot of overgrown grass and weeds and such. It's quite likely there's snakes in there from time to time. What if Darcy found one and brought one home? What would I do? I've got to do something to deal with this ridiculous fear.
The problem is I once read an article in the paper about a woman who wanted to deal with her snake phobia and her treatment involved her going to some sort of snake pit. Just the thought of that is enough to keep me from dealing with this. I've got a friend who is a social worker with a minor in psychology. She's done some work with fears in the past and she and I talked about this yesterday. She's come up with a much more reasonable plan. She says I don't ever have to love snakes or want to watch Snakes on a Plane or anything like that. I just have to be able to react calmly if faced with one. During our conversation about snakes I was very jittery and uncomfortable. She said the first step she wants me to take is to intentionally have 4 conversations about snakes over the next month, each one increasing in length, until I can at least talk about snakes without getting jumpy.
In the words of Homer Simpson, "self-improvement has always been a hobby of mine" so I'm going to deal with this. I won't let the snakes beat me!
On Friday night I had an evening program I had to lead for work which was being held at the home of one of the families from the church. As I was walking from my car to the house, one of the boys who comes to our kids' club was walking past me on the street, and he called out to me, "Hey Miss Sue, I've got something to show you!" Innocently I wait for him to approach until I see that what he has in his hand is a snake. I assume it's a rubber snake at first until I see it open its mouth. He's walking towards me with a snake in his hands.
We had recently done a series of lessons involving animals. When the snake lesson came up, I was vulnerable and I told the kids I was terrified of snakes. This bright boy remembered that and thought he'd have some fun with me. He approached me with the snake and I had no choice but to run away. That's right, a 34-year old pregnant woman chose to run away from a 9-year old boy carrying a small garter snake. It was embarassing, but he wanted to touch me with the snake. I couldn't let that happen. Finally his cousin came and took the snake away from him so he'd leave me alone.
That was the last straw for me. It was so embarassing to react that way in front of kids who look up to me as an authority. I also thought about the alley behind our house. It's got a lot of overgrown grass and weeds and such. It's quite likely there's snakes in there from time to time. What if Darcy found one and brought one home? What would I do? I've got to do something to deal with this ridiculous fear.
The problem is I once read an article in the paper about a woman who wanted to deal with her snake phobia and her treatment involved her going to some sort of snake pit. Just the thought of that is enough to keep me from dealing with this. I've got a friend who is a social worker with a minor in psychology. She's done some work with fears in the past and she and I talked about this yesterday. She's come up with a much more reasonable plan. She says I don't ever have to love snakes or want to watch Snakes on a Plane or anything like that. I just have to be able to react calmly if faced with one. During our conversation about snakes I was very jittery and uncomfortable. She said the first step she wants me to take is to intentionally have 4 conversations about snakes over the next month, each one increasing in length, until I can at least talk about snakes without getting jumpy.
In the words of Homer Simpson, "self-improvement has always been a hobby of mine" so I'm going to deal with this. I won't let the snakes beat me!
posted by Sue Matthews at 10:13 AM
2 Comments:
You ask Stef about her encounter with a DEAD Swiss snake...
I'm not listening! I'm not listening! Look at me with my fingers in my ears - that how much I'm not listening!!!
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