Ophidiophobia
[/sneɪk/] n.Fear of snakes
The fear of snakes. Hissing, squirming, wriggling and potentially deadly. What’s the worst that could happen?
Fear of snakes is slowing down
Ophidiophobia is on its way down. Over the past year, searches saw an 18% decrease, taking annual figures to 22,200 across the world.
Searches for the phobia are highest in the USA, where occasional wild snakes and especially big swamp dwellers still see 6,600 people look it up. In the UK, where a grass snake might be the scariest thing they see, only 1,600 suffer from the fear. Canada has a few more snakes to worry about, but that only scares 710 people, while Australia just doesn’t fear anything – only 30 people there are frightened of snakes.
They’d never hurt you…
But
600 species
are
venomous.
A phobia with fangs
Being scared of snakes is, actually, quite sensible. Unlike other phobias, ophidiophobia developed from evolutionary needs, as humans quickly cottoned on to the fact that snake bites hurt. Continual conditioning – such as humans regularly getting bitten by snakes – meant the fear didn’t fade away but developed into a fear associated with representations of snakes as well as the real thing.
Something deep within us tells us snakes are bad news, and while for most of us that just means avoiding them, for others it can leave them paralyzed.
Biting ophidiophobia back
Want to conquer your fear of snakes? Easy. Just go see some snakes. Gradual exposure to snakes will, eventually, make it easier for you to deal with them
- Go look at snakes in zoos
- Watch videos of snakes in a comfortable environment
- Handle toy snakes to get used to them