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tokana's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Batrachophobia I am afraid of lizards. Yes. Lizards. No, not all reptiles. Iguanas, snakes, alligators, turtles etc – don’t really bother me, I’ve had many a reptile pet. It is the small, lizards, the type that there are millions of in FL that terrify me. Not just ‘oo, a lizard’ terrify, but ‘OH MY GOD. IT’S A LIZARD, SOMEONE GET IT! GET IT AWAY!’ terrify. At one point I refused to go into my own room for a week until C caught the lizard and showed me as he put it outside. On two occasions I have blacked out when one was snuck up on me (mean little boy hides I his hand and says ‘look!’ as he tosses it my way). Twice now I have had lizards on the outside of my windshield as I was driving. On both occasions I made unplanned pitstops to have a family member remove the unwanted intruder. Last year, after Charlie came through there were tons of trucks moving debris around town. While on I-4 a lizard fell out of a dump truck and onto my windshield. MINE, out of all the cars on the highway, mine. I tried to use breathing techniques and not pay attention. I tried swerving a bit to make him fly off, nothing worked. I didn’t want to try the wipers for fear of smooshing him permanently in place….I pulled off the highway after about 15 minutes of trying and stopped at my parent’s house where I ran into their house and bumped into my father. By this time I was red in the face, in tears, shaking and all in all a complete mess. My father thought someone had died. When I told him the problem he promptly erupted in laughter…. It was 15 minutes before I had stopped shaking enough to drive again. So, now that you understand the extend of my fears.. Last night I was at my parents with Roger to watch Episode IV – I had never seen it before (yes I know this is rare and shocking, get over it). Roger kept trying to go into the fire place so I moved a magazine rack to block it off. Of course there was a large black lizard underneath. I shriek. Mom exclaims ‘What!’ Dad comes running. Roger climbs up my leg and into my arms – he must have inherited the phobia. So Mom and Dad try to trap the lizard, it makes a dash for the kitchen. They are searching under the hutch when I see it scamper into the hall way. Of course the entire time I screeching for them to get it. I yell that it’s coming toward me and Mom and Dad follow, they finally trapped it in the hall way and got it out and after thoroughly searching my purse (which had been next to the culprit’s hiding spot) for a cohort and not finding one, we went back to the movie. In hind sight I’m sure it was quite a humorous escapade. So, why am I mentioning all of this? It’s a segue. Today I was looking to see if my phobia has been classified. It has, kind of. Phobia List.com has Herpetophobia- Fear of reptiles or creepy, crawly things. But that’s not entirely accurate. I found this site that has Batrachophobia, Fear of Amphibians, Fear of Frogs, Fear of Newts, and Fear of Salamanders listed. The funny part is they even offer treatement. So, I guess I can finally give it a name. Hi, I’m Sara and I have batrachophobia. After further research I found several postings about fellow suffers, only about .8% of the US population has it. But hey, at least I’m not alone…. 4:04 p.m. - May 23, 2005 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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