Snake phobia

(Essay)

I am afraid of a lot of things! Many trifles make me terribly nervous. But my biggest fear since childhood is snakes. Snake phobia is my cross I have been carrying for a lot of years.

It all starts when my parents offered me to watch the movie “Anaconda” with them. It wasn’t scary just weird and just a little disgusting. But after this day my life changed. All my dreams were full of snakes. I had nightmares almost every dark hour for 6 years. It was literally awful. I had woken up in the middle of the night with eyes full of tears and being afraid that a sinister snake is creeping slowly to my open neck.

Of course, my parents were worried because of this situation and tried to find a way to help me. My Dad knew that I loved TV programs about animals, and we started to watch them all the free time. And when there were episodes about reptiles I was on the edge of a panic attack. But Dad told me to watch it and learn where these snakes lived and why they attacked victims. It helped me to understand that the percent of the possibility of meeting a snake was too low to be afraid of it.

Then I plunged into reading tons of books about snakes: their habits, bodies, families, and food. So it was really helpful. After that, I was filled with confidence that I was not afraid of them at all. It was the time of happiness.

Last summer I was in Prague with my friend and it was a great vacation! Until one moment…We were at legendary Charles (Karluv) Bridge and when we enjoyed the picturesque landscapes opened from there, suddenly, like a bolt out of blue, I noticed a big group of people hustling around with cameras. Like a magnet, without any reason, I approached closer and was struck with a view of a huge and horrible snake. It wriggled like in my childhood nightmares. It was dreadfully disgusting! Having felt that my blackout got close to my mind, I grabbed my friend’s hand as hard as I could and yelled out for five minutes!

After that, I realized that that to get rid of fear was incredibly difficult. But I still now believe that I can do it. And I will do it!

P.S. By the way, do you have any ideas about how to accelerate this process? I mean overcoming the snake phobia…