Fear of Snakes (Ophidiophobia)

Ophidiophobia, as defined in Wikipedia, is a particular type of phobia that is specific to snakes.

The fear of reptiles in general is called herpetophobia.

The word comes from the Greek word ophis meaning snake and phobia meaning fear.

What causes ophidiophobia fear of snakes?

It might sound strange, but Ophidiophobia isn’t natural, there are only two natural fears, falling backwards and loud noises, everything else is learned.

You might want to argue with me that our system is hardwired due to prehistoric times and therefore we have a reflexive memory of snakes.

But actually, this isn’t true.

If you were to watch a two-year-old, playing in or around a snake, you would notice that they have no fear!

They haven’t learned it yet.

If the snake were to bite them, then they may learn to be afraid of THAT snake, it takes the influence of an adult/parent/caregiver to install the extreme fear/phobia.

The difference between a phobic response and a little bit of apprehension is that the brain has been programmed to think all snakes will bite you and you will die.

This is what causes Ophidiophobia. Prior to the adult coming along the child is in an optimum learning state, curious about what this hissing, wriggling thing is doing.

The panic is actually created by the adult coming into the context, it’s this that ignites and installs this afraid of snakes state inside the young child.

The difference between ‘that’ as in one single snake and a phobia which means all snakes is what we in linguistics call a generalisation, so ‘all’ snakes are bad.

This causes the mind to scan the environment for anything resembling a snake, sometimes this can even generalise out to a worm or even a length of hose pipe.

Ophidiophobia symptoms are much the same as any other phobia, the thought of a snake can trigger sweaty palms, increase your heart rate as the adrenalin is secreted into your system and a greater sense of anxiety engulfs you.

This is how all phobias work.

The difference with snake phobia as oppose to a bird phobia is that your eyes will be scanning the ground level always looking for snakes instead of scanning the air looking for birds.

There may be some TV shows that you just cannot watch, anything to do with a jungle or snakes basically.

It may also impact on some of the leisure hobbies you may have, e.g., you won’t want to go camping or walking in long grass.

It will even affect the length of your lawn!

In western countries, the chances of being bitten or attacked by a snake are very slim.In America, a gallop.com poll showed that Ophidiophobia topped the list of phobias at 56%, which is remarkable when one considers the fear of public speaking has always been the number one fear.

These results could also be connected to the greater use of social media, information and news of snake bites or people being attacked by snakes can spread more easily.

A quick web search shows that Kofi Annan, of the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that snake bites were “the biggest public health crisis you’ve never heard of”.

This is an interesting question.

If you lived in the sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia or South Asia, then a healthy fear of venomous snakes would ensure you live longer.

Snake bites in these areas claimed the lives of 400,000 victims between 2014 and 2016, making it almost 40 times deadlier than the Ebola virus.

However, if you live in the western world where the chances of you seeing a snake are very slim, then you’re probably better off using hypnosis for Ophidiophobia.

The idea behind the hypnosis session is to relax your mind so that your brain remains calm.

In this calm relaxed state, your mind reviews the snake material without triggering the fight/flight stress response.

Having a fear of snakes, or Ophidiophobia, is a very natural occurrence as snakes can bite and some have a venom that can make you sick or even kill you. The reality, however, is that most of us will never meet a snake, so why on earth should we be so terrified?

Ultimately it comes down to how your mind approaches the idea of you seeing a snake, if it’s in your bed you are supposed to panic, if it’s behind glass and in its cage then you’re supposed to breath normally and be curious. If you see it as a large threat, then your primitive brain will spring into action causing adrenaline to pump through your veins, whilst simultaneously shutting down the smart brain, leaving you feeling terrified, isolated, alone and unable to speak. By transforming how you think about snakes you will be able to use all of your brain to learn that you have control over your emotions for years to come.

This audio production is designed to help you, the listener with gaining more confidence when you want it. By clearing negatively charged Emotional Memory Images from your external screen, your mind and body are able to adapt to the present moment, freeing you of the mental clutter that prevents the arousal centre of your brain from functioning optimally. This audio is your own personal 1 to 1 session with Matt, always available at your convenience.

Matt’s calming, assuring voice gently guides both your conscious mind and unconscious mind towards transformation through the left and right ear respectively. By tapping into the body’s psychoneuroimmunilogical mechanisms – the link between the mind, nervous system and physical wellbeing – this audio helps your brain to improve its cognitive processing ability so your mind will be free to run bright, colourful movies where you can reconnect all of your desires, experiencing them fully, through thought into action.

For best results, listen to this audio download first thing in the morning or during the day, every day for 4 weeks. Ensure you’re free from interruptions and distractions when listening. Download now to start building up your learning power and transform your current thoughts into powerful drivers for change.

This audio is a .MP3 file, compatible with smartphones, tablets, PC’s and other electronic devices.

Audio length: 30 minutes.