[vibhorg2006]

I am scared very much with lizards.What is solution

[phillysteakandcheese]

The best way to overcome any fear is to face it.

In this case, I would suggest you:

1. Learn everything you can about lizards. The different species, the environment they like to live in, what they eat, their behaviours, their anatomy...
2. Go to watch them - Either at a pet store or at a zoo... Thinking about what you've learned about these creatures.
3. When you're ready, take care of a small one as a pet.

Don't expect to do this over a weekend - You'll need plenty of time... months, maybe even years, but work on it - a little everyday.

[kp2171]

Can you explain why this is a problem for you? Are there lizards where you live?

[rdd11]

Hello all,

I don't expect my answer to be helpful to the phobiacs, but I will share it anyway.

Until the age of 8-9, I don't remember being afraid of lizards, even though India has so many of them. In the summer season, I would stand with my sister in an outer corridor of our house and look up at its ceiling - there used to be 13-16 lizards, all stuck to the ceiling and us standing under that! No fear until then.

Then my parents gave the ground floor of our house for rent to a family with 2 kids. Their son who was 6 when I was 8 or 9, went to the same school as me. And I remember that kid doing weird stuff with lizards in the lunch hour. We used to be in the playground, and he would just tease the lizards - try to hold them with his pencils (using them like chopsticks); I saw him unsuccessfully trying to cut a lizard into half with a blunt plastic ruler. And he just had this weird smile on his face. Creepy kid.

He left school after some months. But I was left in that school with the lizards he had tortured. That is one of my earliest memories of being scared or "ew-ed" at the ill fated lizards. And this feeling only grew stronger as the years passed.

And this is me now, 23 years old, sh*t scared of lizards and a paralyzed life when in India because there are so many lizards where I live.

I can't enter a room that has even a teeny-tiny baby lizard. If I have entered such a room by mistake, I will yell (the kind that hurts the ears and leaves a ringing behind) and flee the room in the logically-most-lizard-free-route out of the room.

When I dream of lizards, they come in all sorts of mutated shapes and I usually wake up sweating in distress. More than thrice I woke up in extreme physical pain- my fist so tightly clenched that my long nails pierced through my palm nearly cutting the skin. There were tiny blue nail arcs on my palm for days.

At age 21, once I was taking a shower in the bathroom and a lizard appeared from behind the tubelight, and I ran out of the shower naked :O My mom yelled at me because my dad was right outside (who hadn't even noticed me by the way- but he could have). I just sulked- half showered and in depression while my family tried to "boo" that thing away.

If I see lizards at any time- doesn't matter at what distance- my heart rate shoots up, I get a "time-freeze" like feeling where I feel paralyzed and can't run away from the object of fear (happens a lot in dreams too). Many a times, I get tears in my eyes- not the ones that'd roll down my cheeks- the ones that'd make my eyes feel instantly wetter.

Oh, also, I sealed every window of my dorm room with cellotape so that no lizards would enter. I did the same for the doors too. The windows remained permanently closed for 4 years of my graduation- the tape at the door edge was removed only when I had exit or enter the room.

4 years in suffocation. Because there were so many lizards outside, in the green environ of my college campus.

When I see lizards on the street, I usually get a "real feeling" that I have something on my foot or calf, just running upwards. It is so bad that I am not able to walk straight without checking my legs every two seconds. If Im wearing pants at the time, I just fold them to my knees so I can see my calfs constantly.

I can't look at lizard pics for more than a minute, I guess. Im not scared of any other animal on the planet.

If I did meet that little boy now, I would probably beat the h*ll out of him for ruining my life :P No, kidding, I wouldn't do that, I love kids (read: I totally would, I hate that particular kid).

Well hope you guys got some lolz out of this, but for me it is really not that funny :(