SACRAMENTO BEE (California) 28 August 06 On list of phobias, snakes tip the scales (Jonathan Pinkerton)
Those expletive snakes on a plane finally made their arrival in theaters, but all the hissing surrounding the $30 million foulmouthed horror comedy didn’t quite translate into box-office gold.
Despite debuting at No. 1, “Snakes on a Plane” didn’t sink its fangs as far into the marketplace as many pundits and executives had expected.
“I think the underperformance of ‘Snakes on a Plane’ is one of the big box-office mysteries of 2006,” says Gitesh Pandya, the editor of boxofficeguru.com.
Did the fear of snakes stop people from seeing Samuel L. Jackson save the day?
Turns out that being scared of snakes is the most common fear, according to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive. In a survey of 1,015 adults, 63 percent answered that they were “very” or “somewhat afraid” of the slithering creatures.
“Why would they want to see this movie?” asks Ray Erickson, a licensed clinical social worker from Sacramento. “Being afraid of snakes is a legitimate phobia, and people avoid encounters of their fears.” Erickson believes that the fear may be developed through “socialization conditioning” acquired during childhood.
“If mother is afraid, then it must be really scary,” he says. “(The fear) may trail off in adulthood and if it doesn’t, it may be biological.”
Sheri Pruitt, who is the director of Behavioral Science Integration for Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento and Roseville, thinks that people have an innate fear of snakes.
“People who have never had a traumatic experience may be afraid of them,” Pruitt says. “I think if someone were to see a snake, they would respond with an ‘I’m afraid’ reaction.”
Over at Pet Connection in Sacramento, that’s a common response to the store’s yellow anaconda and Burmese pythons.
“Most of the time, customers see them, jump back and go around another way to avoid them,” worker Brian Steele says. “The worst case was someone running, screaming out the store.”
It doesn’t really help that Pet Connection’s snakes are right near the cute puppies.
But if the thought of snakes just creeps you out, don’t whip out the phobia card just yet. There is a fine line between being scared and suffering from ophidiophobia, the scientific term for fear of snakes.
Pruitt says that even though people become afraid, their fear is not diagnosed as a phobia until the fear prevents someone from completing daily routines.
“People will develop a fear of a particular object, then the person avoids that object,” she says. “They keep avoiding it because they think something terrible might happen. The bigger it becomes, the more you avoid it.”
People who suffer from ophidiophobia will avoid all areas where a snake could pop up, such as their backyards, garden areas or even The Sacramento Bee because of this story.
Sorry.
Helpguide.org, a noncommercial Web site that posts articles on mental health and aging, says that just the thought of snakes could cause someone suffering from the phobia to sweat, get dizzy, shake or feel nauseated.
Pruitt, who has worked with patients who have suffered from ophidiophobia, offers a simple technique that helps conquer the fear of snakes.
The treatment is pretty simple. Treatment can be done through imagery or your imagination.
“You just help the person set up a hierarchy of fears.”
For example, if someone is afraid of snakes, chances are the No. 1 fear would be of touching one. A therapist might ask a client to touch a picture of a snake instead. At the same time, the client might use relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and meditation. This helps to condition the body to be relaxed while the person is interacting with what used to scare him.
But don’t become frustrated if it doesn’t work right away.
“It won’t take a year of psychotherapy for someone to overcome this fear,” Pruitt says. “It can be quick, or it can last from eight to 10 weeks. It all depends on the person.”
In 1997, moviegoers put aside their fears and flocked to theaters to see Jennifer Lopez barely escape a giant “Anaconda.” That film was deemed a success and spawned a sequel.
So what about future snakes on future planes?
“Nobody will really know until we poll a few thousand people from all parts of the country,” Pandya says.
On list of phobias, snakes tip the scales