ROANOKE TIMES (Virginia) 17 December 04 Ex-ophidiophobic says she's 100% cured - If Linda Schmick sees a snake on the road, she doesn't lose control of her car. (Mike Allen)
Linda Schmick is still no friend to snakes. She'll never pick one up, and if one gets in her house, she'll tell her husband to kill it.
But if she sees a snake on television, she doesn't panic. If she happens across a picture of a snake in a magazine, she won't throw the magazine across the room. If she sees a snake on the road, she doesn't lose control of her car.
"Listen, I'm completely cured," she said. "Summer was wonderful. I could go out in the yard."
Schmick, 62, had suffered most of her life from a severe case of ophidiophobia, an overwhelming fear of snakes. At the end of 2003, she took part in an experiment conducted by an assistant psychology professor at Ferrum College. The goal was to help Schmick overcome her phobia through a confidence-building technique called guided mastery.
In three two-hour therapy sessions, professor Kevin Reilly supervised Schmick as she confronted her fear head-on. At the start, even looking at a picture of a snake made her recoil. Yet gradually she worked her way up to touching the pictures, then looking at a rubber snake, then touching one.
Each time she completed one task, Reilly encouraged her to advance a small step further. Finally, she touched a pillowcase containing a live snake. When the third session ended, she was able to fill out her paperwork with a real red-orange corn snake in plain sight nearby - but she had no wish to pick it up.
Schmick's husband, Al, confirms his wife's cure. "For us, it has truly been a miracle," he said.
Schmick claims her phobia was the most extreme in the study, but Reilly says differently. Of about 20 people who participated in the experiment, Schmick's phobia was one of the worst, but another woman who signed up was unable to get past the first tasks, he said.
"She tried her best," Reilly said. "There's no treatment that has perfect success."
All of the other participants improved, some to the point where they didn't mind draping a snake around their neck, he said.
Often, when there's no follow-up treatment, people with phobias can backslide. "Basically, Linda built confidence, and I'm glad to hear it maintained, because that's not always the case," Reilly said.
Reilly, who in the past has worked with agoraphobics - people afraid of open spaces - is contemplating working with another Ferrum professor in a study of separation anxiety, "which seems to be kind of a growing problem in our culture."
Anecdotally, it appears that more children are experiencing excessive anxiety over leaving home or being separated from their parents, he said.
Ex-ophidiophobic says she's 100% cured