Sometimes I take "my" soy latte and turn on the TV for that time for a respite from it all. Today I couldn't take my eyes off of Maury's program on phobias.
You won't believe what some of them were. Yes, there were phobias about creepy things, frogs, and mice but unbelievably - there were food phobias - fear of peaches, pickles,and mustard.
When the pictures of each person's phobia came on, they screamed hysterically and tried to get out of the studio. All were women except for a man who had a peach phobia. I missed his segment and don't recall if he went "bananas" at
the sight of them on the screen.
One woman had a phobia re birds after she saw Hitchcock's movie "The Birds." She almost got hit by a semi-tractor trailer in trying to avoid one. The woman who remembered being bitten by a spider when she was two had a spider phobia. The woman who had a mustard phobia had a prank played on her when she worked for Burger King
and someone sprayed her with mustard.
I can't remember why one woman who is a waitress has a pickle phobia. Maury asked her what she would do if a customer asked her for a pickle. She said she would tell them they have none.
Gary Coxe who works with phobic people said he could help them all and sure enough before the program was over, the lady who feared birds had a darling parrot on her shoulder; the man who was afraid of peaches held a tray of them and ate one saying they weren't half bad; the woman fearful of creepy things held a terranium which
contained some of them, the woman who was afraid of pickles was given a tray of them and ate a couple of slices; the woman who had been sprayed with mustard held a platter of it - taking a lick saying she didn't like the taste but indicated it no longer sent her up a wall; and the woman who was afraid of spiders held a tarantula no less.
I and the audience were amazed at the transformation of these hitherto irrational
and frightened people when it came to their phobias. Gary Coxe presented the last
patient with a mouse replica. He said that was as far as he could go with her phobia
because he needed more time but still holding a fake mouse was a huge step in itself.
I think that what he does for these poor people trapped with phobias which make them lose their composure and run from these basically everyday external influences is to be congratulated. He has a website if any one of you are interested in helping yourselves or others who have crippling phobias.
I wish that my former male renter saw this program. Big as he was, he was deathly
afraid of spiders. After reading Charlotte's Web, if I ever entertained any fear of them,
it disappeared after seeing the movie version of this classic story.