I am honestly a person who doesn't get scared easily. But as soon as i see one of those horirble, big mosquitoes i absolutely freak out, either scream and run away and have my elgs tremble for half an hour afterwards or i'm sumply paralized and start having cold sweat trickling down my back and tears run down my face.
i DO NOT udnerstand my reactions. Help?
2006-09-20 02:41:23 · 13 answers · asked by Off-with-their-heads! 2 in Health ➔ Mental Health
Daddy long legs are not mosquitoes. They are harmless. They do not fly and they do not bite. They spend their lives running along eating other insects and pieces of leaves. .
2006-09-20 02:43:29 · answer #1 · answered by Rich Z 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Ok, firstly, just to set you straight, daddy longlegs are completely harmless, they cannot bite, and they can only ingest liquid which they suck up. However, this information is probably not that important to you. What is important, is that you have a phobia which is causing you a great deal of distress. All the symptoms you describe point to a phobia, which is an irrational fear. Fear is a survival instinct, but when you have a reaction as severe as this to a harmless stimulus such as daddy long legs, it probably means that something frightening has happened to you at some point, and for some reason, possible a totally irrational reason, you have associated this fear with daddy long legs. There are a number of ways which you can get over this, and believe me, you can - I used to have a terrible phobia of wasps with similar reactions to the ones you have - and tried a number of different treatments. Your doctor can refer you to a psychoanalyst, who can help you through a process called desensitisation, when you are gradually exposed more and more to the daddly long legs until you are no longer afraid. You might start by just looking are pictures, and over the weeks or months, end up being able to catch one in your hands - this may sound impossible now, but this does work for some people. Another option is hypnotherapy, this is what worked with me, the hypnotherapist uses several techniques to help you, inlcuding suggestion therapy, and visualistion techniques. Some people are very sceptical about hypnotherapy, but it worked for me - I had 5 sessions with a hypnotherapist, and am now able to stay pretty calm even if wasps actually land on me. I would strongly recommend hypnotherapy, it changed my life. I sympathise with you, a phobia is awful to live with, but believe me, you can get over it, for good. Best of luck!
2006-09-20 16:34:42 · answer #2 · answered by Outsider 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sorry, can't help beyond giving you some of my experiences.
Since i had my daughter i have learnt that i have issues with balloons, or them popping to be more precise. I had to blow one up for her at an open day at the local fire station. It took all i had to get it to an acceptable size whist i kept watching the other ballons and convinced myself that it was not big enough to pop yet. But eventually it all got to much and the tears were welling up and my heart was going like mad and i knew there WAS gonna be a panick attack. So i stopped. And she had a smallish balloon but she was happy.
Maybe you had a bad experience with mosquitos and daddy long legs when you was a kid? Maybe one of your parents is like that and you just react more strongly because then you would have been conditioned to be terrified of them. Whatever the reason, it is somewhere in you early years you will probably need to look for the answer to your question. Be lucky 'n' take care
2006-09-20 10:43:26 · answer #3 · answered by Part Time Cynic 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think you know what daddy long legs are as well as mosquitoes..I think you know they wont hurt you. For a start daddy long legs havent got long enough fangs to penetrate the human skin...they are also the best fly catchers around...so they are actually quite helpful in a home.
When you have a fear that is really ungrounded....eg, when you know what you are frightened of wont hurt you, then you have a phobia. Phobia's can be terrible and debilitating things, and words of advice on here probably wont help a lot.
You need some professional help in getting rid of your phobia....I am no expert, but you sound like you may have aracnaphobia. All phobias can be treated successfully, but you really do need to go and talk to a professional counsellor about this.
Youre not crazy...lots of people have phobia's. A person who is afraid of small spaces have clostrophobia, their fear is real even though they know small spaces will not hurt them. This is the same as you...your phobia may be different but your fear is the same. Go get some help, you will be pleased you did.
2006-09-20 10:44:34 · answer #4 · answered by rightio 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Daddy long legs are a type of spider. Although the text books say they can bite, they usually don't.
What you are referring to are known in my neck of the woods as skeeters. These are mosquitoes whose larvae eat the larvae of other (blood sucking) mosquitoes. The adult skeeters only ever drink water and nectar from plants and flowers. THEY ARE NOT BLOOD SUCKERS!
If you want to be scared about something, at least educate yourself about them. Below is a link from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxorhynchites
2006-09-20 10:01:47 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Im terrified of them, My reaction is screaming and running out of the room, breathing heay... but then again im scared of butterflies, and moths, anything that flies really.. its not the fact that its going to sting, its something else... they fly around and you dont know where they are going next... horrible things.. daddy long legs are the worst.. loads of them in the summer in my house... (I live in Spain)
2006-09-20 10:39:48 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am in the same boat, I used to be ok with these kind of things, although not quite so drastic reactions as yours. but I seem to get more afraid of these things the less I see of them (a butterfly chased me out of the house once!)
Just take a deep breath and maybe arm yourself with a newspaper!
2006-09-20 09:45:21 · answer #7 · answered by curiosity 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
what the spider ones or the may fly ones its ok theyre both not mosquito`s
2006-09-22 18:05:50 · answer #8 · answered by keny 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Rich Z, they do fly! They are harmless though, very annoying, but harmless, but then again so are spiders and I'm petrified of them!!!!
2006-09-20 09:50:21 · answer #9 · answered by Canary Yellow 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do the same thing.. If I ever figure out why I do it I will let you know.
2006-09-20 18:14:15 · answer #10 · answered by ModelToBe 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋