BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – SHANICE peered out of her door before exiting; her fear of grasshoppers had become so extreme and obsessive that she has to make sure “the coast was clear” each time before leaving her house.
“I think they are out to get me! Why do they have to fly across my home every time I get outside? They are so terrifying…I just don’t want them to get me,” she said.
Shanice said she remembers the first time she was aware of grasshoppers as a child and that they were prevalent within proximity of her primary school.
She said during her high school years they were not much of a bother to her as she hardly used to see them, and so the notion of out of mind out of sight came into play.
But now, during her late 20s she said things have become worse.
“I see them everywhere. Sometimes when I’m walking past buildings I would see them on a wall. The brown ones scare me the most! I would see green grasshoppers and even though I’m scared of them they don’t look as violent as the brown ones.
“I just don’t want them to jump on me. I do not like the way they flap their wings, and at times, if I know they are outside my house, it would take a long time before I leave home.”
Some of Shanice’s close friends do not understand her fear. In fact, they would laugh at her if she tells them about her experience or if they happen to witness her fear.
“My ex-boyfriend was the best. If a grasshopper happened to fly in my home I would safeguard myself in another room and call him. Most of the times he would come right away and save me,” she said.
Surprisingly, a man revealed that he was afraid of the house gecko, locally called ‘woodslaves’.
He, too, said that if he saw one in his room he would venture to another room to sleep.
“I’m really afraid of those things,” he said.
The fear experienced by people with phobias can be so great that some individuals go to extreme lengths to avoid the source of their fear.
Michele Delacoudray-Blake, Director of Counseling at the Ministry of Social Development, said that a Phobia is an unreasonable fear that may not have a recognised cause.
“There’s no apparent reason why they should have a fear of it. That’s why it is called phobia…it’s a response to an apparent threat that really isn’t there.
“People have normal fears and some people have little irrational fears, but phobias are when it affects your life where you can’t do something or you wouldn’t do something because of what you think is going to happen. It builds up in you so much that you can’t carry on normal functioning,” she said.
Blake said an example of a phobia is when a person would have a fear of heights and is offered a job on the fifth floor of a building, but because of that fear they would turn down the job.
She said depending on how extreme the phobia is that persons could seek counselling while some could gradually deal with.
Blake noted that for someone like Shanice, her phobia would fall under the category of an animal phobia. Her fear affects her life to the point where it affects her leaving the house.
She said that counselling could be applied in some cases, depending on how extreme the phobia is, while some persons could gradually face their fear.
“Like if someone is afraid of grasshoppers, they could start off by looking at pictures of grasshoppers, and they can have someone who isn’t so afraid of grasshoppers hold one or have one in a jar a little distance from them, where they can look at it and see how it looks.
“They can try relaxation techniques when they are thinking about them; encourage themselves that it’s just a grasshopper that it wouldn’t hurt you and you work yourself up to it,” she said.
Jovon Garvey said that her 16-year-old brother has an unusual fear.
“My brother has a fear of grass. I don’t know why,” she said. “He has been this way since he was a child and he refuses to go outside when the grass is being cut.
Sometimes we would chase him around with grass just for fun.”
Blake said that Garvey’s brother could seek counselling to deal with his fear.
“That’s definitely a phobia. It’s unusual and it’s something that is not typical, and it is something that would obvious affect his life, being afraid of grass,” she said.
