How about a legless lizard? They are funny because people mistake them for snakes all the time, even though their heads look very different than snakes (to me).
Good luck. By coincidence my daughter is just starting on that this week. Half a pill a day (the chewable kind) then a full pill next week.
How is it not going well? No change, or bad side effect? At the moment nothing has changed for my daughter, but we shouldn’t expect any difference for a while so no surprise there.
Sorry, too snakey for my comfort. Never said the phobia was rational.
Her’s is the short acting version. When it’s in her system, she does seem to have better focus. It’s honestly not that marked a change though. And, when it wears off, all her sensory seeking behaviors, her hyper-ness, it’s all dialed up to 11. She gets destructive sometimes and it’s really frustrating to be constantly after her to make sure she mouthing things she shouldn’t or opening containers or eating raw rice. She also has autism so I don’t know which is impacting what.
I knew I shouldn’t expect magic but I think we can definitively say that this is NOT working for her.
Evidently it’s supposed to taste like sour ranch dressing that started going bad a couple days ago. It succeeds well at that.
I’ve told this tale before:
About 15+ years back, I left early to go to work. Went from the house to the garage (attached), got in my car, opened the garage door, backed out, closed the garage door, and went on my way.
An hour or so later my husband called me at work and said that the nanny had phoned him - from the street in front of the house - saying that when SHE opened the garage door, a SNAKE had slithered out of the garage.
He ran outside and saw it disappear into the bushes near the front of the house, which meant the nanny could drive into the garage, and get into the house safely.
A few phone calls to various services, and it would have cost 300+ bucks to get someone to even LOOK for the snake. I declared “for 300 bucks, I’LL deal with the damn thing!”.
Well the snake was never seen again (and thus, required no “dealing with”). And per photos online, my husband determined it was, indeed, a harmless rat snake (interestingly, we had just gotten a guinea pig the night before; I joked that it had heard there was a new food source inside).
I am not especially afraid of snakes. I have held them on a number of occasions. But I guaran-damn-tee you, if that thing had shown up in the dimly lit garage when I went out to go to work, you ALL would have heard me scream, and the only reason I would not still be clinging to the rafters is because I’d have DEMANDED that the house be burned down IMMEDIATELY.
I’m pretty much that scared of snakes, as well. I can’t watch film or video of snakes or look at pictures of snakes. I once saw a guy on the subway platform enter a train with a pet boa. He was at the other end of the train, a full city block away. I got off the train after one stop and waited for the next one, even though snake guy was 9 cars away I was freaking out at the thought that he might walk through the train.
I know it’s irrational, but I’m allowed to have one irrational fear. I freaked out a little when I scrolled by @kayaker’s photo upthread of the little snake thing that wasn’t a snake.
My mother claims my grandmother was worse, that she couldn’t even look at the word “snake” without freaking out.
I am phobic of rodents. Mice, rats, ferrets etc. So many people tell me “but it is so CUTE!” Get it the hell away from me. I wont even go into a home where they keep rodents cause it might escape and tough me. Not to mention a lot of owners cant understand that someone is phobic and want to show off their pet.
To quote Launchpad McQuack “Wait. That’s that other guy. Actually, I kinda like snakes.”
I don’t mock phobias. I have a couple of them based on traumas I’ve experienced. My grandparents were nearly murdered when I was a kid (their throats were slashed by a guy high on cocaine) and they spent recovery in my house afterward, with seeping bandages over their throats. I have a weird form of hemophobia from that; bleeding doesn’t usually bother me, I don’t “faint at the sight of blood”, but any discussions of the circulatory system can. I can literally go into shock just thinking about it. I don’t do well in hospitals sometimes because of that, and giving blood is a huge problem for me. It’s weird and irrational but I actually go into medical distress from a freaking phobia. Actual shock; clammy skin, pale as a ghost, cold sweats, and I start seeing spots and can get tunnel vision before passing out. One time giving blood I had a nurse freak out and she thought my life was in danger.
Also, I almost drowned once when swimming in a lake and getting caught in underwater plants, and can’t immerse myself in cold water without having a panic attack (and I haven’t gone swimming since, it has been almost 25 years).
So, I don’t mock my wife or anyone else who is freaked out by things I think are no big deal to me, because I get freaked out by things most people would shrug at.
You are a sensible person and that post is very well put.
Something I have noticed in recent months as I make my daily journey within the facilities of the YMCA…
Nobody under the age of 25 holds the door open for me. Healthy teenage or twentysomething guys walk in front of me to get to the gym door, open it, and just walk on in without any hint that they are aware there is another human being two feet behind them. And it’s certainly not going to change.
The exception: Children. They always hold doors, and I always thank them and thank their moms for teaching them well.
Even as an annoying teen, I would hold the door for other people–it was the way things were done.
There are five stages of kidney disease. For many years, I’ve had stage 3. I just found out, from a recent blood test, that I’m now in stage 4. The next stage necessitates dialysis or a transplant. This is so depressing, I feel so close to death.
(((((panache45)))))
That is not a mini-rant. I’m sorry to hear that.
I’m an adult and I should be able to feed myself, and yet here I am, eating a Moon Pie for dinner.
Sounds to me like you are feeding yourself just fine!
I was gonna say, being an adult means you get to make your own decisions what to eat.
You decided to eat a Moon Pie.
@JaneDoe42, yes! I also had an apple and cheese, so I think that’s a complete meal. 
I didn’t eat ice cream for dinner. Mostly because I don’t have any ice cream.
You need to save the ice cream for breakfast anyhow. Get the good stuff with real cream and fruit.
Doesn’t that sound like a healthy breakfast already? If you have it with a chocolate chip cookie you have grains and vegetables as well. Now you have a perfectly balanced meal that will start your day off happy.