You’re scared of what?

Anyone who had a serious childhood phobia will tell you how much it affected their lives growing up.

I was a child who had a terrible fear of dogs. An absolute refuse to get out of the car, avoid people who had them, cross the street to get away from them fear. Sheer terror came over me whenever I was even close to a dog.

Now for all you animal lovers out there please know – this was not something I chose. I never wanted to be afraid of dogs. I wanted to be able to play with them like everyone else, but something physically stopped me from being able to. Whenever a dog was nearby I could tell, my heart rate increased, my breathing became laboured, I started to panic.

I would actively avoid places and people with dogs. Unless I was confident the owner would put their dog outside/away I couldn’t get out of the car to visit people (and this was from way before I can actually remember according to my parents)

And believe me I have heard it all:

“Oh my dog won’t hurt you” – I’m sure this is the case but I actually have a phobia so no reasonable explanation will help me now. Your assurances are not convincing me. Plus I’m not actually scared of your dog hurting me at all, I’m scared it will jump on me, wag it’s tail, be happy to see me and be generally uncontrollable.

“My dog is very friendly” – yes he looks quite the playful pup – I would love nothing more than to cuddle that gorgeous face but I’ll start hyperventilating before he can get anywhere near me

“She’s just a puppy” – yep I can see that – even though he looks a similar size to a small horse, there is a certain youthful look in his eyes (I can definitely see that through the car door)

“You are being hysterical” yes I am.

I now know that my phobia of dogs was plain old anxiety. An anxiety that for some reason manifested itself around man’s best friend. I’m not sure if it’s because I couldn’t predict a dogs next move or if it was something more primal.

People really do not understand a phobia of dogs (or Cynophobia for those who are interested). Dogs are cool! They love you unconditionally, they will cuddle you and protect you but when you are a 5 year old girl crying because a dog sniffed your hand it’s baffling. As a teenager/ young adult it was easier to lie and say I was allergic to dogs – now people CAN understand allergies!

Now I’m a fully fledged adult who has worked through my anxiety issues (which started showing up in other places in my life) I’m MUCH better with dogs. I must say I can be wary of them but I have learnt to enter people’s houses with dogs. I do not cross the road to avoid them and I even play with my close friends dogs when I visit .

I now explain to people my phobia, I tell them it is uncontrollable. I am honest about why I’m not able to be a normal person around dogs (I still need time to warm up to them). I tell them that there are times when I cannot relax around dogs. Then I say “but I can kill a spider” now THAT is something they do understand!!