I'm terrified of slugs and it's affecting my life negatively. I can step over the things when I see them outside, which is more than I could do several years ago, but I've recently been having bad nightmares about them getting on me. Trying to look up info on either how to keep them away or how to overcome a fear of them always brings up giant pictures of the disgusting things and upsets me all day. Anyone know how to deal with this problem?
I know, but I can't fill up my bedroom with salt to fend off imaginary gross things. I'd rather ease my fear to the point that I'm not having nightmares and intrusive thoughts about them. Besides, I'm hesitant to kill things :( I hate them but they're still living beings.
Sometimes learning about frightening animals helps people. The documentary Life In The Undergrowth by David Attenborough is soothing and informative, and starts off with a closeup of a snail. The whole first episode is about land-dwelling invertibrates, starting off with the ones that most need water to survive, which would definitely include snails and slugs. It might be a good way of easing into thinking about slugs? Here's a link to the first part
See, snails are kind of ugly-cute to me. I still don't want to touch one, but I'm not actually having nightmares about them. I don't know why there's such a big difference. They just have a crunchy bit on top. Maybe because if I had to touch one I could pick it up by the shell? The main problem I have is the idea of touching one, especially one getting on my face or mouth. I've heard people complain about them getting inside older houses (my flat's a new building and pretty airtight so rationally speaking I'm safe there, but it means I don't want to leave the windows open at night even though it's really hot) but the threads I found about that didn't really say anything about how to prevent that, and I've had intrusive thoughts about them being on my food.
Snails and slugs are more or less the the same animals, many snail/slug lineages have evolved and lost and evolved again shells. A lot of slugs have tiny little shells inside of them, and there are some "semislugs" which have shells of various size that they can't retreat into. If it helps you can think of slugs as just naked snails? As for keeping them out, keeping the inside of your house dry would probably help? Slugs are in constant danger of drying out, even moreso than snails since they don't have shells to retain moisture. I doubt they'd enter a dry house on purpose.
Not sure it helps, it's the nakedness part that's the problem. There is no point on a slug at which I can just pick it up and move it without having to touch the gross part. Though weirdly enough I don't care so much about leeches, which are actually harmful; probably because they only live in water, and also their skin texture is sort of different, and "leech" is a bit less of a gross word. I've always had this thing where the sound of certain words is either pleasant or unpleasant, is that an autism thing? My flat does have a bit of a humidity problem, but I have a dehumidifier and some dessicant bags in the cupboards. Keeping the windows open in the daytime isn't a problem for me and that's helped too. Also my kitchen doesn't have a door to the outside, the flat's only got one entrance and one has to go through a big common area to get to it, so I know there is no logical way they could get into my food. Even if by astronomical chance one did get in through the window they move super slowly and I go into the kitchen enough times per day I'd see it before it got anywhere. Still, just the thought... eeuurgh.
I don't have any real advice, sorry. Only animal facts. I know learning about animals sometimes helps people get over the revulsion, or at least get a bit desensitized to it, so I recommend that documentary. Regardless I hope something helps, that nightmares and anxiety sounds miserable :( Spoiler: More slug info in a spoiler in case you're sick of it Yeah, slugs are very slimy. They don't have a shell to keep water in, so they have to constantly coat themselves in mucus to stay alive.
the best treatment for any phobia is systematic desensitization but you usually should work with a therapist for that
It's got slightly better in some ways and worse in others over time. As a preteen I would have to skip over whole pages of a book which had the word "slug" on them, and wasn't even comfortable with the word being used in the sense of "bullet". The nightmares have been an occasional thing forever but recently it's got pretty bad. Maybe I should try desensitising myself with sea slugs? Those still give me a little bit of a shiver but they're not nearly as bad.
Does anyone who's been camping know if they'll go on you when you sleep outside and how to prevent them from doing so? I used to get pretty depressed about epic adventure fantasies like Lord of the Rings because I couldn't go with the heroes if I couldn't sleep outside (yes, I know there are far more obvious hindrances there).
they won’t willingly crawl on skin in my experience. they like to be on the ground where it’s damp. they won’t crawl up over things left on the ground like arthropods will
That's nice to know. Watched a giant sea hare video; those are gross and I don't want to touch them either, but they're not terrifying because they only live in the ocean and their skin texture isn't the same. I think it's almost entirely the look of the skin which gets me. I was squicked almost as badly by the loving attention to detail on the snail people's skin in Junji Ito's Uzumaki.
Hmmm, the only nightmare-phobia I had was circular saws... I'm afraid of spiders and got worn out about it by staring at them. (It helped that the ones inside of the house were mostly cute, and the ones outside were huge and never got in.) I wouldn't touch a slug or a spider with bare hands. Maybe you could poke at slugs with a stick or a leaf to try and figure out how to move them without touching them? http://www.kosherimage.com/bugchecker.html
Watched a couple snail vids for desensitisation purposes. They're sort of cute in a gross way and now I'm sad that I ever accidentally stepped on any so it backfired somewhat :(
I can sort out the intrusive thoughts by turning the mental images of slugs into snails. Somehow takes it down from "OMGWTF I'M GOING TO DIE" to "eww, oh well". I really don't understand why it makes such a huge difference! But it's working for now. Sometimes I can consciously adjust my dreams, so I'll attempt to do that too. My mum theorises that the fear of slugs is possibly connected to them being cold and slimy in a way similar to decomposing material, which would obviously be dangerous to eat or handle, or possibly just by being so different from mammals in the same way people are freaked out by lizards and snakes. Also they eat faeces and rotting stuff and carry lungworm, so they actually are pretty risky to mess with; my nan's dog likes to play with the things so she has to be very up-to-date on her worming. Not so much that being near one would actually harm me, though.
Maybe I should try desensitisation with cartoon slugs? Even those are kind of creepy to me but not really awful.
Slugs and snails are not actually as slimy to handle as you might imagine; although they do produce a decent amount of mucus on their foot, which acts as both lubricant and glue, it doesn't really register as cold, possibly because it transfers heat well. Snail slime is pretty good for your skin; it's high in hyaluronic acid and can stimulate cell production. Learning more about a creature can really open your eyes to their beauty; finding cute pics also helps.
Maybe just the association with decay and grossness then. I don't think there's such a thing as a cute pic of a garden slug, but pics of sea slugs help. Those can be quite pretty.
