Fear of Sharks, Galeophobia : My Extreme Animal Phobia : Animal Planet

FEAR OF SHARKS, aka Galeophobia

By Shanna Freeman, HowStuffWorks.com

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

The main theme for the 1975 blockbuster film Jaws is just an alternating pattern between the notes E and F, but just hearing this simple piece of music is enough to conjure images of the iconic great white shark that terrorizes swimmers at a resort. The Jaws films made a lot of people assume that great whites are bloodthirsty and want to snack on humans whenever they get the chance. Never mind the fact that great whites (along with all other sharks) would much rather eat something easier to catch and digest, or that according to the International Shark Attack File, a person's chance of being attacked by a shark at all is 1 in 11.5 million. Peter Benchley, who wrote the novel Jaws upon which the films were based, tried to change people's minds about these carnivorous fish, but it was mostly too little too late.

Off Their Feed

Although sharks don't want to eat you, you still shouldn't try to make friends with them. Large species are used to dominating their environment and have no fear of you — they're just curious, and the only way to find out whether you're prey or not is to give you an "exploratory bite." Unfortunately, that bite can be enough to seriously maim or kill if the shark doing the biting is a great white or another large shark like the tiger. It's a rare enough occurrence, though, that there's no reason to avoid going into the ocean just because you know that sharks inhabit it (unless there have been lots of shark sightings recently). Yet people with galeophobia do that very thing and more — the fear of sharks is so intense that they may need to avoid any mention of them whatsoever or risk a panic attack.

Wisdom From Dr. Zasio: Trust the Process

People with animal phobias are "really fun to work with because they're so straightforward. When I was filming the show, the thing that came up the most was 'Trust the process. I know right now you can't see how this is all going to pan out, but just trust the process.' Obviously when we're dealing with fear, you have to have a really good rapport with your patient because they are really trusting you that if you're going to bring them in contact with their feared animal, nothing bad is going to happen."

more animal phobias »

CONTENT

FEAR OF SHARKS, aka Galeophobia

TV Schedule

Shop Animal Planet