In this planet, animals rule

This show is the first of its kind actually illustrating everyday people who are terrified of animals, insects, mammals, and so much so that it’s running their lives,” says Dr. Robin Zasio, host of Animal Planet’s new series My Extreme Animal Phobia. She was a guest recently in a phone patch interview. My Extreme Animal Phobia is about people with unusual phobias that are disrupting their lives. “When I was contacted to do this show it was a real thrill for me because it’s one of its kind and the outpouring that we’ve received from the show has absolutely been amazing. I get e-mail from people saying things like I’ve been suffering my whole life or something happened to where I became afraid of animal or an insect and I’m afraid to go outside or I now work at home or my family is being affected.”

My Extreme Animal Phobia premiered on Animal Planet last Feb. 7.

The show is quite interesting. I was able to watch a few clips from some of the cases that Dr. Robin dealt with and I was a bit taken aback about how some people can really fear certain animals — Like spiders and rodents.

I grew up with all sorts of animals; insects, rodents, creepy crawlers and I have never really feared any of them. Sure, sometimes these crawlers can gross me out or I can run away from a flying giant cockroach, but to fear them such that I am unable to see them or be in the same room as them, that fear is unfamiliar to me.

Watching My Extreme Animal Phobia opened my eyes and mind to just how deeply a person’s fear of an animal can control their lives. But, what makes the show interesting is how Dr. Robin helps people deal with their fears.

“The treatment process is called exposure therapy,” she shares. “There are a lot of estimates out there that people that have these types of phobias ranges anywhere from 3 percent to 28 percent of the population.”

I asked of Dr. Robin if it was possible to cure animal phobia.

“I don’t want to say yes all animal phobias can be cured because the treatment is very successful,” she says. “The treatment for phobias is exposure therapy. By going into that situation repeatedly, the brain stops sending that fear signal because it’s become desensitized to that environment.”

“How can a phobia be completely cured?” we ask.

“I think it’s a catch-22, because somebody has to be very motivated to do the therapy,” she adds. “I think it’s more dependent on two factors. One is you have to really be able to read your client and know how far to push them at any given moment. And two, if they’re motivated and they really want to overcome it, then as long as you have an expert therapist who knows how to do the treatment, they can be cured.”

Dr. Robin explains that it’s interesting because the responses that she has gotten from some viewers of the show is that that they’ve used the exposure techniques that they see on My Extreme Animal Phobia to actually confront other fears.

“I think the more people watch and the more they understand the treatment, they can find ways to overcome their own fears,” she adds. “But certainly there are some people who are terrified of the animals, who are either not ready to view their feared animal, or they’re so scared of it that they can’t even watch it.”

“Is there a simple home remedy for animal phobia?” we probe further.

“Yes, I think it’s very important to remember and to be really, really clear that the treatment, literally the treatment for animal phobia, is the exposure therapy and the desensitization,” she emphasizes. “A lot of people are doing the therapy in their home, in terms of if they come to see me, then I give them homework assignments that they go back and do in their home as we mentioned earlier; pictures or words and pictures and videos and sounds and so forth. It’s just that it’s very hard for people to do and they have to have a really high level of motivation to be able to do it.”

You can catch Dr. Zasio in My Extreme Animal Phobia on Animal Planet every Tuesday at 11 p.m. and every Saturday at 4 p.m.