Paralysed by fear

[Shannow]

Seen it in the workplace, when someone can literally not take action, but never seen the true, literal paralysed with fear until today.

Walking home from lunch today hand in hand, through the middle of town, crossing a rail bridge, when I spied a tiger snake sunning itself of the kerb, about 6 feet away.

It had noticed us, and was basically watch to see if we'd noticed it, wasn't burred up and looking aggressive, just alert to our presence, and facing generally away, with a glance every so often.

Said to my partner..."watch out for the snake, we'll go around it"...and she froze, literally.

When the snake moved off into the bushes, better half's hands went into cold sweat mode.

 

[JavierG]

Yikes! My hands got sweaty just reading your post. Glad neither of you got hurt.

 

[tinmanSC]

When I was younger something like this happened to me, a situation where I wanted to yell out or move, but I could not. I was pretty young, maybe 9 or so. My father was walking around the corner, my sister was walking about the same corner, in the opposite direction, so they were about to run into each other. No big deal, until I saw that my sister was holding a knife from the table, and it was pointed in front of her, in that moment I was sure that my dad was about to get stabbed. I tried to yell STOP! but nothing came out and I could not move toward them to stop them. It was as if my body was no longer under my control. I was commanding my muscles to move, but nothing was happening. they noticed each other with less than a second to spare, and nothing bad happened. after that, my body returned to normal and I could move again and speak.

I can completely understand your partners reaction. It's very frustrating to think that you could see something dangerous and not be able to move or communicate. It wasn't until a few days after that incident that it really started to bother me. I kept wondering if I were in the situation again, could something bad happen because I didn't act? Don't be surprised if your partner starts to think this too. But most of all, be glad you are both ok!

 

[zloveraz]

WOW that must have been alarming to say the least!

Given how dangerous the Tiger snake is, I can't believe that they are a protected species! Glad you and your better half are safe!

I run across Rattlesnakes here in Arizona at least one to two times during the summer months when I venture into the desert riding my ATV's, I always have my gun ready but never had to use it yet. We (snake and I) are so frightened of each other we typically both back off and leave in opposite directions...

 

[Shannow]

tinmanSC, we were discussing it on the way home, and she described a similar incident when she was 10 or so, and froze in front of a truck bearing down on her...her brother pushed her out of the way.

Funny, my pulse didn't speed up at all. The situation didn't trigger anything, while I was worried that she was going to faint, cold clammy, racing heart etc...much like I go when I find a funnel web. Except my "run away" senses kick in with those, and it's a real effort to re-engage and squish it.

Wasn't really much danger, it was only a young snake, 18-20" long, and not filled out yet, and we both had long pants (Volleys maybe not the best snake shoes)...and like I said, it was aware of us...it just wanted to get away.

 

[Silk]

There are reasons why my Irish forebears came to New Zealand.

 

[dparm]

Fight or flight response right there. People who aren't conditioned or used to it often freeze -- it takes some "training" to learn how to harness that rush of adrenaline.

 

[crazyoildude]

o live in nj and our snake problem is not so bad here but i dont look for them either