MetaChat - Why do bunnies cause debilitating fear in some people?

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21 July 2010

Why do bunnies cause debilitating fear in some people?

post by: BoringPostcards at: 21:04 | 22 comments

real talk anytime I see a bunny on here I run away screaming "do it to julia!"

posted by Firas 21 July | 21:08

I would say it's just because bunnies are so bad-ass, but y'know, I guess there could be other reasons.

posted by BoringPostcards 21 July | 21:10

I blame Looney Tunes. Bugs was one formiable SOB. If you ever got on his bad side, "of course you realize, this means war", and you're dead in under 7 minutes.

posted by oneswellfoop 21 July | 21:20

Show me a thing, and I'll show you a person with an irrational fear of it. There ought to be one of those laws, like Murphy or Moore or whoever.

posted by box 21 July | 21:26

Run away! Run away!

posted by octothorpe 21 July | 21:47

I don't have a phobia of rabbits, but I'm not terribly keen about encountering them in indoor situations. I've got a family of them that live underneath the back deck, and I enjoy watching them graze around the overgrown rentention pond on the other side of the fence and Coya likes chasing them (with no intent of catching one or even a clue as to what she would do if she did), but that's about as cool as I can be with them.

I mean, not to get too graphic, but I'd rather poke around a 110 lb dog's nether-regions than try to draw a blood sample off a bunny. I'm sure part of that is experience, but at the root of it, they're still fancied up stoic rodents.

posted by ufez 21 July | 22:25

a vicious streak a mile wide!

posted by arse_hat 21 July | 23:05

I believe this may be a holdover from the medieval days when rabbits were used to guard caves.

posted by Ardiril 21 July | 23:18

NEVAR FORGET

posted by mullacc 22 July | 00:55

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Kronos_to_Earth 22 July | 02:47

I don't know why.

posted by fleacircus 22 July | 06:19

The patient doesn't have to embrace the bunny, just get really close to it. The process isn't always pleasant—people sometimes cry, faint, or vomit—but it is effective. More than 90 percent conquer their phobia.

Ok, good for the humans, but what about the poor little bunny? I would imagine he or she has developed quite a complex by now. Why doesn't anybody want to hug me? Why do these people cry or faint when they see me? Why do they keep throwing up at me? What's wrong with me!?!

posted by FishBike 22 July | 08:13

I have a friend that is terrified by lizards. She grew up in (southern?) India, where lizards in the house are a pretty common occurrence. As a child, she reached behind a washing machine to retrieve a fallen object and grabbed a lizard instead. Since then, the sight of any lizard - even a picture on the computer or a magnet I have on my fridge - will cause her to run screaming from the room. I haven't even been able to determine what kind of lizard a "house lizard" is because she doesn't want to talk about it. I'm assuming it's some sort of gecko.

posted by youngergirl44 22 July | 09:51

will cause her to run screaming from the room.

No disrespect to your friend, but I sometimes wonder if some of these sorts of hysterics aren't motivated by a need for attention.

posted by amro 22 July | 11:11

I sometimes wonder if some of these sorts of hysterics aren't motivated by a need for attention.

I won't argue that these anxiety displays are never caused by desire for attention, but I'll offer my own embarrassing data point: I instinctively flee from a roach or a centipede with humiliating squeals even if I'm alone in the house (and then I return to crush it, but still with humiliating squeals and winces).

A phobia may seem completely unbelievable to a non-phobic person, because it is completely unbelievable: by definition, it's irrational.

posted by Elsa 22 July | 12:20

From my own experience, I will vouch for Elsa's last sentence.

posted by Ardiril 22 July | 12:39

Honest to goodness, even I doubt my phobias when I'm not staring right down the barrel of them. In the absence of a roach or a centipede, it seems completely ridiculous that I would shriek at the sight of one --- or that a photo of one would make me itch and twitch all over.

But I'm going to stop writing about them now and go scratch myself all over because EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

posted by Elsa 22 July | 12:46

I instinctively flee from a roach or a centipede with humiliating squeals even if I'm alone in the house (and then I return to crush it, but still with humiliating squeals and winces)

When I'm alone is when I'm most likely to shriek and flee from a roach. I have to be really surprised to react like that when I know someone's around because even I think my reaction is ridiculous. If someone's home, I'm more likely to startle badly but quietly, then either attempt to kill the thing with the most nuclear option immediately available, or just back out of the room and hope it's gone by the time I have to go back in.

I don't want attention, I want a 100-yard interdiction zone for roaches around my person.

posted by EvaDestruction 22 July | 13:44

Motivated by a need for attention? makes no sense unless you're reacting to something that's always or frequently around, not something that only occurs occasionally and unexpectedly. How do you get attention when there's no gecko/rabbit/whatever around?

Even if there are frequent geckos/rabbits/whatever, it still doesn't make much sense. Why on earth would someone pick screaming and making a fool of themselves and risking looking like an idiot to others as a means of getting attention, when there are so many other ways to get it? Sorry, but this kind of talk just *really* makes me mad.

posted by serena 22 July | 13:56

just back out of the room and hope it's gone by the time I have to go back in.

This is not an option for me. When I go after a phobia-monster, I seek the intruder with extreme prejudice. The Fella and I have an understanding, too: if he dispatches the thing for me, he always tells me he got it, even if it maybe scuttled away under a floorboard. I don't want to know.

Speaking of phobias, I am about to head out to the dentist, and I'm finding that my slight dental anxiety has escalated pretty severely since the last visit... mostly because I know my gentle patient kind dentist is going to send me to the scary oral surgeon with the fangs and the claws and the stern lecture about my horrifically overdue surgery. But! The dental surgeon will also knock me out, so there's that.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

posted by Elsa 22 July | 14:05

My only phobia is other people. Srsly is there anything else worth being afraid of? I'll be fucked if I can find any way to avoid them and still live though.

posted by DarkForest 22 July | 14:17

Okay, here I go! Nice dentist nice dentist nice dentist. Breathe breathe breathe.

posted by Elsa 22 July | 14:22

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