(I’ll start by saying both my girlfriend and I are in the process of being evaluated, and she is highly suspected to have autism.)

Since I’ve know her she has been afraid of snakes. So bad that she can’t even look at a picture from a book. Or even a colorized drawing. She’ll freak out so bad that she’ll start crying if the picture is not taken away.

Our only way of making sense of this was her reported bad experience as a child. Seems reasonable.

Now that we’ve learned it may be related to a sensory disorder, it makes better sense. The pictures and especially brightly colored snakes form pictures are extremely difficult for her to view, because from her perspective, the snake is alive and right in front of her, because of sensory issue. The patterns of a snake skin, other reptiles, butterflies, Dalmatians, zebras, etc. all freak her out. But Especially snakes.

When you consider this as the main reason why she can’t view pics of snakes it all makes sense.

So it’s not as simple as just “face your fear” to get over it.

Can anyone relate?

I on the other hand love snakes and love the patterns. Actually is one of the main reasons why I love snakes and reptiles. Because of the skin patterns.