Can't make eye contact because of a cartoon snake

[UberScout]

You see this son of a [bleep]?! This stupid mother[bleep] ruined my childhood!

I used to take classes at school designed specifically for me, and they revolved around learning eye contact. But then I watched The Jungle Book and saw this snake. Then Mowgli laid back in a tree. Then this snake appeared. Then the snake's eyes flickered. Then I got traumatized.

I don't know why I got so traumatized by Kaa and making eye contact. I guess I made the assumption that if I looked someone in the eye while they were talking they'd start flickering and I'd be rendered paralyzed.

I can't bring myself to even glance in anyone's direction sometimes, and during the 2016 remake with the same animal (HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING) I found myself cowering and looking half-away at her FREAKING EYES.

How do I get over this? I should mention Kaa appears in my dreams as well and I can't get her to leave me alone. Maybe she's a part of me somehow?

 

[unperson]

Real snakes don't have weird eyes like that. Go and see some, maybe a snake handling class or a reptile zoo. They're really rather beautiful animals.

Generally, practicing eye contact on pets can help. Can you volunteer at an animal shelter?

 

[Els]

You see this son of a [bleep]?! This stupid mother[bleep] ruined my childhood!

I used to take classes at school designed specifically for me, and they revolved around learning eye contact. But then I watched The Jungle Book and saw this snake. Then Mowgli laid back in a tree. Then this snake appeared. Then the snake's eyes flickered. Then I got traumatized.

I don't know why I got so traumatized by Kaa and making eye contact. I guess I made the assumption that if I looked someone in the eye while they were talking they'd start flickering and I'd be rendered paralyzed.

I can't bring myself to even glance in anyone's direction sometimes, and during the 2016 remake with the same animal (HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING) I found myself cowering and looking half-away at her FREAKING EYES.

How do I get over this? I should mention Kaa appears in my dreams as well and I can't get her to leave me alone. Maybe she's a part of me somehow?

When I wanted to learn eye contact I started to train myself with actors in movies. I started to look at the actors in the eyes, that was a discovery because I never did that. It's different to go from movies to reality but it helped transitioning and not be totally overwhelmed and get more familiar withthe principle.
That being said, you don't actually need to learn eye contact. That's what people tell you because that's what they want, but if you don't feel to do that, just don't. People can't make you do it nor choose for you nor force you into doing it or believing it's necessary in your life. You don't have to do that if you don't want to, you don't owe them some magical eye contact thing. It's not your fault if they want something that doesn't happen. They're adults - I guess - and can get their disappointement in charge easier than it seems for you to "learn" eye contact. Don't make your life difficult if it's not from your personal choice.
I did that through movies, I don't know if how I did it can help you.
With practice, the only beneficial thing eye contact can give you is some kind of informations about the person's mood and reactions - if you learn to read them month after month and years after years. I don't think it's necessary, they can learn how to express themselves clearer too.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I saw Kaa in Disney's Jungle Book as well, but he didn't traumatize or even scare me. I found him kind of funny, in fact. Real snakes don't hypnotize their prey and their eyes definitely don't get swirly to show that their prey is falling into a trance.

In the original Jungle book, Kaa wasn't even a villain, he was one of Mowgli's allies who comes to rescue him after he was kidnapped by the monkeys. But he was able to hypnotize other animals *except* for Mowgli. Mowgli was immune because none of the animals in the story could make eye contact with humans.

Disney made Kaa into an antagonist because they felt the audience wouldn't sympathize with a snake character. Give me a break...

 

[Aspychata]

Try looking in the middle of the eyes - the forehead spot. If l get nervous - l look at people's noses or their eyebrows or the middle forehead. Maybe this might work on the snake. I had a fear of snakes for a long time. I am more afraid of scorpions. Just recently I locked my keys in my car. I was sitting down on curb because my car was a sauna. And a cute brown eye rat came out. Now l hate rats but he actually had cute eyes. So maybe by going to see a snake - you may surprise yourself, the non-dangerous ones are very docile.

 

[Ezra]

I don't even look at people when they're talking to me. I'm messed up enough to get away with that. But when we were kids my cousin and I had staring contests with our faces about an inch apart. He's always been able to break a lot of barriers.

 

[Ella Spell]

I don't even look at people when they're talking to me. I'm messed up enough to get away with that. But when we were kids my cousin and I had staring contests with our faces about an inch apart. He's always been able to break a lot of barriers.

Same.
I usually have my whole body turned the other direction, and / or I start walking away.

 

[WildCat]

I don't see the son of a gun. Can you update the photo link? It's broken.