I have a friend who harbored a similar fear to spiders. Granted they're a little scarier than pickles but the gut reaction was the exact same as that person - drop everything and run away crying. She threw her laptop on the floor once when she saw one crawling toward her, and slept on the living room sofa for two months when she caught one in her bed. I've asked her about it - she knows it's a totally unreasonable reaction and has no idea why she does. If it has eight legs she completely freaks out (and calms down if she realizes it's only six or fifty!).
I'm inclined to believe the show - then again I'm the gullible type. If it is true, I don't believe it was prudent for them to bring her to the factory or bring out several platefuls of pickles when just one would have accomplished the same goal.
