Hi
I am what you call a "vacation diver" (unfortunately) - I dive about twice a year and have only around 70 dives which are spread across over 10 years. Although I would like to dive more, I don't seem to find the time&money to do so.
I'll get to the point: although I LOVE the underwater world, I feel that I have accumulated some fears and phobias, partly because of some incidents that happened on dives and partly because I just get rusty between dives.
I'll concentrate on two main fears: Over the weekend I dived in Ras Mohammed (Sinai, Egypt) in the Thistlegorm and Shark and Yolanda reefs and have again encountered one of the toughest things for me: diving against a current. I encountered this before both in Galapagos and diving in the straights of Tiran, and I feel like I just get really hysterical because I feel that I get exhausted while trying to dive against it (even if others are ok with it or if it is for a short time).
So, basically, my question is - what can I do to improve on this? Take swimming lessons to learn to fin better? Work out more so I become stronger in my legs?
Another thing: I have become increasingly anxious about the regulator falling out of my mouth - I feel it's always on the verge of falling out and it makes me hysterical! (yeah, yeah, I know you just pop it back in).
I know one of the obvious reactions would be to tell me to just quit diving, but I DO believe in facing one's fears, especially if I enjoy what I see so much.
So any ideas on how to cope would be great.
Thank you
I am what you call a "vacation diver" (unfortunately) - I dive about twice a year and have only around 70 dives which are spread across over 10 years. Although I would like to dive more, I don't seem to find the time&money to do so.
I'll get to the point: although I LOVE the underwater world, I feel that I have accumulated some fears and phobias, partly because of some incidents that happened on dives and partly because I just get rusty between dives.
I'll concentrate on two main fears: Over the weekend I dived in Ras Mohammed (Sinai, Egypt) in the Thistlegorm and Shark and Yolanda reefs and have again encountered one of the toughest things for me: diving against a current. I encountered this before both in Galapagos and diving in the straights of Tiran, and I feel like I just get really hysterical because I feel that I get exhausted while trying to dive against it (even if others are ok with it or if it is for a short time).
So, basically, my question is - what can I do to improve on this? Take swimming lessons to learn to fin better? Work out more so I become stronger in my legs?
Another thing: I have become increasingly anxious about the regulator falling out of my mouth - I feel it's always on the verge of falling out and it makes me hysterical! (yeah, yeah, I know you just pop it back in).
I know one of the obvious reactions would be to tell me to just quit diving, but I DO believe in facing one's fears, especially if I enjoy what I see so much.
So any ideas on how to cope would be great.
Thank you