Fear of (Deep) Water - Need Your Comments!

[laminarman]

Hi Everybody,

I need your help. I am writing a book that aims to help people overcome their fear of water or deep water and I need some input and interviews with anyone who fits the following categories:

1. You are comfortable in the water/underwater. Yet you can remember a time when you were not and can describe in great detail what changed for you.

2. You consider yourself part fish(!) and are extremely comfortable in any one or all of the following: surf, deep scuba, open water swimming, deep recreational or competitive freediving. How do you view fear in your activity? Are there things that are beyond your considerable comfort zone? Do any of the activities listed make you uneasy?

3. You may be a confident swimmer, but still have fear or anxiety about being in deep water/open water/ or water over your head. What thoughts, feelings, and ideas are contributing to that unease? How do you feel in a pool, lake, river, sea, or ocean?

4. You or someone you know overcame a fear of the water on their own or with the help of someone else. What made the difference?

Obviously, it would be great to have a discussion here, but I am also looking to interview those of you with have interesting things to say that can help other people see their own relationships to water in a new light. I believe that thread content is copyrighted, so I don't think I can use anything posted for my book. I will ideally like to conduct the interview over the phone, skype, or by email. If you are in Vancouver, BC, I'd be happy to meet you.

Please send me a Private Email if you can help!

Many thanks,

Peter Scott
Vancouver, BC

 

[captain]

Any water depth that you can't plant your feet on the bottom and keep your nose above the surface is deep water. I have dived in water over 600 feet deep, the depth really doesn't bother me, I float.

 

[CrawfishDiver]

I dont like water that is too deep. I got out the boat in 600 fsw to check the boat after hitting drift trash. I was very uneasy and dont know why

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I do. Monsters live in deep water!

 

[Lehmann108]

I dont like water that is too deep. I got out the boat in 600 fsw to check the boat after hitting drift trash. I was very uneasy and dont know why

A primal fear of the ego when it encounters something as huge as the ocean.

 

[Puffer Fish]

I think I have, at one time or another, been in every catagory listed. I think, several times actually.

Will be interesting to see the number of people willing to admit they have been afraid versus the number that will brag about how they are not.

I think there are a bunch of issue that can come into play. That make this issue very complex. That I have seen or been part of, you have:

1. Fear of the unknown - a dark strange world.

2. Fear of being dependent on some sort of techology

3. Fear of heights (if the water is clear)

4. Claustrophobia from bad vis, or just not seeing the surface.

5. Fear of loosing control.

6. Fear of dependency (not just technology)

7. Fear of something breaking, and not having an out.

I will bet I am missing some.

 

[ItMustBeJames]

Ironically, this is why I decided to get my OW cert. I've had a general uneasieness around water (pools, ocean, etc) for a long, long time. It never stopped me from learning to swim or having fun at the beach or even in my grandparents pool. But the apprehension was always there.

So one of my friends and I went to our LDS and signed up for SCUBA training. We got certified to dive with a third friend (vt_scuba_scott) who already had his OW. I'm continuing on to dive, my friend is not.

I've never had any issues once I'm in the water. Being in the environment seems to lessen the 'unknown' factor, and often makes it completely dissapear. So I'd say taking the class, learning about interacting with deep water, and then actually putting it in to practice can help do the trick. And I look foward to a lot more diving (and hopefully a lot more learning)!

BTW, what made you choose this topic for your book?

 

[Jeremy Bouwman]

I have always been comfortable swimming unless I can't see because of vegetation in lakes or things like that. Another big thing for me is when something touches you that you don't know what it is. Sometimes that can scare me. But I have also swam in thousand feet of water and not cared.

 

[Scott in AK]

when I took the pic in my avatar, I was in Prince William Sound I'd guess 600 to 800 fsw. Yea, I was spooked a little (18ft jon boat) but near the banks in 100fsw or less I was not spooked. if the boat swamped at either place it was going to the bottom.
It must be a mind thing, when my depth finder stops telling me the depth(360fsw max) the pucker factor rises.

 

[Kim]

Before I learned to dive i went snorkeling once in Curacao. They have a marine park there with an incredible wall. I was swimming out with coral and stuff a few feet below me...maybe 9 or 10ft, when I swam out over the edge of this wall and there was suddenly nothing there. I experienced probably the strongest sense of vertigo and primal panic that I can ever remember in my life and really fought to get back above the shallow coral.

Later, when I wanted to learn to dive I wondered whether this would prove to be a problem. As it turned out it wasn't. I think it has to do with being basically "enclosed" in your wetsuit and jacket etc. I quite happily jump into deep water now and have never had a similar vertigo attack again.