Self-Improvement and Overcoming Fears from Diving

[Noboundaries]

I keep reading in different threads how people got into diving to overcome a fear or phobia. I also read and have heard of people who used diving to motivate them to lose weight, overcome physical limitations, etc.

Personally, my demon is clautrophobia. The more I dive, the less the demon appears. There was a time I couldn't put on a wetsuit. Thank God for Hyperstretch-type material because donning a wetsuit now doesn't bother me much at all as long as I can take my time. A drysuit is my next challenge in this area. I still need to lose weight too, but that will come as soon as I surgically eliminate a major source of pain from movement next month.

My wife's interest in diving was to become less fearful of risky activities. She started by piloting a motorcycle, but never got completely comfortable. Diving gave her the road she needed. We dive at her pace, but she's become a great dive buddy.

If you don't mind, share your challenge. If diving helped you conquer a fear, lose weight, deal with esteem issues, whatever, please share your experience. Others just might find it motivating.

Thanks in advance.

 

[spectrum]

Athletically I spent my first 48 years as an absolute zero. No interest, no coordination NADA! While diving is not a sport by many definitions, At 48 I was delighted to find that I was blissfully comfortable doing something that required technique and coordination and bordered on being an extreme sport no less.

Pete

 

[fisherdvm]

I always had a fear of sharks. But knowing more about them, make me less nervous. But when I was swimming in the waves off Cancun last year, I swear I felt a bump, and it made me real anxious. Probably was all in my mind. When I do night dives, I worry about sharks, especially when I am on the surface. But when I am under water in crystal clear tropical ocean, and I can see the sharks - large bahama reefs and nurse sharks, they don't bother me at all. It is the unknown and the unseen that bothers me.

In the same way, I have always had the fear of drowning. Yet I took up diving. Now I swim regularly, the anxiety of drowning is diminished, but I still don't like to swim over the deep end of a pool. Yet I can swim a mile over the muddy deep lake without fear - as I can not see the bottom. Explain that...

 

[DandyDon]

Be grateful for your fears as they inspire improvements. I've had very few and have caught myself being much too cavalier at times. Used to have a fear of heights but overcame that volunteering to climb up on a construction job as a college kid. Every now and then I'll catch myself feeling a little if I stand up in a plane and look down thru a window, or swim over a reef wall to over an abyss, or floating at surface of a night night, but not really. I have to work more at safety sometimes because of a lack...

 

[TSandM]

Diving has finally gotten me to the gym. I loathe exercise for its own sake; I don't mind hiking miles through beautiful country, but 15 minutes on the elliptical trainer is pure torture. But I came home from my Cave 1 class so embarrassed by the amount of help I needed with my tanks that I become determined to get stronger. After three weeks of circuit training and swimming, I went BACK to Mexico, and was absolutely overjoyed to find that there was already a noticeable difference!