Fear of depth is a phobic disorder characterized not just by the fear of drowning, but also by a feeling of danger emanating from the water column: it seems to a person as if the abyss of water (as well as algae or underwater inhabitants) is sucking him in and pulling him to the bottom. This obsessive state is dangerous: even experienced swimmers, succumbing to a panic attack at great depths, may not be able to control themselves and drown.
Fear of depth - what is it?
Many people are afraid of the unknown, and this fear includes the fear of depth. If a person, while in a body of water, is unable to see or feel the bottom, then his imagination can draw frightening pictures in the water column, and this can lead to a panic attack.
Psychiatrists call the fear of depth in water bathophobia. Its manifestations can be quite varied - in some cases, people suffering from bathophobia experience fear even before taking water procedures in the bath.
A phobia of depth can prevent a person from living a full life. While on vacation near the water, he will not be able to completely relax; he will use all sorts of excuses to avoid swimming in the pond. And if you decide to go into the water, then only near the shore.
The ability to swim well does not help in any way if you have a fear of depth. This disease is obsessive and acute. It leads to the fact that bathophobe cannot control his emotions and adequately assess the situation. Succumbing to panic, he may even begin to drown.
Fear of the sea
Many people are susceptible to thalassophobia and don’t even know it. Looking at the endless expanse of the sea or ocean, some begin to get nervous, imagining the underwater depths. There are people who remember photographs with ocean predators depicted on them. The image of a child floating alone on a raft across endless expanses of water often worries mothers. Someone is not afraid of water, but is horrified by the unknown, located in the depths of the sea, by the secrets that are hidden there.
Usually all fears are irrational; a person creates reality himself and begins to believe in it.
Fear of the sea is often equated with fear of the dark. Most people with phobias understand that their fears are unreasonable and excessive, but they cannot overcome them because their reactions are on an unconscious level.
Where does fear of depth come from?
As with other phobias, acute fear of depth occurs in different people for different reasons. Psychologists have identified several of the most common “triggers” that lead to pathological fear.
Bathophobia may have the following causes:
- bad experience of learning to swim;
- hereditary fear;
- negative associations with being in water;
- loss of trust in the world as a whole, resulting from severe stress or as a result of upbringing in the family.
Psychologists believe that most people who experience an accident on the water may develop a phobia of depth. Perhaps the person had a cramp and swallowed water. Or he swam too far, overestimated his strength. Such situations can remain in the memory for a long time and contribute to the development of bathophobia.
It happens that loving parents, wanting to teach a child to swim, throw him into the depths and wait for the instinct of self-preservation to force him to swim to the shore. But this can lead to psychological trauma in the child and a lifelong fear of bodies of water.
Also, signs of bathophobia may begin to appear in a person after a strong emotional shock. For example, if one of your loved ones died by drowning in a pond. A person will have negative associations and, being near water, he will experience a state of severe fear.
It happens that even watching a film about the species of inhabitants of the seas and oceans can lead to the appearance of this disease. People with unstable and sensitive psyches are especially susceptible to this.
Sometimes people, succumbing to depression, lose all trust in the world. They begin to feel like trouble is following them everywhere. Obsessive thoughts about the omnipresent danger can serve as a starting point for the development of bathophobia.
In some cases, fear of depth may be genetic. That is, it is innate and can manifest itself before a person encounters the object of his fear.
Important! Scientists have concluded that the fear of depth is similar in nature to the fear of death. This is due to the fact that far from the shore there is a high probability of drowning - and the psyche “warns” a person that swimming far away is truly dangerous for his life.
Causes
Often we read news reports about huge sharks, electric eels or other dangerous marine predators that attack swimmers in the ocean. There are also documentaries about large squid washed ashore by the waves or taken out by fishermen. These sightings and news may instill a fear of the ocean.
Popular books such as Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea describe mythical and monstrous sea creatures (such as the Kraken, a prehistoric cephalopod). Similar to Moby Dick, films such as Jaws depict whales, predatory fish that are not only deadly, but also advanced enough to think intelligently and attack humans. Likewise, real-life shipwrecks, including the Titanic, were terrifyingly realistic in their film versions. People who fear violent death, and especially drowning, are more likely to develop thalassophobia, aggravated by these films and books.
A negative or traumatic event, directly or indirectly, can also cause a deep fear of the ocean.
Sometimes parents or guardians unknowingly give reasons that cause thalassophobia in children.
Other relatively uncommon causes of fear of the sea involve genetic or thyroid disorders, as well as hormonal imbalances or adrenal insufficiency.
How to recognize bathophobia in yourself or loved ones?
Let us consider the behavioral characteristics of people susceptible to this emotional disorder. As mentioned above, a person suffering from bathophobia will most likely refuse to swim in a pool or pond. If his friends try to force him into the water as a joke, this may result in a hysterical attack.
Experts recommend treating bathophobia with understanding and not trying to “knock out a wedge with a wedge,” but first of all, seek the help of a psychotherapist.
By what signs can bathophobia be identified?
Fear of depth has the following physical manifestations:
- emotional arousal;
- increased heart rate;
- attack of nausea, vomiting;
- dizziness, disorientation in space;
- pounding in the temples, headache
- dry mouth;
- fever, chills;
- numbness, tingling in muscles;
- loss of control over the situation;
- intermittent breathing, possible suffocation.
Signs of bathophobia can occur even far from bodies of water, for example, when viewing photos or videos of water depths. People suffering from this disorder will feel very uncomfortable while in a boat or on the deck of any sea vessel.
Moreover, you can find out that you have this phobia at the most inopportune moment. There have been cases when an experienced swimmer, having peered into the thickness of the water beneath him, began to experience real panic, which fetters and takes a lot of physical energy. In such situations, the main thing is to pull yourself together and not succumb to suffocating fear.
Experienced divers admit that the sight of the abyss beneath them sometimes frightens them, too, so before (and during) a dive, deep-sea divers try not to think about it, to drive away all thoughts that arise. However, a person with bathophobia is unlikely to engage in diving, so fear of depth in this case can be considered a reaction of a completely healthy person - a manifestation of his instinct of self-preservation.
How does thalassophobia manifest?
Symptoms characteristic of thalassophobia:
- uncontrollable anxiety when mentioning or thinking about the sea;
- searching for reasons to avoid contact with the object of fear (sea, related paraphernalia);
- awareness of the irrationality of fear combined with the inability to control it;
- deterioration of somatic health with memories of the sea.
Somatic manifestations of thalassophobia:
- cardiopalmus;
- headache;
- pressure surges;
- dizziness;
- nausea;
- feeling of suffocation;
- chest pain;
- shiver;
- increased sweating;
- numbness of the limbs.
Other emotional and mental manifestations of phobia include:
- irritation;
- anger;
- obsessive thoughts;
- a feeling of unreality of what is happening;
- fear of losing control of oneself;
- fear of going crazy;
- desire to run away, hide;
- fear of losing consciousness;
- anxiety about having to go to sea.
It is important! The severity of anxiety varies from mild anxiety to a panic attack. Manifestations depend on the stage of the disease. In moments of panic, the patient thinks that something terrible is bound to happen, that he will die.
Thalassophobia test
We suggest taking a test for thalassophobia. Answer three questions:
- Do you feel fear, discomfort in the pit of your stomach when you think about the endless, deep, dark ocean?
- Have you ever had nightmares related to the sea? For example, that you are standing on the shore, immersed in your thoughts, raise your head up and see that a huge wave is covering you.
- Imagine being surrounded by sharks, whales, squids, jellyfish, eels, crabs. Are you getting scared? Do you feel like running away?
If you answered yes to at least one question, then you have a tendency towards thalassophobia.
How to get rid of bathophobia?
In order to overcome the fear of depth, you need to seek the help of a psychologist or psychotherapist. Together, you will find the root cause of the fear and begin to get rid of it. If what scares you most is the presence of dangerous aquatic inhabitants in the depths, then a specialist will help you figure out which of them live in the reservoirs of your area and whether they pose a danger to your life.
Regular sessions with a psychologist, as a rule, give good results in dealing with psychological trauma. But sooner or later, the theoretical experience gained will need to be consolidated in real conditions. Practical classes usually take place in a swimming pool in the presence of a specialist. A person suffering from bathophobia learns to dive headlong into water without experiencing discomfort. Then he tries to stay under water as long as possible, holding his breath. The main thing is to take your time and gradually get rid of fear.
Snorkeling or diving can also help treat fear of depth. Exploring the seabed can captivate you with its beauty and diversity, and the fear of depth will no longer bother the “former” bathophobe. Of course, such activities can be started only when the acute signs of the phobia are already in the past - otherwise a sudden attack of panic can threaten the life of the diver.
If the fear of depth is permanent and interferes with a person’s fulfillment in society, then experts recommend the use of medications that calm the nervous system together with psychological help.
If all of the above methods do not give positive results, this may indicate that bathophobia has taken on a more complex form. In this case, it requires longer psychological work. The main thing is not to let the bathophobe despair and support him in every possible way. Create for him the safest and most favorable atmosphere in which he will feel comfortable and protected.
Group exercises are very helpful in eliminating phobias; they help the patient understand that he is not alone in struggling with his disorder and instill hope for a speedy recovery.
How to help your child overcome his fear of depth
Typically, children have a very sensitive psyche and are especially susceptible to various fears and anxieties. Due to their age, they still don’t know and understand a lot, so they react much more sharply to any frightening things.
Many children experience a fear of depth; it seems to them that predatory monsters live under water and the likelihood of falling into their evil jaws is very high. Children often have a fear of algae, which touches their feet while swimming and seems very disgusting and potentially dangerous. The baby has no idea that underwater plants cannot grab him and drag him to the depths; he perceives them as terrible monsters living in the water column.
Adults may consider a child’s anxiety to be a trifle and just a figment of a rich imagination. Therefore, the main task of parents in such a situation is to take the child’s experiences carefully and seriously, as they can negatively affect the child’s mental state.
The older a child gets, the more his horizons broaden and a clear understanding is formed that life is full of dangers that can await him at every step. Therefore, it often happens that fear grows with the child. If you notice signs of a phobia in your child, then you need to urgently seek the help of child psychotherapists, since most mental trauma in adults has roots in childhood.
A psychologist will help identify the cause of the developing phobia. Often it is a traumatic situation that has been experienced, and the child is tormented by the fear of its repetition. In addition, children often have not their own, but their parents’ fears and phobias - if the mother is afraid of water, then most likely the child will be afraid of all possible bodies of water.
The most effective and popular way to rid a child of fears is play. By getting involved in it, the baby can unnoticed correct his behavior, overcoming his psychological barriers. Playing with water shows the child that there is nothing wrong with having fun splashing around, looking for toys under water, and then diving on their own (under adult supervision).
So-called art therapy also helps the child express his negative emotions. As you draw, frightening images gradually lose their horror, and then you can help the child find something positive in the drawing. You can invite him to erase the drawing, tear it or burn it. This technique works well in helping a child overcome his fear of depth and water, if the reason is that the child “sees” some frightening monsters underwater.
If the cause of children's phobias lies in the fears of their parents, then adults will also need to work with a psychotherapist. Children are very sensitive to the moods of the mother (a little less - the father), so if the mother copes with her anxiety, then the child will have significantly fewer phobias and acute fears.
Conclusion
Now you know what the fear of depth is called, how you can distinguish it from rational fear, and what methods help you overcome bathophobia.
This phobia can be treated quite successfully with the help of psychotherapy, so experts do not recommend delaying seeking help, since bathophobia tends to develop over time. High-quality and timely psychoanalysis will help to identify the real cause of panic in front of bodies of water and ultimately overcome the fear of depth.
