What is the fear of depth called and how to overcome fear

The fear of being in deep water without solid ground under your feet, or even the fear of the very existence of depth, is a common phobia not only among those who cannot swim. This rhinestone has a number of individual features, which we will talk about in this article. You need to know what to fight with.

When asked why a person is afraid of depth, people often give a purely personal answer. That is, they talk about a list of their reasons that preceded the emergence of this fear. More precisely, not even fear, but phobia, and it even has a name - bathophobia.

In psychology, this phobia is compared to the fear of dying, because, basically, it stems from the fear of drowning. Do not confuse the fear of depth with a banal fear of water from a person who does not know how to swim. As we have already said, fear of depth can manifest itself in even the most experienced swimmers. Bathophobia is one of the most terrible and obsessive fears; do not underestimate it.

What is bathophobia?

A phobic disorder called bathophobia is simply called “fear of depth.” This disorder may appear as a result of experienced trauma associated with water or being at depth, as a result of which a person is haunted by an obsessive and sticky fear, and attacks by strong feelings about this.

However, this phobia does not always appear against the background of a traumatic situation. Bathophobia can exist from birth, even in people who have never been to the depths. There are also several reasons: a dysfunctional family, distrust of the environment and others.

Bathophobia causes the so-called feeling of the abyss, from which the following symptoms arise:

- Panic attacks.

- Strong emotional arousal.

— Fear of even the mere mention of depth.

— Fear of getting into underwater vegetation (algae) and becoming entangled in it.

Following from the above, it is worth understanding that the initial stage of bathophobia can manifest itself in any person. There have been situations when bathophobia made itself felt even while viewing photographs of deep-sea reservoirs.

Often fear overtook people in a boat that had sailed far from the shore.

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.

The child is afraid of water

Often, a child cannot realize the true nature and cause of his fear - he is simply scared. However, of course, there are reasons for everything. Often this is:

- Fear of a new and unknown sensation. Finding yourself in an environment that is unusual for the child.

- Inability to swim and stay on the water.

- Disturbing associations with some film or cartoon.

— Bad mood during the first swim.

— The water temperature is too cold, in which the child is uncomfortable.

— It’s not a particularly pleasant feeling of pebbles, stones, sand, etc. under your feet. In such situations, adults resort to “emergency measures” to introduce their baby to water. Quite often this ends badly, because the child must first of all feel safety and comfort; in the absence of this, the child is subjected to severe stress and anxiety, as a result of which the child only becomes more afraid of water. His thoughts state that swimming is scary because he was forced to do it.

Because of this approach, the child may well be overcome by panic or even horror when he is at depth. This sometimes leads to very sad consequences.

Ways to overcome

There are many different techniques to overcome your fear. These primarily include consultation with a psychologist. Systematic work with a psychologist will help you reduce the traumatic impact of the acquired negative experience on you, which, ultimately, can eliminate the phobia itself. In consultation with a psychologist, you can find out the hidden causes of your disorder, and, as a result, get rid of not only the phobia, but also other negative aspects.

But such practices are incomplete without the actual training part, carried out directly on the water. Psychologists recommend starting your training in overcoming the fear of depth by diving headfirst into the water. For people whose phobia is in advanced stages, this can be a big challenge. However, practical exercises will help you build your confidence while in the water, as well as become more familiar with your fear of depth. Of course, such exercises are carried out at a safe distance from the shore or in the pool, under supervision.

After the first step is taken, you need to learn to hold your breath underwater. Also, direct immersion under water, for example, diving, has a good effect in overcoming fear. Look at the underwater world and get to know it. Perhaps, instead of all-encompassing fear, you will feel interest, and past unpleasant experiences will gradually fade into the background.

You should be able to calm down and work with the belief that you don’t have to feel the bottom underneath you. Make sure you can relax and unwind on the water without worrying about anything.

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Fear of the deep sea

This phobia causes quite controversial discussions and opinions. Some experts argue that this particular phobia has its own reasons, some sigh in bewilderment, saying, how can it be so “afraid of a magnificent sea holiday”? Panic fear of the sea and swimming in it is called thalassophobia. Some people tend to feel wary at the sight of huge amounts of water. Of course, this concerns the sea first of all. However, there are brave souls who are ready to swim very far without any fear of depth or anything else. If a person is overwhelmed by a feeling of inexplicable fear and panic just at the sight of the sea, then it’s worth forgetting about a complete and relaxing holiday, and there’s nothing to say about water sports.

Thalassophobia is also widespread among children. For example, a baby can happily play on the shore, rummage in the sand, but categorically refuse to swim alone. Psychologists even assigned this phenomenon its own classification, called neurotic symptoms.

Fear of dark water

From Greek, “estuary” can be attributed to bodies of water with calm water, and “phobia” is translated as “a state that causes a feeling of fear.” Based on this, we can derive a definition of phobia, which is the fear of lakes, swamps and ponds and its name is limnophobia. People may experience panic while being near these bodies of water or while swimming. For some, panic arises at one glance or mention.{banner_st-d-2}

The mirror-like surface of the water is perceived as something causing concern. There are often cases when thoughts enter your head that something inexplicably terrible and deadly is being revealed underneath. For people suffering from this disorder, it is necessary to ensure that swimming is only in a shallow pool with clear water, due to which the bottom is visible.

The causes of this disorder should be sought in childhood:

• A child can survive shock by swallowing water or almost drowning. Basically, this happens in village ponds.
• The cause could also be a boat overturned in the middle of a swim.
• Surprisingly, even children's jokes, such as pulling your heels under water, can cause this phobic disorder.
• The sight of a drowned man also leaves a deep imprint on the psyche.
• The reason may be a horror film you once watched in which a pond appeared. Even the mildest form of this phobia can cause people to feel anxious and afraid when in a body of water.

Methods for getting rid of aquaphobia

Fighting a phobia is not an easy task, but it is quite doable. However, you must immediately understand that this process is quite long and requires unbreakable fortitude from the sufferer himself. In the initial stages, you can pull yourself out of the problem on your own through constant work on yourself. It's difficult, but possible! To do this, you need to look your fear straight in the face, and look constantly and in no case try to avoid it, otherwise it will win.

Self-healing technique for fear of water:

1. Carefully observe your feelings for several weeks. Write down every unpleasant or frightening situation related to water on a piece of paper in the form of a list. Next to each item, you must make a note describing your state of mind under certain circumstances (for example: mild excitement, severe anxiety, panic, and so on). It is also necessary to add to the list difficult psychological situations that happened in the past (for example, last year’s trip to the lake, which ended in panic).
2. From the generated list, select the item with the situation that frightened you the least, then close your eyes and mentally find yourself in that situation. Sit like this for a few minutes, analyzing and evaluating the picture in your head, while trying to realize that there is no danger in the situation. Work through each point until the result of complete calm is obtained (this may take several weeks, or even months), then move on to a more complex point, etc.
3. When all the frightening situations have been successfully worked out in your head, you can begin training in real conditions. There is also no need to rush here, otherwise all preliminary efforts will go down the drain. Again, you need to start small, for example, with a shallow pool. And then you can carefully move to larger bodies of water. Very important! It is better to conduct such training in beautiful and comfortable places with the obligatory presence of a loved one or friends. And only in a positive attitude!

Contact a specialist

If the disease has gone too far, it will be extremely difficult to manage without the help of a doctor. The main method of treating aquaphobia is psychotherapy, however, auxiliary techniques may be needed in the form of medication and hypnosis. In any case, only a specialist will be able to professionally assess the degree of phobia and then prescribe the necessary therapy.

Psychotherapy mainly consists of the same techniques as those described in self-treatment, but here the training takes place under the close supervision of a physician, which reduces the risk of unexpected reactions. Drug treatment is prescribed if the patient has obvious disorders of the nervous system, accompanied by nervousness, restlessness, anxiety or depression.

For the most severe forms of hydrophobia, the doctor may prescribe hypnosis and suggestion. Such methods are considered the most radical, and at the same time effective.

During the process of hypnotherapy, the specialist will find out the real reasons for the appearance of the phobia, and then gradually convince the patient that his fear is unfounded, so there is no need to be afraid of water. The number of such sessions is purely individual and depends on the patient’s response to this treatment.

Help with childhood fears

Many children who reach the age of four begin to experience certain fears, including of water. This can happen quite suddenly, causing great concern for parents. Which is not surprising, because just yesterday their baby was joyfully frolicking in the bathtub or river, but today he is afraid to even come close to the water.

Child psychologists associate this state of the child with neurotic fear, which to one degree or another is inherent in all children: some are afraid of the dark, some of heights, and some of water. In any case, the correct behavior of parents will allow such fears not to develop into a phobia and completely disappear in a few years. What to do if your baby has a fear of water:

1. Under no circumstances should you force a child into a pond if he stubbornly does not want to: it is better to invite him to simply wet his feet at the very edge of the river or play with a bucket filled with water.
2. You shouldn’t show your anxiety too clearly if your baby does go into the water. Shouts: “Where are you going?” You'll drown! - they will completely scare the child and put in his fragile psyche a bold equal sign between the words “water” and “you will drown.”
3. Bathing in the bath should be accompanied only by positive emotions: an abundance of foam, bright toys, soap bubbles - all this will reinforce positive associations with water in the child.
4. If a child refuses to take water procedures, under no circumstances should he be scolded for this or punished with any restrictions. In such situations, it is better to wait for a more suitable mood or come up with a game that will help the child consciously want to swim.

Whatever the child’s fear, it is very important not to miss it or brush it off at the initial stage. You also need to remember that the majority of phobias begin in childhood. And if every parent perceived children's psychological problems with an attentive attitude, then perhaps in the modern world there would be much less pathological fears and complexes.

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Sea monsters

Any phobia presupposes the presence of a serious subconscious fear. This fear is expressed in rapid breathing and rapid heartbeat. The standard fight-or-flight defense mechanism is activated. It’s great, of course, if the object of fear, a dog, for example, is standing before your eyes - here you can escape or do something else. But when such fear arises in the depths, it is many times worse and more terrible.

It's quite normal to be afraid of being eaten alive by a shark. But if a diver simply has an unreasonable fear of coral reefs or something similar, this is already a phobia. For some divers, their fear of sea creatures with fangs, such as sharks, is so intense that even swimming in a regular pool becomes an unbearable ordeal.

Fear of getting tangled in algae

Panic occurs not only when algae actually touches your feet in the water, but also, in principle, at the mere thought that they might be there. Of course, first of all, such fear arises when a person has already had a traumatic experience of becoming entangled in algae.

It is worth remembering that the desire to avoid algae is a normal reaction, as it is indeed extremely dangerous for swimmers. It’s another matter when, in a panic attack, a person begins to move chaotically, thereby possibly even dooming himself to death. Some claim that this phobia can be treated with hypnosis.{banner_st-d-1}

Fear of drowning

This phobia is called aquaphobia and, like the others, has a number of symptoms: mental and vegetative.

Mental symptoms look like this:

— Unpleasant sensations when the skin comes into contact with water. - Inexplicable fear of a banal bath. - Of course, we already know the fear of depth and the fear of large expanses of water. - Anxious feeling before drinking any liquid. Be it tea, coffee or water. - Fear and reluctance to go outside during rain or thunderstorms. The list of physical symptoms is as follows:

• Nausea.
• Dizziness.
• High blood pressure.
• Profuse sweating.
• Headache.

If the phobia is not treated, then sooner or later a situation may arise when the aquaphobe ends up in the water and begins to have convulsions. In this state, a complete blackout of consciousness occurs, so the person will definitely not be able to help himself. Aquaphobia is very, very dangerous and must be eliminated at the first sign.

Reasons for its appearance

Most often, the fear of water originates in a person’s mind in early childhood. There may be several reasons for this:

• Pathologies during fetal development (for example, hypoxia) - fear arises even before the birth of the child.
• Piercing the amniotic sac.
• Negative experience. While swimming, a child could slip, fall, or get water in his ears and nose. This caused strong unpleasant emotions that became entrenched in the mind and subsequently caused pathological fear. He now associates water with pain and discomfort.
• Films or stories about water disasters can create fear in an overly impressionable child, as a result aquaphobia is formed, and the fear of water becomes pathological.
• Too harsh reactions from parents. If a child slips while bathing, and the mother reacts to this with a loud cry, the baby gets scared, negative emotions are remembered and give rise to a phobia.

But where does this fear of depth come from?

This particular type of phobia, bathophobia, can be both destructive and objective. The destructive form involves inexplicable fears that there are monsters or any life-threatening things under water. There have been cases where people hear the voices of sirens or other marine life. For example, Cthulhu. There are people who believe that the ocean is a huge thinking creature that is extremely hostile to humans.

Objective fear can be explained, and therefore is not so dangerous. This is a fear of depth that occurs due to inability to swim or fear of drowning. The occurrence of this phobia is associated with experienced traumas, as a result of which a person is simply afraid of becoming drowned.

Destructive

Destructive bathophobia or fear of water is the most complex case. It is associated with vivid fantasy and mental disorders. A man at sea does not enjoy beauty, but imagines sea monsters, situations in which he could drown. These are fantasies based on films and fairy tales.

Destructive bathophobia occurs in nervous people, as a rule, with a fine mental organization and wild imagination. Against the backdrop of one’s own fantasies, one may feel as if one hears the voices of mermaids, sees a shark’s fin above the water, or feels the depths draw in.

How to deal with fear?

The origin of all these phobias has deep psychological reasons and even identifying them can sometimes be extremely difficult. However, there are several recommendations, following which you will definitely feel relief.

Understand what the aquatic environment is like. Before you begin the long process of liberation from fears and phobias, try to understand what you are really afraid of. As they say, you need to know the enemy by sight. All sorts of films, TV shows, books and scientific articles will help you figure this out. Perhaps it will turn out that this is not an enemy at all.

Find the positives.

To get rid of fear, you need to clearly know the positive aspects of water and being in it. Turn only to trusted sources of information and discard “exposing articles” about sea monsters. If a positive image of water is formed in your mind, it will help you cope with your fears.

What should you avoid?

You should not resort to rudeness and force the child to get into the water - this will further traumatize the baby’s delicate psyche and reinforce his fear. There is no need to call him dirty, a slob - the child will believe your words and will live up to them.

It’s also not worth depriving him of anything as punishment, nor is it worth giving him a choice: “Either you swim or don’t watch cartoons” - because this method of education traumatizes the child even more, but will not eradicate the fear of water. You need to act in a friendly and affectionate manner: in an atmosphere of understanding and support, it will be easier for the child to cope with fear and not carry it into adulthood. Of course, it is better to carefully monitor the child’s reactions and prevent the development of a fear of water. And then the topic: “What are phobias and how to deal with them?” will not be relevant to you.