Bathophobia is an anxiety disorder in which a person is afraid of deep bodies of water and places where he is unable to discern the bottom or feel it under his feet. Bathophobia can also mean a fear of bodies of water with visible shores.
Many people are familiar with the feeling of anxiety that arises in a situation when, when moving along the sandy seabed, the leg suddenly does not feel supported. Often the bather simply takes a step back and forgets about the unexpected fear. But it is precisely such mild anxiety that may indicate that a person is developing a serious anxiety disorder - bathophobia.
Causes
What is the phobia called fear of depth?
This mental phenomenon is known as “batophobia” and is considered one of the most dangerous obsessive states that can develop in a person. Once in the water, people who are afraid of the depths panic, quickly lose touch with reality and may begin to drown. At the same time, fear of depth does not apply to people who are poor swimmers. Because in this case, the fear of the depths has a specific basis. Fear of depth is a phobia that develops for the following reasons:
- Genetics – a person may have prerequisites for the development of bathophobia according to heredity.
- Bad experience when learning to swim: often a child unfamiliar with water is immediately thrown into the depths, trying to activate the instinct of self-preservation. In such a situation, the child may experience psychological trauma, which will force him to avoid visiting bodies of water in adulthood.
- Dangerous incidents while swimming: if a person felt the risk of drowning, experienced fear of convulsions, this could subsequently serve as the basis for the development of bathophobia.
- Negative associations: fear of depth is often a consequence of losing friends or loved ones on the water.
- Fear of the unknown: manifests itself in the feeling of the abyss, the infinity of the water column.
- Fear of the inhabitants of the deep: in the creation of a person, so-called emotional anchors are formed. The prerequisite for their education is most often watching horror films. When certain parts of the brain are activated, a person may imagine monsters that supposedly inhabit a body of water.
Treatment of bathophobia
Basic methods of psychotherapy:
- Psychoanalysis. It is used if bathophobia is a consequence of injury. In the course of the work, the patient begins to understand the root of his problem and is able to change his attitude towards it.
- Group work. It is effective for those people who feel misunderstood and lonely. Group exercises promote emotional release. As a result of productive work, the influence of phobia on a person’s life decreases.
- Emotional imagery therapy. This method helps patients whose fear is clothed in a certain form (for example, a sea monster). During treatment, bathophobes become familiar with their fear and try to make it their friend.
Analysis of emotions experienced when swimming above depth.
If severe panic attacks interfere with psychotherapeutic treatment, medications may be prescribed to relieve emotional stress. Medications are also prescribed if the phobia greatly impairs the patient’s quality of life. Tranquilizers with anti-anxiety or sedative effects are usually prescribed.
After successful therapeutic treatment, functional training (treatment in practice) is carried out. During the training, the patient learns to dive headfirst into the water, hold his breath and swim to the center of the pool, where a deep bottom is simulated. During the course of treatment, a person should form the conviction that when swimming it is not at all necessary to feel a solid foundation underneath.
Sometimes the “functional training” method is clumsily attempted by relatives and friends of a person suffering from a phobia. People mistakenly believe that by forcibly dragging a bathophobe to the depths, they will relieve him of his “ridiculous” fear. However, such “treatment” can provoke a hysterical attack or aggravate the phobia.
In the case of a mild form of phobia and if you have the ability to control emotions, diving can have a positive effect. Diving to shallow depths will allow you to get acquainted with the bright, picturesque underwater world. This helps replace negative emotions with positive ones.
In some cases, bathophobia is a symptom of schizophrenia or paranoid delusional disorder .
A serious mental illness can be suspected if the patient is convinced of the rationality of water, hears the voices of non-existent sea inhabitants (for example, mermaids), or sees sea monsters.
Types
There are several types of bathophobia:
- Objective – the individual feels fear due to the presence of a real potential danger to health and life. For example, a person susceptible to manifestations of bathophobia may not be able to dive and rise to the surface independently.
- Destructive – fear of the ocean, of depth, the root of which lies in negative irrational thoughts and expectations regarding the upcoming stay in the water.
Features of behavior with bathophobia
Now we have found out what the fear of depth is called.
Next, we will consider what kind of behavior is demonstrated by individuals susceptible to such an emotional disorder. Most often, the phobia manifests itself in the fact that a person prefers to find excuses for swimming while relaxing in a pond or swimming close to the shore. If comrades decide to jokingly drag someone prone to bathophobia into the depths, the consequence of such actions can be panic, hysteria, a state of shock, even loss of consciousness. Such cases often lead to a person completely refusing contact with water.
Children who suffer from bathophobia actively protest against going to the beach and swimming in the bath. Most often, parents perceive this behavior as ordinary whims, without attaching much importance to it. If adults show excessive persistence, then the feeling of threat may not leave the child for many years.
People who conquered the depths
The relatively shallow depth is not as hostile as it may seem to a person suffering from a phobia, and is even capable of submitting to people. For example, on September 18, 2014, Egyptian diving instructor Ahmad Gabr made the deepest scuba journey in open water. He managed to descend to a depth of 332 meters.
In July 2021, the longest stay under water was recorded. A Turkish diver (Cem Karabay) was able to survive in the water for 142 hours, 42 minutes, 42 seconds. The record holder among women is Australian Christy Quill. Her record was 51 hours and 25 minutes.
Among representatives of the scientific field, Fabien Cousteau, the grandson of the world famous scientist Jacques-Yves Cousteau, became famous for his longest stay in the marine environment. The researcher and his team spent 31 days in an underwater research laboratory located at a depth of 18 meters.
Physical manifestations of the disorder
If there is a fear of water depths, a person exhibits specific symptoms at the physiological level:
- increased heart rate;
- dryness in the mouth;
- development of nausea, vomiting;
- pounding in the temples, dizziness, loss of balance and orientation in space, headaches;
- muscle numbness, tingling in the body;
- fever, chills;
- a feeling of increasing suffocation, intermittent breathing.
Psychological manifestations
As for the emotional state characteristic of bathophobia, it is worth noting here, first of all, the fear of losing control over one’s own actions when surrounded by strangers if contact with water is necessary.
People who suffer from this disorder begin to fear going crazy when they realize that in the near future they will have to dive or swim across a body of water. Other psychological manifestations of bathophobia concern the self. A person with a disturbed psyche may not feel the reality of what is happening while in the water, and subconsciously transfer himself to another place and time. Such conditions often lead to the most inadequate reactions to seemingly simplest, absolutely safe situations.
Creepy Abyss
The fear of water depths dates back to ancient times.
Then man was unable to explain the terrible natural phenomena that threatened his life. Huge waves destroyed ships, tsunamis destroyed settlements, and deep monsters dragged people under water. Fear was a reaction necessary to preserve life. The feeling of fear helps modern man to survive. This emotional process must be generated by actual danger.
Unfortunately, quite often it arises due to imaginary, man-made threats. And over time, it can degenerate into real phobias.
Many experts agree that bathophobia is similar to the fear of death. A person is afraid of depth precisely because he does not see or feel the bottom. This means that there could be danger lurking in the darkness that could kill the swimmer. For example, a shark, a crocodile or a monster from a recently watched horror movie.
It is typical that fear of depth occurs mainly in people who are good swimmers. Since they are the ones who most often swim far from the shore. Having stopped to rest, a person suddenly realizes that there is a huge thickness of water under him, and several tens of meters to the bottom. Such a huge mass of water can hide a variety of dangers that can destroy a person in an instant.
In such a situation, the usual sense of self-preservation can develop into panic.
And this is a real danger to life. The swimmer loses control of the situation. Instead of calmly swimming to the shore, he begins to flounder vigorously and quickly becomes exhausted. Some try to find support and quickly choke. All this only aggravates the situation and significantly reduces the chances of salvation.
Causes of fear
To understand the causes of this mental disorder, it is worth considering that bathophobia is divided into two types:
- Objective . It is caused by real potential danger. For example, a person swam far from the shore in a place where sharks or poisonous creatures were seen. For example, sea snakes, urchins, jellyfish or fish. In addition, the possibility of a swimmer getting caught under the blades of a sea vessel cannot be ruled out.
- Destructive . Caused by irrational, negative expectations and thoughts. A person is afraid that terrible ancient reptiles or mermaids are hiding in the depths. And some are sure that the ocean is a living creature that hates humanity.
A mild form of objective bathophobia can be overcome on your own. Dealing with its severe and destructive form is much more difficult. First of all, a specialist needs to find out the root cause. The main factors are:
- Features of the nervous system . Emotional, sensitive and easily suggestible individuals are more prone to panic attacks and phobic disorders than others.
- Genetics . Prerequisites for the manifestation of various nervous disorders may exist according to heredity.
- Family problems . Frequent conflict situations in the family traumatize the child’s psyche and lead to the development of complexes and phobias.
- Bad experience . Some parents use rather harsh methods to teach their child to swim - simply by throwing him into the depths. This leads to psychological trauma for the baby, which will force him to avoid swimming in the sea even in adulthood.
- Dangerous incidents in the water . A bad joke from friends or an accident can cause a fear of depth.
- Fear of the unknown . It is impossible to see what is at depth. In addition to real predators, according to the bathophobe, monsters from recently watched horror films may also be hiding there.
Those close to the bathophobe need to take a closer look at him. Bathophobia is an irrational fear. If a patient claims that he is afraid of the abyss because he sees monsters in it or hears the voices of mermaids, this is a symptom of a much more serious disease. He may have paranoid personality disorder or schizophrenia.
Assistance in such a situation should only be provided by a qualified specialist.
Manifestation of the disorder
Fear of depth is a phobia that affects everyone differently.
Most often, the patient avoids traveling to bodies of water. And in those cases when he does find himself near the water, he finds any excuse not to swim and to stay as far from the shore as possible. If one of your friends decides to joke and begins to forcefully drag the bathophobe into the water, this may result in him losing consciousness due to the shock he has suffered. Children suffering from bathophobia may even be afraid of taking a bath. Parents often do not understand the seriousness of the situation, mistaking the child’s fear for an ordinary whim. Severe coercion to comply with adult demands will only worsen the situation.
Bathophobia can manifest itself with both physical and psychological symptoms. The main ones include:
- cardiopalmus;
- chills or fever;
- dry mouth;
- increasing suffocation;
- nausea, vomiting;
- loss of balance and orientation in space;
- muscle numbness;
- a sharp increase in pressure;
- paralysis of limbs.
Bathophobes are afraid of losing control of the situation in the presence of strangers in case of contact with water.
And also go crazy when they realize that a trip to a pond is inevitable. In a critical situation they may lose their sense of reality. Mentally transport themselves to another time or place. Such phobias, even in safe situations, can provoke an inappropriate reaction.
How to avoid developing bathophobia?
There are a number of recommendations that, if followed, will help avoid the formation of a negative state:
- Physical and emotional self-control is extremely important when in the water. You need to carefully analyze: what thoughts arise during swimming and diving to depth, whether there are real risks to life and harm to health.
- Self-hypnosis allows you to overcome your fear of the depths. If a person tries to do everything possible to develop self-confidence, then the need to learn swimming will not become an insurmountable obstacle for him.
- It is necessary to decide in advance how important it is to learn to swim, what benefits can be obtained by mastering the skill.
Types of fear of depth or bathophobia
There are two types of bathophobia: destructive and objective.
In the destructive form, fear arises from a person’s negative thoughts that arise in his mind while swimming. That is, a person deceives himself, invents unrealistic situations or visualizes scary sea animals. This is often due to a lack of reliable information about bodies of water and the inhabitants of the seas and oceans. Or because the person is very impressionable and has taken to heart the scary pictures of a movie he watched, read or heard.
An objective type of phobia occurs when a person is really in danger . For example, he is actually carried away by the current, has a cramp in the water, etc.
How to deal with bathophobia?
The fear of depth can potentially be eliminated by taking water procedures in safe, maximally transparent and shallow or artificial reservoirs.
To reduce the intensity of panic, just sit on the shore, wet your feet, and wander through the shallow water. Over time, you can go into the water up to your waist, relaxing your body or plunging your relaxed hands into it. In this case, it is extremely important to capture the feeling that the limbs are supported. In general, the decisive importance here is the sustainable formation of the awareness that water will not allow you to drown.
In the fight against panic states with bathophobia, creating a positive image of the depths in your own mind helps. This is facilitated by watching videos about wildlife and the beauty of the oceans, and pictures of wonderful beaches. Regular concentration on such moments will, over time, help you develop a positive attitude towards water.
If the above methods of dealing with a phobia do not bring the expected results, you should consider seeking help from a psychotherapist or making an appointment with a psychologist. An objective view of a specialist from the outside will allow us to identify the root causes of the disorder and develop an effective strategy for eliminating the negative physiological and emotional manifestations of the pathological condition.
