Fear of sea monsters

More like this

If they then start becoming avoidant of any large expanse of water, this is likely to intensify their fear. This is because when we stay away from those things we fear, we never get the chance to learn that they aren't so scary after all.

It's also possible to learn fears from other people. A child raised by parents who are scared and avoidant of deep water is likely to be at greater risk of developing thalassophobia.

A further background factor is one's disposition to fear and anxiety in general. There is a large genetic component to this vulnerability, so someone generally prone to fear and anxiety by virtue of their genetic make-up is more likely to develop thalassophobia in the event that they have a scary experience with deep water.

Read more about phobias:

• Where do phobias come from?
• Phobias, paranoia and PTSD: Why virtual reality therapy is the frontier of mental health treatment
• Listen to Prof Daniel Freeman talking about VR therapy on the Science Focus Podcast

What about the influence of thalassophobia on human history and culture?

From the Japanese Kappa to the Maori taniwha and the Loch Ness Monster, scary deep water creatures abound in ancient mythology and probably speak to the common occurrence of thalassophobia throughout human history.

This famous photograph of the Loch Ness Monster from 1934 was later exposed as a hoax, however, references to a monster in Loch Ness date back to 565 AD © Keystone/Getty Images

More recently, just look at the popularity of the Jaws movie franchise, Deep Blue Sea, Open Water and other sea-based horror flicks – again, all testament to the power of deep water to inspire terror.

At the same time, clearly, the dread of the deep ocean did little to diminish the adventurous spirit of our sea-faring ancestors as they navigated the oceans discovering new lands.

However, thalassophobia might be having a negative influence on human activities. In 2021, a team of marine scientists penned an article in which they blamed the lack of public interest in deep-sea science (especially in comparison to space exploration) on our collective conscious and unconscious thalassophobia.

As these authors noted, thalassophobia seems to permeate their field: "...the profound depths are technically termed abyssal (3,000–6,000m) and hadal (>6000m), where abyssal means 'a deep or seemingly bottomless chasm' and hadal is derived from Hades, the lord and kingdom of the underworld, where souls go after death, in Greek mythology."

• Is it true that the Pacific and Atlantic oceans don't mix?

Are there any evolutionary (or other) benefits to having thalassophobia or other phobias?

Fear and anxiety are normal human responses. People who are utterly fearless and reckless tend not to live very long and don't get to pass on their genes.

So, our fears and anxieties protect us from danger – and of course deep water is very dangerous. It makes sense to fear it, to a degree. What happens with phobias, though, is that the scale of people's fear response is out of all proportion to the threat.

So, for example, a person with thalassophobia might start to feel quite panicky even at the mere thought of deep water – or if they see it in a film.

Thalassophobia may trigger symptoms of anxiety, including increased heart rate, sweaty palms and feelings of panic © Getty images

What does thalassophobia feel like?

So, how does thalassophobia present itself, and what physical and emotional symptoms might you feel? A person with thalassophobia will typically feel panic-stricken at the thought of being exposed to deep water; their heart will race, and they might tremble, sweat, and hyperventilate.

The more proximal and immediate the contact with deep water, the more intense these physiological reactions will be – so sitting in a dinghy above deep water may provoke a complete meltdown alongside intense fears of imminent death and horror.

What about the related conditions of megalohydrothalassophobia and megalophobia?

Just as thalassophobia is like a more specific version of aquaphobia, megalohydrothalassophobia is akin to a more focused version of thalassophobia, but this time with the person's fear centred on the creatures or other objects that might be found in deep water.

Meanwhile, megalophobia is another broader category of fear that is triggered by massive things, such as mountains, skyscrapers, elephants or possibly large expanses of water – hence the connection with thalassophobia.

What are some common thalassophobia triggers?

Images of large seas and oceans can be triggering, as can videos or pics of underwater creatures.

The box jellyfish, or sea wasp, has enough venom to kill up to 60 people © Getty images

Depending on the severity of the thalassophobia, a person might be triggered by the mere thought of deep, open water. Other situations likely to cause problems may include bridges over deep water, flying over seas and oceans, and films featuring oceans and underwater scenes.

For some people with thalassophobia, they might be fine until they lose sight of land. Others could be triggered simply by finding themselves out of their depth, at the seaside or in a swimming pool.

How to cope with or even overcome thalassophobia

For people with mild thalassophobia, it might not be too much of a problem in everyday life. However, if it becomes a fearful preoccupation or if it starts to interfere with everyday life or meaningful goals and aspirations – such as going on a cruising holiday with the family – then it's definitely worth considering getting some treatment.

Generally speaking, phobias are highly treatable. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based on "gradual exposure" treatment would be the usual go-to approach. Your therapist will gradually expose you to water-related stimuli (perhaps starting with your imagination and progressing to pictures and video, and culminating in actually swimming or boating over water) while teaching you relaxation techniques to cope each step of the way.

Gradually, you will become desensitised and through exposure to your fears, you will learn that the danger is not so threatening after all.

Read more:

• What causes trypophobia? The neuroscience behind the fear of closely-packed holes
• What are the most common phobias?
• Can dogs smell fear?

8 types + why it occurs and how to overcome it

Fear of depth is a phobic version of the test of panic fear in relation to water. The fear of being in deep waters has its own individual characteristics and characteristics. It is this topic that will be discussed in this article.

If people are asked the same question, what do they know about the fear of depth, then any of them will limit themselves to only their own answer. Each of them will have some kind of vivid life event that causes characteristic symptoms. But such a variety of answers will come down to one and the same phenomenon - bathophobia, the emergence of fear of deep places.

Among psychologists, this fear is associated with the fear of death — a person fails to take control of the situation into his own hands, as a result of which he can simply disappear, that is, drown. Due to the fact that a person cannot control himself and his own state, not only mental, but also physical, bathophobia is one of the most dangerous obsessive fears. In no case should one confuse the inability to swim, when a person is afraid of water, with a fear of depth. This fear can also be inherent in people who are excellent swimmers.

Table of Contents

Bathophobia

Bathophobia refers to a phobic disorder, or in plain language, the fear of depth. This disorder may appear due to accidents on the water, as a result of which a person experiences strong emotional and psychological upheavals that lead to an unconscious fear of the depths of the waters.

There are other reasons that lead to this disorder: a person has never before in his life had to deal with a negative experience associated with depth, but may have subconscious anxiety. A phobia can be congenital or acquired for some reason. This may include an unfavorable family situation, or lack of trust in the environment, etc.

Batophobia in a person causes a feeling of an abyss under one's feet, and has a number of the following symptoms:

1. attack of sudden panic attacks;
2. emotional excitability;
3. triggering an alarm just at the mere thought of depth;
4. the appearance of fear of falling into algae and getting entangled in them.

Everyone can have the initial stage of bathophobia. It can manifest itself even at the moment when deep reservoirs are somewhere far away, but a person sees them in pictures or on some kind of video. Also, fear may come when you are in a boat that has sailed far from the coastline, etc.

Fear of water in a child

A child does not realize the true nature of the manifestation of fear of water. He's just scared is all. And the reason for this can be:

1. getting into an unusual environment;
2. lack of ability to swim;
3. the emergence of associations from terrible cartoons, or read books;
4. the occurrence of a bad mood for some reason;
5. exposure to cold water;
6. unpleasant sensation of stones or sand, etc.

Parents in this situation often engage in introducing their child to water, resorting to the so-called "express method", which instills fear even more. And if you repeat it many times, then the association of water and fear is fixed. The complexity of the situation can be aggravated by the mother herself, when negative experiences occur because of her. Although usually the child perceives it as a guarantor of his protection and security, which are very important feelings in the adequate psychological development of the child. If this feeling is lost, then any kid gets a deep stress.

As a result, the child will not be able to overcome the fear of water, but on the contrary, in his thoughts to affirm that swimming is to experience fear, as he is forced to do it.

Due to such experiments, the baby may be seized with a sudden panic at depth, and this may be a great risk to his life, because in a panic, water is most often inhaled, which can lead to the most sad consequences.

Fear of the depth of the sea

Fear of the depth of the sea is one of the phobias that leads to conflicting opinions about it. Someone expresses the opinion that there are justifications for this fear, and someone is amazed - is it really possible to be afraid of such a luxurious seaside vacation?

This is thalassophobia, that is, a panic fear of the sea element with any of its manifestation symptoms, but the main reason here is swimming. It is so customary that at the sight of water people feel wary, especially when it is in large quantities, and only children and people with mental disorders tend not to be careful in this case while relaxing at sea. But among people there are individuals who are not afraid to challenge the elements of the sea, and swim for long distances in the sea, even despite the waves.

If a person is overcome by thalassophobia, then he is overwhelmed with feelings of irrational fear in relation to the sea element, and in this state he is deprived of a good rest at a seaside resort. And there is nothing to talk about exciting water sports here.

This phobia is also widespread among children and is not difficult to detect. A child can happily play on the beach, build sand castles, but he is not in the mood for swimming and swimming in the sea. Psychologists assigned their own classification to this phenomenon, which they call neurotic symptoms.

Fear of dark water

In Greek, "estuary" means a harbor or bay, in other words, it refers to bodies of water where the surface of the water is calm. Well, a “phobia” is a condition that causes a feeling of fear. Therefore, limnophobia is nothing more than a fear of the secrets of the depths of lakes, swamps and ponds. People experience a fear of depth before swimming or being directly on the water surface of a lake or pond. There are times when panic fear is caused by just a glance in the direction of these water elements. Such people consider the mirror-like surface of the water to be deceptive and insidious, and in the dark depths of the waters it is full of mysterious and invisible dangers. For those suffering from limnophobia, shallow pools are most suitable, in which the water is clear and the bottom is visible.

This disorder usually occurs in a person in childhood:

1. when he had to swallow water, and he could drown while swimming in a village pond;
2. either the boat in which he was sailing capsized and was very frightened;
3. or because of a friend's joke when he suddenly pulled his legs to the bottom;
4. at the sight of a drowned man;
5. also have an impact on the appearance of symptoms of the disorder, horror films about monsters that inhabit dark waters, or grandmother's horror stories about evil spirits found in swamps.

Even a mild form of limnophobia causes excessive anxiety and disorientation in people while in the water of the lake.

Fear of sea monsters

Any phobia is characterized by the presence of a strong subconscious fear in relation to any situation or object, resulting in a call to the classic reaction to fight or run away. There is a frantic heart rate, breathing quickens and out of control, there is confusion in thoughts, and the person burns with the only desire to leave this place as soon as possible. It’s good when a person is frightened at the sight of an angry dog ​​- here you can somehow escape. But, when panic fear catches in deep water, it is already much worse.

For example, some people are very afraid of sharks and their carnivorous and sharp teeth. This is a completely natural reaction. But when a diver is overcome by fears, and he cannot enjoy the beauty of coral reefs, then this is already a phobia.

But be that as it may, some divers develop a very strong fear of sharks to such an extent that they are afraid to swim in an ordinary pool. The reason for this may be the sharks from the movies, where they really show the monsters of the seas.

Fear of getting into the seaweed

There are people who are afraid to swim at depth, they start to panic because of the fear of being swallowed up by the depth. And there are those who are afraid of algae. In this case, one time is enough for a person to become entangled in algae, so that panic fear and fear of depth arise in relation to them.

It is quite natural when a person consciously avoids algae, so as not to fall into their entanglement. This is a normal natural reaction, which in some cases can save a life. Indeed, aquatic vegetation is dangerous for swimmers. But the worst thing can happen when a swimmer in panic fear begins to move chaotically. Therefore, when such a phobia occurs, it is better to refrain from swimming to depth, and especially to algae.

This fear is usually treated with hypnosis.

Phobia to drown

Aquaphobia, like many other disorders, has its own symptoms, which can be both mental and vegetative.

Mental symptoms:

1. when water comes into contact with the skin, discomfort occurs;
2. fear of depth and fear of open waters;
3. fear of swimming, bathing and bathing;
4. fear of leaving the home environment in case of a possible thunderstorm or rain;
5. the occurrence of an alarm before consuming any liquid.

Symptoms of a physical nature (they come on when thinking about impending contact with water, about deep places, swimming):

1. begins to feel sick;
2. dizzy;
3. starts to have a headache;
4. pressure rises;
5. Sweat profusely.

If the phobia is not treated for a long time, and the aquaphobe ends up in the water, he starts to panic, convulsions may occur. At this time, there is a complete shutdown of consciousness, the situation gets out of control, the body does not obey, thoughts do not work. A form of severe aquaphobia is very dangerous to the life of any person. That is why it is necessary to get rid of it in the bud.

Why fear of depth arises

Bathophobia is most often destructive and objective. The destructive fears are related to the fears that arise as a result of irrational thoughts that monsters find shelter in the depths, which are waiting for the moment to attack a person. There are times when people subject to this phobia hear the voices of marine life and even mermaids when they swim away from the coast, and for some, the ocean is a thinking creature that is hostile to humans.

Objective fears should be understood as the fear of depth, when a person does not know how to swim well or is afraid of drowning. The emergence of this phobia may be due to cases when he could drown or became an eyewitness to this tragedy. A person has a fear of a real danger - to become a drowned man, or to be crippled by the blades of a ship, or to collide with a shark. Often this phobia appears literally out of the blue from a random thought, when a person is above a deep space, and it seems to him endless. This is due to excessive anxiety, and even hereditary.

How to overcome the fear of depth

What is the fear of depth and how to deal with it? The origin of this phobia has a deep psychological level, and it is quite difficult to overcome it. But there are some guidelines that can go a long way towards facilitating the perception of deep places and water.

Understand the aquatic environment . Before you start long trainings on self-education and liberation from annoying fears, you need to have an idea about the water element. In order to understand this more substantially, to get acquainted with scientific and reliable knowledge about the water element, it will be useful to watch information programs, read books, and get acquainted with water sports.

Find positive . To enter into a good relationship with water, you need to become familiar with its positive and interesting qualities. In this case, you need to turn to sources of information that will acquaint you with the beneficial properties of water, marine life, with how you gained self-confidence and got rid of some diseases with the help of water. If a positive image of water is formed in the mind of a person, then thoughts about its harmful aspects come to mind much less often.

why it occurs and how to overcome it » Sportivny Murmansk

Fear of being at depth without solid ground or even 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 discuss in this article. You need to know what to fight.

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 precede the emergence of this fear. More precisely, not even fear, but a phobia, and it even has a name - bathophobia.

In psychology, this phobia is compared to the fear of death, because it mainly stems from the fear of drowning. Do not confuse the fear of depth with the banal fear of water from a person who cannot swim. As we have 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?

The phobic disorder called bathophobia is simply called "fear of depths". This disorder may appear as a result of experienced traumas associated with water or being at depth, as a result of which a person is haunted by an obsessive and sticky fear, attacks are the strongest 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 at depth. There are also several reasons for this: a dysfunctional family, distrust of the environment, and others.

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

• Panic attacks.
• Strong emotional arousal.
• Fear of even a single mention of depth.
• Fear of getting into underwater vegetation (algae) and getting entangled in it.

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

Fear often overtook people in a boat that had sailed far from the shore.

The child is afraid of water

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

• Fear of new and unknown sensations. Getting into an unfamiliar environment for the child.
• Inability to swim and float.
• Anxious associations with some film or cartoon.
• Bad mood during the first swim.
• The water temperature is too cold and uncomfortable for the child.
• Not a very pleasant feeling under the feet of pebbles, stone, sand and so on. Adults in such situations resort to "emergency measures" to introduce their baby to water. Quite often, this ends badly, because the child must first of all feel safe and comfortable, in the absence of this, the child is exposed to severe stress and worries, as a result of which the child only begins to be 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 seized by panic or even horror when he is at depth. This sometimes leads to very sad consequences.{banner_m-001}

Fear of the deep sea

This phobia causes rather controversial discussions and opinions. Some experts claim that this particular phobia has its own reasons, some sigh in bewilderment, they say, how is it so “to be afraid of a magnificent sea holiday”? Panic fear of the sea and swimming in it is called thalassophobia.

Some people tend to be wary of seeing huge amounts of water. Of course, this concerns the sea in the first place. However, there are daredevils who are ready to swim very far without any fear of the depth or anything else. If a person is overwhelmed with a feeling of inexplicable fear and panic only at the sight of the sea, then it is worth forgetting about a complete and relaxing holiday, and there is nothing to say about water sports.

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

Fear of dark water

From the Greek “estuary” can be attributed to bodies of water with calm water, and “phobia” is translated as “a condition that causes a feeling of fear”. Based on this, we can deduce the definition of a phobia, which is the fear of lakes, swamps and ponds and the kyo name is limnophobia. People may experience panic fear while near these bodies of water or while swimming. For some, panic arises at the mere sight or mention.

The mirror surface of the water is perceived as something causing concern. There are frequent cases when thoughts come into your head that something inexplicably terrible and deadly is revealed under it. For people suffering from this disorder, it is necessary to provide bathing only in a shallow pool with clear water, due to which the bottom becomes visible.

The causes of this disorder should be looked for in childhood:

• A child can survive shock by swallowing water or almost drowning. Basically, this happens in village ponds.
• The boat turned upside down in the middle of the swim can also be the reason.
• Unexpectedly, even children's jokes, like jerking your heels underwater, can cause this phobic disorder.
• The sight of a drowned person also leaves a deep imprint on the psyche.
• The reason may be a horror movie that was once watched, in which a pond appeared. Even the mildest form of this phobia can cause anxiety and fear in people when they are in a body of water.

Sea monsters

Any phobia involves a serious subconscious fear. This fear is expressed in rapid breathing, 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 in front of your eyes - here you can flee or something else. But when such fear arises at depth, it is many times worse and more terrible.

It is 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 like that, this is already a phobia. For some divers, the fear of sea creatures with fangs, such as sharks, is so strong that even swimming in an ordinary pool becomes an unbearable ordeal for them.

Fear of getting entangled in algae

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

It is worth remembering that the desire to avoid algae is a normal reaction, as they are really extremely dangerous for swimmers. Another thing is when, in an attack of a panic attack, a person begins to move chaotically, thereby possibly dooming himself even to death. Some claim that this phobia is treated with hypnosis.

Fear of drowning

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

The mental symptoms look like this:

- Unpleasant sensations on contact of the skin with water. - Inexplicable fear of a banal bath. - Of course, we already know the fear of depth and the fear of large bodies 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.
• Vertigo.
• High blood pressure.
• Profuse perspiration.
• Headaches.

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 such a state, a complete shutdown of consciousness occurs, so that a person will definitely not be able to help himself. Aquaphobia is very, very dangerous, you need to get rid of it at the first sign.

But where does this fear of depth come from?

This particular type of phobia, like bathophobia, can be both destructive and objective. The destructive form implies inexplicable fears that there are monsters or any life-threatening things under the water. There have been cases when 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, extremely hostile to humans.

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

How to deal with fear?

The origin of all these phobias has deep psychological causes and it is sometimes extremely difficult to even determine them. However, there are a few recommendations, following which you will definitely feel relief.

Understand what the aquatic environment is like. Before embarking on a long release from fears and phobias, try to understand what you are really afraid of.

• 
  Ptsd from childhood abuse
• 
  Whats high functioning autism
• 
  Healing complex trauma
• 
  Personal space issues disorder
• 
  Feeling like im letting go
• 
  Brintellix vs prozac
• 
  Signs your being emotionally abused
• 
  Tell me about your experience working with kids
• 
  Manipulation of others
• 
  What does it mean when you dream about your teeth falling off
• 
  Antidepressant without side effects