Do You Have Thalassophobia?

No. I have pantophobia.

Nope

No, but I have assophobia, which is the fear your ass is getting too big.

I did.

Not at all, but I do have Cleithrophobia in a big way.

As a person who has an appropriate fear of the deadly creatures in the ocean and who can’t swim, I do fear the seas.

I love swimming, but I'd always choose a pool over a natural body of water. When swimming in a lake or ocean, I'll never go far from the shore. One reason is fear of getting into some kind of trouble (cramp, currents, exhaustion ....). But it's definitely also the thought of having A LOT of water beneath me. Anything over, say, 15 feet would creep me out. Where I live, there are no dangerous sea creatures like sharks or alligators. However, natural bodies of water tend to be dark and muddy here, and when I can't feel or see the ground, my mind is starting to play tricks on me ... I start to imagine all kinds of things and quickly feel the urge to return to shore.

Yes. But nothing terrifies me more than enormously large bodies in space, eg quasars, nebulae, the never ending clouds of gas giant planets. Of course one would long be dead in such environments, but the thought still terrifies me.

Poor Natalie Wood had it.

Just think how tortured she was in the deep black water as RJ was beating her away from the boat with that oar.

[quote]R8: (N)othing terrifies me more than enormously large bodies in space....the never ending clouds of gas....

Stay away from mirrors, honey.

This motha fucka here!

Listen to the terror in these kid's voices.

Yeah. I can't even look at Lake Michigan at night without getting sweats.

R7 Yes, and with so many drownings, shipwreaks, missing people, I’m sure I’m treading water over some dreadful scene and a hideously decomposed body will float up in front of me.

Nope. No fear.

I really fell in love with SCUBA when I saw a huge 20 foot high sponge 200ft down in the Caribbean.

Yes. My brother knows better than to try to plan any kind of beach vacation with me.

Yes! I didn’t know there was a name for it. I was snorkeling off of St. Lucia and floated over a large cavernous dark area. I wasn’t concerned until the floor started moving and a large manta started moving upwards toward me. Deep open water is frightening - Thalassophobia indeed.

I'm going to Scotland next year. My friend has dared me to take a dip in Loch Ness.

Yes oh yes. I grew up in a croc infested coastal town with sea water that had man eating crocs, sharks, venemous sea snakes and tiny killer jellyfish. Just as I grew out of my fear a couple who were honeymooning jumped off the local jetty and the man got nabbed and death rolled by big Joe the local monstercroc. So the fear is there.

Would you have your guide drop you off somewhere among the wild life in the Massai Mara? Of course not! But that's comparative to what you're doing when you swim in the ocean.

I don't have a phobia per se, but I definitely feel uneasy on a small boat or swimming in the sea. The vastness, the unknown depth and its darkness, the hostility of the environment (i.e., not being able to breathe or move efficiently underwater), the giant creatures inhabiting it, there is so little that we know about the deep sea... humans just do not seem to be made for it.

A former friend of mine, who has been snorkeling and diving her whole life, once told me the story how she had encountered a big whale shark during a diving trip as a teenager. The way how she told the story was filled with so much enthusiasm and wonder. Despite knowing that whale sharks are completely harmless to humans, the story freaked me out however. Just imagining the sheer difference in size between a human and such a sea creature kinda frightens me.

Yes, OP. I didn't know there's a term for it, but it's spot-on.

....

Now that i'm old i definitely fear the ocean. I guess being young there is less fear about these things. maybe its the naivety. but just thinking about being in open water is terrifying.

On a vacation to Sydney, we were at Bondi Beach and got sucked under, pulled way down beach and finally thrown hard out of the ocean in a dumping wave. It was frightening. We didn’t go back into the water.

She shells sheashells by the sheashore.

I love the shea!

Yes.

I didn't know it had a name. I just thought Jaws really messed me up when I was a kid.

Sounds like a reasonable fear. So, a valid concern. I never get too far out, since sharks swim close to shore chasing bait balls all the time. One chewed a guy’s arm off before our trip to Gulf Shores.

R23 That picture gives me a panic attack.

R28 The horrifying brilliance of Jaws the movie was the perspective of the shark looking up at the kicking legs. And the cover of the paperback that everyone’s mother was reading on the beach in the 1970s.

R19 sounds like Australia.

No. But I am not overly excited by sharks like many others here. Particularly the white ones.

The ocean is the shark's house.

ust be read in Lucy Van Pelt's voice.

This thread topic mLet's pinpoint your fears!

^^^^UUUUUUUUUUUUUggggghhhh^^^^ should say, "MUST" be read!

This is a fascinating topic! I love swimming in the ocean but I agree with the poster who said the idea of all that water beneath you is terrifying.

I watch videos of stormy seas, and my dream to live near the ocean. But yes, its frightening in many ways.

I was a on a cruise ship once and as I stood at the stern alone at night, was fascinated/horrified at the thought of jumping overboard. I wonder how long you’d stay alive?

I can swim, but I have a fear of drowning and, of course, sharks. Because of climate change, sharks are ending up in bodies of water where they were never seen before. Wasn't some NYC female CEO, think she had something to do with Kipling bags, just killed in a lake by a shark?

I don't go to the beach, a lake or even a pool. I actually hate hot weather too, I hate the Summer. Can't wait until this heat and humidity is over, ugh

I exercise and I love to walk. I don't need to swim as a form of exercise.

I have thalassophilia.

[quote]I can't even look at Lake Michigan at night without getting sweats.

I don't have a problem swimming off a boat in the middle of Lake Michigan but I wouldn't do it in the ocean. I've snorkeled shallow reefs in oceans, that's quite enough.

I love swimming, since learning at a very young age. I swim laps in a pool at my gym for cardio (God! I miss it!). Growing up,I swam in lakes in the Adirondacks, and I live by the ocean today. I prefer swimming in a lake over the ocean. I'm a strong swimmer, and I know how not to fight against a riptide., but I will take the calm waters of a lake over the waves of the ocean.

Still, swimming in very deep water does not terrify me, but it makes me anxious. I've never been on an ocean liner in the middle of the vast seas. The vastness of the seas and their depths fascinate me, especially because as a kid I read Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" and from that read all I could lay my hands on about other disasters from the Lusitania to ships going down in WWII, and the Andrea Doria.

I thought I was cool with open water until I went snorkeling in Turks & Caicos. They have this feature called The Wall that's famous, it's where the ocean floor suddenly drops to massive depths.

I saw some pretty fish on The Wall before the drop, but when I turned around and looked at the deep dark ocean, it freaked me the fuck out! I was so happy when we returned back to a shallow reef. I will never swim in deep waters again.

Amazing story, huh.

[quote] I don't go to the beach, a lake or even a pool. I actually hate hot weather too, I hate the Summer. Can't wait until this heat and humidity is over, ugh

I’m with you.

[quote] Amazing story, huh.

I’m not sure if you were being sarcastic, but I actually did find it amazing. I had no idea there was such a thing and I think I’d be pretty freaked out too.

The Turks and Caicos Barrier Reef

I'm gonna free fall out into nothin...

Where did the reef go?

....

No, but I do have misophonia.

[quote]r9 Just think how tortured she was in the deep black water as RJ was beating her away from the boat with that oar

She was drunk off her ass, so probably fine.

I don't have an overall fear of the ocean, but have never exactly wanted to go on a cruise, either.

BTW, do not watch OPEN WATER if you have this Thalassophibia thing.

R51 - I don’t think I could survive that.

R52 This is based on a true story. A couple were scuba diving in Australia and the boat left them behind. They died.

Yes. I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan and was used to seeing the detritus of the lake wash up on the beach. I could only wade into the water until I couldn't see my feet, then I was outta there. I can't imagine being on a boat in the middle of the lake muchless the ocean. There's a whole different life under the water and it terrifies me. I have great respect for people who SCUBA and enjoy exploring life under water.

R53 There's a 20/20 or Dateline show about this and how their death changed laws about those group dive boats. It's a terrifying story, I can't imagine their fear when they emerged and couldn't find the boat. I seem to remember that evidence of their struggle washed up on shore somewhere...one of those writing boards that divers use.

I can't imagine their terror before dying.

I am terrified of beluga whales.

Terrifying gorgons of the deep!

Mermaids are real! They have actual footage!

Just imagine something like this coming for you from the deep...

OK, I’m easily frightened of stupid shit

I’m on the right side of history here!

I'm a volunteer rescue diver so my official answer is supposed to be something like, 'I respect the water. I don't fear it'. But that would be a lie. A little fear is a good thing.

Save me Aqualoins!

Maybe.

I like a craggy, crashing ocean, as in 19th Century seascapes, but a great wide unbroken stretch of sand blurring with the low waves of a calm sea, not really. A visit is fine, but I'm not at all drawn to that sort of landscape for more than a few hours, and wouldn't not want a house overlooking a calm sea. Lakes I dislike for the same reason, and with a couple of exceptions they provoke a certain moodiness and discomfort. Again, they can be nice enough to visit for a short time, but I don't want to stay. Rivers and streams and waterfalls and bodies of water with movement I'm much more amenable to, and the reason is that they are landscape features: a bit of water introduced into land. When it's the reverse and a big vastness of still water or any water where I can't see land in the distance I know I'm out of my place.

I always think of this passage from Barbara Grizzuti Harrison's book "Italian Days,"

[quote]This is the piazza where Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were hung, like sides of beef, head down from the roof beams of a gas station, after having been shot by partisans on the western shore of Lake Como. He had never liked lakes, pronouncing them compromises between seas and rivers. (Still today most of my Italian friends invariably call lakes triste, perhaps because their surface gives no clue to their depth. Thoreau called a lake the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth's eye, he said, looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. Mussolini would not have wished to measure the depth of his true nature.)

No, no, you go ahead, enjoy the lake. Benito and I will go to the grocery store and get things ready for dinner when you return.

I don't know how people can dive so deep without diving gear. I remember snorkeling off the shore of Grand Cayman, and when I tried to go any deeper than 4-5 feet the pressure on my ear drums was INTENSE!

don't be silly

don't be silly

I have developed an intense fear of heights - and even low heights like a second floor balcony.

[quote]I am terrified of beluga whales.

How smart was that cute beluga whale? He/she was playing ball with the people on the boat, they kept bringing the ball back to them. I had no idea whales were so intelligent.

That whale is so much smarter than our dumbass president!

No, but I was scared of Thalassa Cruso.

Swimming in Loch Ness

There are creatures of the deep that crawl up your butthole - you don’t even lose weight.

you think they are more than friends?

Titanic survivor Lawrence Beesley would always face away from the ocean or any body of water, when he'd join family members on holiday.

.....

R74 That’s fascinating.

Nope. I love the sea.

Inspired by R75, and in the interest of promoting thalassophobia, here's something to think about:

As someone who drowned in deep water descends, the pressure squeezes the last bits of air out of the body and they sink all the way to the bottom.

When someone drowns in shallow water, pressure doesn't come into play and the body pitches forward in a semi-fetal position, at about 45 degrees. Victims of dry drowning are found in a similar position but maybe a bit more upright.

However, when the person is obese the buoyancy of their abdominal fat can force the upper body back into a standing position and it's possible to come face to face with them.

Sweet dreams!