Fear of Deep Water...

Having gone from a shallow pool to a deeper pool, I agree it can be visually disturbing.   But the more you do it, the better it will get.  Frankly, most lakes you can't see the bottom anyway, so the less visibility the better.  But I'd do more work in the pool if you think you'll be swimming in a clear lake

I get freaked out a lot in open water.  I get freaked out when i can see the  bottom, and i get even more freaked out when i can't see the bottom.  I get freaked out just thinking about how deep it is underneath me.  Thinking about 100ft of water underneath me scares me.  The scarey part is i don't know wtf is down there.

I still get freaked out when i think about it.  Thankfully, in my last tri, i already had high anxiety from the race so that kinda overshadowed any issues i have with deep/open water.

Here is something I have figured out. I live on the east coast of Florida. I practice open water swims in the ocean with about 10 other people. Mind you, i have always swam, surfed, boogie boarded....etc. all of my life in the same ocean. My first open water swim was nerve racking to say the least. Then it occurred to me, I cant see the bottom! Actually, i could only see to the end of my hand!

Now you may be thinking, how is this a good thing? Well, I THINK its good because you only need to think about what is going on from your head to the end of your hand and not EVERYTHING else that COULD be in the water.

The other thing to think about is this. You WILL NOT drown! Like I'm sure some other posters will tell you, it's all in your head. Just RELAX, STAY LONG, GLIDE, and most important......BREATHE. 

Also, I want you to go to the pool, or while you are at home and think about what it is that scares you. Then, let's say, is it the "DEEP" hole in the pool? Then, go get your suit and goggle on and swim over that hole over and over again until your fear subsides. Trust me, it will!

Overall RELAX, RELAX, RELAX and keep doing it till you you are comfortable. It will happen, trust me you are overthinking this too much!

YOU WILL BE FINE!

I used to be on the Fire Department and I am scared of heights.  I would dread doing ladder training.  But on a fire scene I would be first up a 125 Arial ladder.  I am hoping it is something like that where when it's race time where you get tunnel vision and all of the little things you were anxious about during training just go away and you just do it.  ughh...anxious right now typing this. heh.

Thanks for this thread! I did my first tri in June and was shocked by how deeply my fear of deep water gripped me. Afterwards I realized that i was in very little actual danger and I have the skills to manage but that's the thing about irrational fear.  Have to say the only way to beat is to face it head on.

So thanks for the reminder to relax and keep trying!

I actually am more scared if I can't see the bottom, there could be ANYTHING living down who knows how far down it will go?

I grew up pretty much always on a salt water beach, then I moved to the midwest where everyone is used to going in murky lakes... took me a LONG time to be okay with that one.

i had some OWS fears similar to yours...depth, the weeds and creepiness. I find I feel much safer in my wetsuit.  partially because of the extra buoyancy and partly because I feel protected from the weeds....kinda silly but it really helps me....although this won't help in the pool, most tris are in open water.

Even though I grew up surfing, I still had a fear of the open water. Now, it is not as much of a problem. If I think about it I still get a little freaked out. It's taken a year but I'm pretty comfortable now.

x2 I was freaked out at first in OWS in water where I couldn't stand, just takes some time to get used to it.

I still lose my breath sometimes when I first get in Open water where I can't stand but just sit there a sec and heart rate comes back down and everything is good.

Make the deep water fear you.

Since you have no other fear and seem to be a decent swimmer, this is all mental. As you swim through the deep end next time, make a mental note of how amazing you are. That your body skims along the surface of the water with each kick and arm pull you that you take. Give yourself some mental applause as you glide safely to wall at the deep end. Then push off and do it all over again. If that's not enough, actually try to swim to the bottom. You will soon find that the water doesn't want you down there. It is really hard to get close to the bottom. Mentally acknowledge this fact. Your logical brain will soon take over and you will be swimming in the deepest, clearest waters without the heebie-jeebies.

Way to go on making yourself swim past the freak-out point. You're one step closer to winning that war

Pam

This is something I struggle with. The pool I use has a very deep end and my first several OWSs were a disaster. Knowing that I couldn't stand if I needed to freaked me out. The solution for me was to hit the pool frequently and get lots of practice. I also enter the pool on the deep end. I slide in from the pool deck, blow out some air, relax, and float back up. Try to relax that is the key. In the beginning I use to close my eyes over the deep end as well. Overtime with practice it gets better. Luckily for me what's in the water doeesn't scare me, it's the concept of deep water that does. Logically I know I don't need to stand, I can swim the distances I'm doing easily enough, I can always dog paddle, backstroke, side stroke, or just treadwater if I need more air. If you don't plan on standing, it doesn't matter if it is 3 feet or 300. Hang in there and get loy's of pool time this anxiety will fade and eventually won't give you a second thought. One more piece of advice. Don't be surprised if you get past this and everything is great for a while and bam out of the blue for no particular reason someday it flares back up during a swim. At this point however you know you can deal with it, just think this is stupid and keep swimming.

When I 1st learned to swim again I did it at a University 50m competition pool that was 9-10' deep from both ends.  Kind of freaked me out at first until I realized there is a rope near me, life gaurds, and lots of people.

Also I use to swim/jump at a local rock quarry that flooded and it was rouighly 200-300ft deep.  One buddy was scared of drowning because of how deep it was.  I told him there is no difference between drowning in 10ft of water or 10,000ft of water.  Then I called him some mean things and peer pressured him into jumping.

Fear of deep water is something most people have to work on. In fact all of my friends and family were very afraid of deep water. In my mind and in my circle of friends I am the nutso one because I have never been afraid of the deep water, in a pool or lake or ocean etc...I love being able to look down into dark nothing or onto the bottom 20+ feet away if it is clear. That is one reason I loved snorkling/swimming in the Galapagos because I could see the bottom or dive next to a cliff wall where the bottom is not in site but there are amazing fish all along the wall.

Practice it, get used to it, and think about it as something fun and exciting and eventually you will come to tolerate it 

It sounds strange, but it might have been just a bit of acrophobia, or fear of heights.  Pools are crystal clear and you write that you felt anxiety when you crossed over to the 12 foot side, probably at the same time that you saw the difference in depth.  I'll assume that you already knew this pool had a deeper section, yet you didn't write that you had any anxiety before you actually visualized the depth.

This kind of reaction is not uncommon in scuba diving.  I'm a long-time water man with pretty much no fear in open water, but I did have a moment of anxiety years ago on a dive in Aruba.  We were in 80 feet of water with crystal clear vis and I was A-OK as we prepped to descend from the surface, until I actually put my mask in the water.   Suddenly I felt like I was floating 80 feet above the ground and I felt a bit dizzy and panicy.  I calmed myself enough to descend and was back to normal by the time I was 20 feet under the surface.  6' of water is more than enough to drown in, of course, but probably just doesn't look that deep.  Sounds like you had a little acrophobic moment that was more of a gut reaction to what you were seeing.  I'll bet you'll be fine in a lake where there's no visible bottom to trigger that instinctive reaction.  In the pool it'll just take a bit of mind-over-matter until you get used to what you're seeing when you hit the 12' section.