Afraid of fish . . . how to deal with it

[perdidochas]

Hola!

My son is certified OW, has about a dozen dives. His gf is willing to go through certification . . . but she is afraid of fish. (Don't know if it matters, but she is also afraid of bugs.)

How does one deal with this? Take her to the beach a lot? Buy her an aquarium?

I'd hate to get her trained, to only find out she won't be able to get in because there are fish . . .?!?!?

IMHO, there is little reason to dive if you're afraid of fish. She needs to get over it first.

 

[ScubaGirlJg]

If you are looking for her to get comfortable and she is willing to maybe you can take her to an aquarium that allows petting. For example, Sea World allows their guest to pet stingrays in a small pond. Maybe all she needs to experience is that they are more scared of her then she is of them. Also by seeing that once she touches them nothing happens she may be more willing to go diving. If you do ever go out to a dive site try not to go to reefs that have tremendous amount of fishes so she is not overwhelmed by having so many near and around her. Hope this helps! Keep us posted!

 

[ScubaGirlJg]

Oh yeah....I am going to go ahead and put my two cents in....I was in a similar situation as your son's girlfriend. My boyfriend was the one who surprised me with Scuba diving classes for my birthday. I will not lie I was very nervous, especially because of sharks. All the footage we see on television scared me to death. But by going to the classes I asked endless amounts of questions and had experienced divers tell me their stories. This made me feel much more at ease. I conquered my fear all the way to our first spring. When I first stepped into that 70 degree water I was like hell no!!! But I put my mask in the water and saw all the small fishes staring at me and I was overcome with such joy that I pooped my head out of the water and had a girly shriek followed by giggles and me babbling to my boyfriend that the fishes were so cute!! To say the least, his big smile after my reaction was all I needed to be like "Yes, I did it!' So I think she should try the classes and if she doesn't like it then and doesn't feel reassured then the sport may not be for her. I feel there are a lot of personal fears one has to overcome to be able to feel free and good about diving! This may not be the case for all but it was for me and I loved that I pushed myself from chickening out and that I didn't quit!! Good luck with your son's girlfriend.

 

[NauticalDelicious]

ichthyophobia

Fear of fish - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I hope she gets better.

 

[boulderjohn]

That is my hope! However, given that it is winter and they live in Albuquerque (OMG, can't any of us get closer to water?!?!), I'd like to get her through the training in the winter, with lots of pool practice, and then hit the Carribean.

If she is gning to learn this winter in Albuquerque, I suggest you go to the regional travel section of SB and visit the Rocky Mountain Oyster site. It's a fun group, and they will give good advice about local dive instruction.

If she is going to do her OW work in the winter locally as well, then she will be experiencing the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. It will be a bit chilly--roughly 61 degrees year round. It is a sink hole that is technically a part of a cave system, although you can't get out of it and into the rest of the system. There aren't many fish to scare her, and I suspect that the ones that are there will not scare her much--mostly koi and gold fish placed there by divers. She may have fun looking at the other sights, including the statue of Venus placed on the bottom a week or so ago by the Oysters.

By the way, when I snorkeled the Aquarium in San Carlos, I did not see a whole lot of fish in comparison with other options. Maybe that is good. Maybe it isn't. Once you are there, you will be tempted to go out to the island, where the sea lions may scare her more than the fish. Or she may really like diving (or snorkeling) with them.

there are a lot of places in the Caribbean where she can experience beginner dives with really benign fish life to get used to.

 

[Jax]

If she is gning to learn this winter in Albuquerque, I suggest you go to the regional travel section of SB and visit the Rocky Mountain Oyster site. It's a fun group, and they will give good advice about local dive instruction.

Thanks, BoulderJohn . . . . I dunno, is it safe to play with a bunch of people that play with Rocky Mountain Oysters?!?!?!!?

 

[meagicano]

I'm scared of fish! They gross me out. I think it's because they're squishy or something. I generally try to avoid them - I hate following a line in the river out to a wreck because the lines always go through tall weeds underwater and I'm always worried there's a giant fish waiting to attack. Attack pike!

I want to try some reef diving this winter to see how it goes. I know it's a ridiculous thing to be scared of - there's always a chance she agrees it's a stupid fear. Fish up here are ugly too... I'm okay with teeny fish, but when there are schools of fish, big fish or eels I don't like to get too close. One of the reasons u/w photography doesn't interest me (although I prefer to blame it on the price of gear and not my fear of getting close to fish).

My dive buddy/instructor had a good laugh one day - well, more of a head shake - I was out diving with my brand new regs and we were "treasure hunting", just kind of seeing what was out there - and I went to reach my hand forward and almost touched a HUGE fish hiding in the grass. I screeched through my reg and zipped over to my buddy as fast as I could to get away from the fish in case it attacked or something. He looked at me, thinking something was wrong, so I conveyed with hand signals the true problem.

For me, I'm just out there diving - but I really want to dive and I'm willing to work through my weird fish phobia in order to do it. My motivation to get underwater and see wrecks and go exploring is strong enough that I'm willing to put up with the bad stuff (fish) in order to do it. Maybe the key is to appeal to other parts of diving that are interesting? Wrecks, neat formations, underwater plants... etc.? Maybe she'll just consider the fish an unpleasant side effect.

 

[boulderjohn]

Thanks, BoulderJohn . . . . I dunno, is it safe to play with a bunch of people that play with Rocky Mountain Oysters?!?!?!!?

Better to play with them than eat them!

 

[Doc]

I'm thinking Confrontational Therapy.

 

[Jax]

I'm scared of fish! They gross me out. I think it's because they're squishy or something. I generally try to avoid them - I hate following a line in the river out to a wreck because the lines always go through tall weeds underwater and I'm always worried there's a giant fish waiting to attack. Attack pike!

Meagican, I'm proud of you for getting out there and facing your fear! I want you to know that . . .

. . . . before I tell you that the visual of you almost touching the fish and racing to your buddy has me