Fear of Scuba can be overcome with time!!!

[phulme]

Just my personal experience, but I find that diving is very positive in overcoming fear.

I've always been uneasy in the water, my mother was seriously terrified of water and could never swim, or even go in the water, and it rubbed off on me. I only learned to swim in my teens and have never been able to jump or dive into the water.

My daughter (12) wanted to try diving on vacation, and I wanted to be sure she was properly prepared, so I enrolled her in a PADI course in the UK. She would only go if I did it as well, so I had no choice.

I struggled during the coourse, but slowly learned confidence in the water and the required skills. My first giant stride entry was a spectacular belly flop, but things did get better. On vacation we had to do things I hadn't done before (swim to a boat, board and enter from the boat) but the training got me through it.

Now, as a result of learning to dive, I'm much more relaxed in the water and plan to continue diving and build up my skills. I'll always have a very healthy respect for the water and I'll be a careful diver because of it.

Just wanted to share my view that diving can help you overcome your fear.

 

[Sue-ba]

I was nervous about all this at first too. I have never been comfortable in the water. I hated snorkeling. I had trouble with bouyancy at first too. My secret was reading dive magazines. We have one that is always printing articles about bouyancy. I read them all. My last few dives make me feel very confident about the bouyancy now. I

I know I have read once or twice that stress can affect your bouyancy. I think that even though you have overcome your fears and done this thing, you know that the pressure from your boyfriend will not stop. If he is more advanced, he will be expecting you to push your own limits which you have comfortably set at shallower limits.

It is probably just his personality and you cannot change him. You know that the pressure is going to be there to go deeper and dive places outside of your comfort zone. The stress gets to you when you dive with him because you know that I am right.

I think that you have issues with yourself about saying no to him for fear of losing him. That is the cause of the stress because you are afraid that when the pressure comes, you will be torn between your gut instincts about diving and your gut feelings about your feelings for each other.

I say, just be careful about determining how to prove your love and how to stay alive. Dive for the love of diving and not for the love of any man.

Even if you are a match on land, maybe you just are not a match in the water. Think about it.

 

[Izzy]

Hi Sue,

I think you are right about the fact that stress might affect your buoyancy. It might be why I did bad on my last dive with my boyfriend. But I also realized that I put a lot of pressure on myself. He wanted me to dive because he enjoys it and he thought we could enjoy it together. Maybe I was not clear about my story but he fully respects my diving plans. He has never push me to go deeper or to do anything I didn't want to do. He knows that I enjoy shallow dives and the plan has always been that he does the deep dive in the morning and we pair up together for the shallow dives in the afternoons. I would never listen to anyone about diving deeper than I think I should.

I did feel pressured by him to dive at the beginning because he enjoys it and he wanted me to do it too but like I said he never pressured me on what type of dives to do. For him just the fact that I tried and that I got the liscence even if I do shallow dive he is very happy.

It is his personality to be pushy but since I met him I did so much new things and I improved so much most of the things that I was already doing that I am thankful for being with him. Sometimes I don't have confidence or I am too lazy to push myself into something and I need somebody to keep me motivated and help me overcoming my fears and push my limits. The only thing about this one is that I had a real fear of it and pushing me didn't help.

I think that right after my certification during that bad dive I did with him I wanted so bad to show him I was good and I put so much pressure on myself that I did the opposite.

I am confident that I will be ok during the next dive. I just have to relax and enjoy the ride.

Thanks for your advises.