Alas, my fears (in fresh water) are quite stupid and uncalled for. I remember when this first started to take over my sense of reality. I had seen a movie where some teenagers snuck into this indoor pool of sorts. They were getting all hot and heavy in the pool (cause you know, the piranha didn't attack as soon as they jumped in. They wanted to be cock-blockers right as things were getting really sexy) and out of nowhere, they start screaming and there is blood everywhere in the water yada yada yada. It was really corny and stupid but my young brain didn't process that. All it wanted to process was pool = danger. So... my parents got a pool built when I was 6. And it was awesome. Until I started swimming by myself. I would start thinking about that movie... and my anxiety would start building until finally, I would jump out of the pool and scan the entire thing, making sure nothing was lurking in the measly 5 feet deep water to eat me. My fears became irrational. I starting thinking someone was going to pass by our wall and toss an alligator in there, or WORSE... a shark. Yes. We had the salt water system so I was CERTAIN a shark could survive long enough to rip off my legs and eat them.
This fear then started to strike me when I was in natural bodies of water. And it got WORSE because I could never see the bottom so I never knew what could be swimming under me. When that realization hit me, all hell broke loose in my mind. I had an obsession with sharks when I was little so I knew damn well that bull sharks could survive in fresh water. My Step-mom actually had a baby alligator for a "pet" when she was younger so I also knew that people who could no longer care for them would dump them in rivers and whatnot (not that she did that. I don't recall what she did but I know she didn't do that.). And I also knew that people could keep piranha as pets and dump them in rivers too. What was stopping them? Nothing. And as that realization grew, so did my irrational fear.
Then came Lake Placid. Lake Placid killed me. I knew I shouldn't have watched it. I knew what it was going to do to me, but I watched it anyway and sure enough, summertime trips to the local river turned into stomach-churning freak-out fests for me. My friends were splashing and screaming and I was frantically yelling in my mind "STOP!!! The splashing attracts flesh-eating creatures of the deep!!!". When the embarrassment overcame the fear and I got in, I would be ok for a few minutes. I would even start to have a little fun. Then I started remembering where I was... and what could be in there... and my life was possibly in danger. Ohmygawd. Something just brushed my foot!!!!
I would then frantically swim as fast as I could to the shore and jump out of the water, shaking like a leaf.
This fear is still with me to this day. Pools don't bother me anymore, but if I am in water where I cannot see the bottom, I am intensely uncomfortable. If I let it take over (as I so often do) I get a major anxiety attack and I have to get out of the water immediately. I squelch it in front of my friends most of the time because they'll never let me live it down... but I die a little inside each time I have to jump in. We'll be on a boat and everyone will be jumping off into the water... and I want to so badly... but as soon as I hit the water I flip. And don't even try to get me to do a water sport. For one, I can't. I genuinely blow at kneeboarding, wakeboarding, skiing, etc. So when I eat shit and the boat keeps going, I am left in the middle of the fucking water ALONE. I just close my eyes and pray nothing eats me.
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