Does the thought of going to the beach cause you panic? Do you get nervous just to see the sea? Are you afraid of getting too close to the beach and that the water could reach your feet? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may probably be feeling quite uncomfortable and misunderstood, but do not worry, this problem affects more people than you can imagine and has its name, it is called thalassophobia But what is thalassophobia and how to overcome it? Thalassophobia is the intense and exaggerated fear of the sea. People who suffer from this phobia are even afraid to imagine what is under the water and to see images in which a large body of water appears. Of course, for them it is unimaginable to bathe on the beach, just approach the shore and / or dare to travel by boat. Luckily, this condition has a solution and the person who suffers it can eliminate it by complete and better enjoy a beach vacation, for example, or going on a trip in cruise. Simply, the fact of combating this phobia and eliminating it will allow the person to have a better quality of life by acquiring greater confidence and security in herself.
This is why in Psychology-Online, we invite you to learn more about what is thalassophobia and how to overcome it.
The people that have fear of the sea or thalassophobia present a series of characteristic symptoms that identify them. Among them are the following:
- They are aware that their fear of the sea is irrational, but they have the feeling that there is nothing they can do to control it.
- They may have physical reactions such as sweating, palpitations, nausea, oral dehydration, among others, generated by the anxiety caused by being near the sea and even seeing an image of a large mass of water.
- Fear of what is under water. The thought of the animals in the background causes them panic.
- They avoid going to the beach, since just approaching the shore and feeling the water on their feet causes them a lot of discomfort.
- They may have difficulties speaking and / or thinking clearly when they are near the sea and even in more serious situations, it happens when they see images or videos about the sea.
- They are terrified of traveling by boat.
The main reasons why a person may be afraid of the sea is because they have lived bad experiences in the past. Probably, in childhood and even in other stages of life, the person has lived a difficult situation at sea that has caused a lot of fear and impression. For example, swimming on the beach and having been swept away by the tide, being about to drown, having suffered a storm aboard a boat, etc. Some people may even have started to develop this fear from having witnessed a situation where another person was in danger in the sea or seen a movie where there were sharks or animals in the water that attacked the people.
Another possible reason why thalassophobia can be generated is because of the lack of information about the sea and / or what exists in the deep sea, so that the person gets the wrong idea about what can be found in the sea and generalizes it. For example, you may think that dangerous animals can be found on the beach, even in shallow parts.
Inform
An important step to begin to overcome the fear of the sea is to learn everything about it. It must be taken into account that not all are the same, each one has different characteristics, such as temperature, waves, marine animals (take into account the depth in which they are), among many other things that it is necessary to know to eliminate the ideas that we have wrong.
Relaxation techniques
There are a number of relaxation techniques you can do to prepare yourself to overcome thalassophobia. Next, we will explain one of them that you can easily learn and practice at home.
- Diaphragmatic breathing: diaphragmatic or abdominal breathing is a technique used to control anxiety, stress and to learn to relax. It is very simple to learn and you can practice it this way: first, you inhale slowly and deeply and feel As the abdomen swells, you hold the air for 5-10 seconds and then slowly exhale, drawing the air out through the mouth. You can repeat this operation as many times as you consider necessary until you feel calmer, doing it slowly and calmly so that you will not have hyperventilation. You can do it sitting or standing wherever you are. In this case, you can do it when you are physically near the sea, on board a ship and / or only imagining or looking at a related image that causes you anxiety.
Exhibitions in the imagination
You can perform exposure techniques in the imagination that will help you start to cure thalassophobia. Something you can do is, in a quiet place, sitting or lying down, you close your eyes and first begin to imagine that you are on a beach, but you observe it from afar, you imagine the sound of the sea, the smell of the breeze that reaches you where you are, the color of the sea, etc., as real as possible and once you begin to experience physical reactions annoying, you try to relax through the exercise of diaphragmatic breathing, feeling how those feelings of anxiety that you feel begin to disappear little by little. you experience.
Once you have noticed that your body is less tense, you continue with another situation that causes you more fear, for example, where you are near the edge of the beach, etc. This will help you prepare for when you have to physically face the sea.
Exhibitions progressively
After exposing yourself to the sea through your imagination and noticing that your anxiety has decreased, you can progressively begin to expose yourself physically. You can ask a friend or relative to accompany you to gradually approach the shore of the beach and go at the same time doing your relaxation exercises. Keep in mind that you should not do everything in one day, this can take weeks or even months, the important thing is to be constant.
Psychotherapy
In case your fear is too intense, you feel that you cannot overcome it alone and you would like to eliminate it, you can always choose to go to a professional that can help you. This treatment is similar to that of other types of phobias where the therapist will inform you everything about your condition, will analyze the causes for which it has originated and will begin to carry out a program to reduce this fear. Psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring (to eliminate irrational beliefs and modify them for other more adaptive ones), relaxation exercises, visualization and gradual exposure to the object feared.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
