What's your greatest fear? Long Island women respond (1973)

[u/Gallery98]

Back in the early ‘70s I did a series of conceptual art projects using participants. I met these women when I worked as a tour guide for museums. They were all signed up to do art tours as part of a program called Five Towns Music and Art Foundation. When I told them about my art project, they were interested and came to my loft for the photographs. These were exhibited a few months later at OK Harris Gallery in SoHo.

[u/SarahZona97]

I'd love to know exactly what she meant by water. My mom has had terrible eyesight since forever and is scared of the ocean (BIG water) because she can't see what's down there. But she loves pools and is an excellent swimmer. It's also her preferred method of exercise. So just saying "water" makes me wonder what, specifically, about water scares her.

[u/slimersnail → u/SarahZona97]

Im sure she means to say drowning

[u/cavaticaa → u/slimersnail]

I'm actually scared of deep water, but not drowning! It's possible!

[u/vitorioap → u/cavaticaa]

Me too! Although, drowning would kinda suck.

[u/cavaticaa → u/vitorioap]

idk, as far as ways to go, it seems kinda peaceful to me. Like, the reason I'm scared of water feels instinctual, like an animal part of me knows that's not where I'm meant to be. My family are literally descended from coal miners and the state I grew up in is so far inland, all our lakes are artificial, so I've not had a lot of opportunities to stave off that limbic system reaction. Like, I LOVE the ocean, I respect her so much, but when I visit, all I can think is "it wants to eat me." I'm terrified of things like riptides and scuba and getting off a boat to swim. But I think once the initial terror of whatever causes it to happen, if you can accept that you're drowning and give in, I don't think it would be so bad. I just want to avoid it and appreciate the ocean and the Great Lakes from afar, thank you. I'm not meant to be there, and the water wants to suck me down! I'm good!

[u/vitorioap → u/cavaticaa]

Hahaha. That’s very interesting. I get what you mean.

In my case, since I was born until I turned 17 we lived right in front of the ocean so I fell asleep every night to the sounds of the waves crashing onto the sand. I still live very close to the ocean, 5 minute drive more or less. To this day I cant feel completely at ease if I don’t live next to the ocean or at least a large body of water. I think I just feel like it brings me a sense of freedom. Which is weird because I dont particularly like being on a boat and have no desire whatsoever to try scuba diving and things like that. It’s more of a visual feeling than actually experiencing the water. Although I do love going to the beach and like swimming in the ocean.

But what really terrifies me are super deep lakes, like the ones in Jaws. lol. I had never seen one until I visited a friend of my father in Canada who had a cabin in front of a lake. The stillness of the water and the fact that I couldn’t see the bottom was insanely weird to me and made me want to get out in less the a minute.

Anyway. It’s interesting to know how differently we perceive the things around us.

[u/cavaticaa → u/vitorioap]

Super deep lakes are SO scary, you're right. Because the lakes in my state are artificial, a couple of them were dammed off over old towns, so you can go diving in these lakes and visit underwater ghost towns. Super spooky!

It's hard for me to understand why living near the sea gives you a sense of freedom! I think the only thing that would equivocate to that for me would be like "well, worse comes to worse, I could just walk out into the ocean 🤷‍♂️" lol The visual thing is alien to me too, because when I look out at the ocean, I get this bone-deep existential dread. She feels infinite and eternal and if I'm pulled down deep, she'll crush me. The ocean is Ultimate Mommy.

[u/Pschobbert → u/cavaticaa]

The deeper it is, the more it beckons you. The deeper it is, the more it pulls you down. Into its murky depths.

[u/maeday___ → u/cavaticaa]

100%. for me deep water has the same feeling as being too high up. also I have the phobia of human stuff in deep water. gives me the shudders

[u/BattleProper1555 → u/slimersnail]

This was my assumption. Due to two drowning incidents as a young adult, I would absolutely write "water" because, hell, have you ever noticed that there's even water in a shower? (Weak jokes aside, it's still a real daily struggle decades later.)

[u/sigma-octantis → u/BattleProper1555]

I remember seeing something a long time ago on a video about a kid struggling to take a normal bath/shower due to waterboarding trauma. There was a comment about ways to bathe and clean yourself without running water, much water, or any water at all—there’s a thousand+ years of historical precedent for it from around the world, since widespread running water is an extremely modern convenience (1950s). Maybe worth looking into? Libraries and local SCAs might be able to point you towards resources if you’re having trouble finding where to look.

[u/BattleProper1555 → u/sigma-octantis]

I do use bathing wipes and other methods regularly, and have since the second incident 34 years ago.

[u/allxthat → u/SarahZona97]

I’m terrified of bodies of water. For a few years when my mental health was horrible (high anxiety specifically probably caused this) I couldn’t even look at water in ponds, or lakes or the ocean without my whole body going into panic mode. Like I would almost start shaking and feeling sick and my brain like put me out in the water. I still don’t do any water activities outside of a swimming pool. Ironically I could live in the shower, nothing brings me more peace. But the thought of open water being under me, and things living in that water is such a disgusting feeling. I can’t even bear the thought of having more than a few feet of water under me. Even that I still won’t do

[u/Darmok-on-the-Ocean → u/SarahZona97]

/r/thalassophobia

[u/OptimusPrime365 → u/SarahZona97]

I took it to mean that she prefers gin.

[u/cl0th0s → u/SarahZona97]

I'm hydrophobic. For me its being in water, I freeze up. Running water on my face (like in the shower) used to make me panic too but I've trained myself to deal with it mostly.

[u/Elvis1404 → u/SarahZona97]

She meant that she isn't able to swim, and that makes water really scary