Fear, Phobia and Mad Dogs

In a recent post, Derrick told us that his wife, Mary, had over come her fear of water and was rolling on a regular basis. I, in turned, commented about how I honored her and the others I've seen go through this fear. To me, these folks have exhibited remarkable courage and persistence.

I remember a woman who attended a symposium where I was teaching. She was in an introductory class and told me she was terrified of the water. She added that her biggest fear was to be upside down in a kayak and that she was taking the class to over come that fear.

We started out by just talking about what she feared and what a wet exit required. No one in the class denigrated her and, in fact, were very patient and encouraging in spite of the extra time spent with her. After winning her trust, we went through a sequence of exercises in which I tipped her a few degrees and brought her up. This was repeated over and over until I had her cheek at water level (I was standing in shallow water...but I digress). I told her that when she was ready, she should just dip her face into the water and immediately bring it back out.

To make a long story absolutely unbearable, she eventually did do a wet exit. It wasn't pretty, but she did it on her own. Afterward, she wept from the joy and the immense tension release and then insisted on doing it again. What a gal.

Later that day, someone asked me if she had had a phobia, and I said she did not. A phobia, after all, is an irrational fear and, to me, fear of the water is not irrational. In case you haven't noticed, you can't breath the stuff into your lungs and expect to improve your forward stroke afterwards. Someone else thought it was a phobia, and I asked him to name it. He said it would be either aqua phobia or hydrophobia. I told him that I hadn't heard of the former (although, it may exist) and that hydrophobia actually was the name for Rabies (yes, the disease of mad dogs). Because rabies causes spasms of the throat, the victim is afraid to swallow water, and I can't cure that at a kayak symposium.

note: After yesterday's posting, JB supplied the lyrics to On The Road. I want ASCAP to know I did not plagiarize them and do not know how to remove them.

Paddle safe...

DS