All in the mind.

According to wikipedia, Aquaphobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of water that can affect about one in fifty people.

I've been aquaphobic for as long as I can remember.

As a kid I had more trouble dealing with it. I blame it on all the shark documentaries I used to watch. This may sound funny, but at the age of four, I used to have trouble drinking coke (be it in a can, bottle or a glass). Something about the dark color used to disturb me so much that I would get my sister to take the first sip (to make sure there was no shark in it!) and only then would I be confident enough to drink it.

To make bath time a little more exciting, my mom used to fill the tub with water and add bubble bath liquid so that my sister and I could enjoy ourselves. But I would never go near the tub. The bubbles used to make it impossible to see the bottom and hence I was never sure of what was in the water. I always feared that the moment I stepped in, a shark would just pop out and eat me up. Sounds silly, doesn't it?

I'm 20 years old now and though I do not have any trouble with bubble baths (I find them quite relaxing), I still wont dare to go near a pool. I experience the same uneasy feeling. Though I can see right through the water, I don't trust it enough to jump in. I love going to the beach with friends. Playing volleyball, getting tans, meeting cute guys! Everything except the water! I like looking but I wouldn't ever want to be in the middle of it! So when my friends go swimming, I stay on shore taking pictures or just watching and wondering how they can enjoy being in the water!

I don't know if I'll ever get over this fear. There was a time when I was embarrassed to let my friends know about it. But now that has changed. We all fear something or the other. And everyone I've talked to have the same thing to say about it.

That it's all in the mind.