Specific phobias associated with diving

By Dr. Stefano Casali

DSM-IV-TR also includes Specific Phobia among the Anxiety Disorders, which is defined as "marked and persistent fear, excessive or unreasonable, caused by the presence or expectation of an object or specific situations".

Exposure to the phobic stimulus causes an immediate anxious response, which can take the form of a situational or situation-sensitive panic attack. The person recognizes that the fear is excessive or unreasonable and avoids the situation or endures it with intense anxiety and discomfort. There are various subtypes of specific phobia; those that may occur during the course of a diving activity can be classified as follows:

Type of animals . This subtype refers to the fear of fish (Hittophobia) or, more specifically, of sharks or Elasmophobia. The latter is related to phagophobia or the fear of being eaten alive. This subtype generally begins in childhood.

Type of Natural Environment . Includes Thalassophobia, which is an irrational fear of the sea, Hydrophobia or fear of water (which usually begins in childhood), Batophobia or fear of depth or going deep in deep dives and Nitrophobia or fear of the dark in case of night dives.

Situational Type . Includes Claustrophobia (fear of being shut or stuck) that can manifest itself in wreck diving or underwater speleology, Barophobia (fear of being crushed) triggered by the idea that the mass of water above can crush the diver.

Other type . Some stimuli can trigger other phobias such as tanatophobia (fear of dying) or pnigophobia, which is the fear of not being able to breathe or suffocate.

In the clinical setting the most frequent subtype is the Situational one, followed by the fear of animals (sharks, in the case of those who dive).

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