Ever since I was little I have had a crippling fear of swimming pool
drains. If I am in the pool I start getting nervous that I might be
near it, but dont want to look under the water to see, because the
sight of it underwater is even worse. That leads to me not wanting or
being able to wear goggles or open my eyes underwater at all (only in
a pool). Also the sound of it is horrible. If I happen to go to the
deep end, I swim as fast as I can to the sides and look all around for
it, and my heart starts racing and I freak out if I am near it. I'm
not really afraid of being sucked in, of course that would really be
bad, but its just the drain. It is so ominous, something about it just
instills fear in me. Also the lights on the side freak me out a
little. The bigger they are, the worse it is. This fear seems to have
gotten worse, not better with age, as I am now 22. I also seem to have
a little problem with shower drains. Its not as bad but its more of a
feeling of something coming OUT of the drain with this one. This
includes shower drains, sinks, and general floor drains. It might have
come with watching too many scary movies, but I feel that either
something will reach out of it and grab my ankle and/or foot, a huge
amount of cockroaches will swarm out, or something of the like. I HATE
touching it with my foot, and try to stand as far away from it as
possible when showering, and have to glance down every 5 seconds. I
also can't close my eyes longer than a couple seconds, and have to
look at it as soon as my eyes are clear. Also sometimes I think that
when I open the shower curtain something will be there. I would feel
my chest tighten up and I would search the curtain for signs of a
shadow, then quickly throw it open. For a long time when I was about
13 I guess, I had to take showers with the curtain open, getting the
floor all wet. I have done this for years and only about a couple
years ago, could close the curtain most of the way. While we're on it,
going back to the shower drain part of something reaching out and
grabbing you, in the dark I have this fear that something will reach
out and grab my ankle if I put my feet down the side of the bed. So
once again as a teenager (I was afraid of the dark then, not now) I
would jump as far away from the side of the bed as possible, if I had
to get up for something in the middle of the night. I still have this
fear somewhat, but not as bad, because I can ignore it and tell myself
there's nothing under the bed, and nothing can grab me. I still feel
the tightness in my chest, but I hope that making myself do it will
help me get over what I feel is a somewhat childish fear. On the other
hand, the pool drain fear is something I DO NOT wish to try to beat
like that, I think I would have a heart attack first.