The Truly Bizarre Phobia You Won't Really Know You Have Until You Go Snorkeling Or Scuba Diving

If you have a phobia, you may wonder if you're the only one. While things like fear of heights (acrophobia) or spiders (arachnophobia) are pretty common, others are more unusual, like trypophobia, which is a fear of patterns of holes like you might find in a sponge. However, there is one phobia that you may not even discover you have until you try scuba diving or snorkeling during a beach vacation. While scuba and snorkeling have dangers you cannot ignore, proper instruction can help keep you safe and sound. That may not matter, however, if you have submechanophobia, which is a fear of artificial objects underwater. This can include things like buoys, shipwrecks, and submarines, and it can even be an issue for you when you're not in the water. One person on Reddit's r/submechanophobia mentioned it being set off by an underwater level in a video game that featured a metal structure. 

Symptoms of submechanophobia may include things like fear of these items and the harm they could cause. Another Redditor mentioned a fear of touching something with their foot while swimming and getting stuck underwater. You may also find yourself avoiding situations where you may encounter these objects for six months or more. 

While some people may be aware of having submechanophobia, others may find it triggered by diving to see a shipwreck, or seeing something like the Neptune statue in the water off Melenara Beach in Gran Canaria, Spain. You may have planned a trip to a place like the underwater park full of statues in Baia, Italy, or the MUSA underwater museum near the sunny Caribbean coast of Cancun, only to realize that you're too anxious to take part. Submechanophobia may make you feel like something is in a place it shouldn't be, or that it's been abandoned. It may feel like a hidden danger is lurking in a place you can't see. In another post on the Reddit r/submechanophobia page, one person said that, to them, "A sunken or flooded man-made object means it FAILED. It's unstable. Man lost his battle with nature. These are the sites of misery, sorrow, and sometimes death. Bad vibes all over to begin with."

There are many causes for phobias, from genetics or family history to environmental factors. It may also stem from an experience that you've had in the past. However, phobias can be treated with behavioral therapy. A licensed therapist may use the desensitization technique, where you're exposed to a small amount of stimuli and gradually work your way to more exposure while learning anxiety coping techniques. Another technique is flooding, which, in simplest terms, works with immediate stimuli. If you do find yourself with this phobia, seeking treatment can help you get some relief.