Back in March 2016, I took a couple of swimming lessons. Starting from scratch, I learned enough to be able to cross the pool using a desperate and random sequence of arm/leg strokes.
I thought I knew enough to jump into the swimming pool in my apartment complex. It was a quiet evening, and I was the only person in the swimming pool. Without thinking too much, I jumped into the pool, started executing the weird moves, and managed to reach the middle of the pool. It was at that time that the horror began.
Suddenly, I realized that I was in the middle of this 8' pool (I am 6' and some change) and that the water was pulling me in. I felt really helpless, and at that moment, it struck me that I might be drowning. This was it.
I was 23, fresh out of college with a decent job, had a whole bunch of plans, and it was all going to evaporate just like that. I didn't get any flashbacks of the life I've had so far, but I clearly remember thinking that my parents will be really sad and that the travel plans I had for the next month will never materialize. I really did think that I was going to die. I screamed out for help, but there wasn't anyone around (and I might not have been making much sound).
Fortunately, I didn't give up, and something told me to keep moving my arms and legs. I felt that I was finally moving ahead. I gave it everything I had and grabbed a corner of the pool. I came out and ran back to my apartment. All of this took about ~20 seconds or less. Still, I could have been dead (later that night, I looked up the statistics for the number of deaths per year due to drowning in a swimming pool, and it was a non-trivial number, ~4000/year in the US IIRC).
So anyway, that incident changed my perspective of life and death altogether. I care about my life a lot, and I don't want to die, but something changed that day. I developed an urgency to get to things on my to-do list, because I realized that the lights can go off rather unceremoniously and without much notice. I also like to think that I'm less scared of death now, but who knows, really.
I don't suggest having a near-death experience to lose your fear of death, but maybe try not to overthink things not in your hand in general. Some things are just too random to worry about.
In case it might save a life... there’s a technique [1] for survival where you exhale to remove buoyancy, sink to the bottom, and launch off the floor to get a gasp of air before repeating .
It’s arguably the first technique people should teach/master when learning to swim as an adult, as it’s the ultimate “fallback technique” in a situation like one you describe. It’s widely taught in the US Navy, but applicable in freshwater swimming, as well.
Drowning is indeed a shockingly common and particularly tragic way to die. Most multigenerational families personally know of at least one person that’s drowned, to put the statistic you shared in perspective. :/
I was a kid, maybe 12 when I fell into a deep pool.
After a wave of profound panic, time slowed and I found myself able to think and did that method.
Worked.
When I got out of the pool, I rested for a very long time, just staring at that blue sky, my mind quiet.
I felt both detached, like I was not really here, and profoundly aware, senses tuned to the max, vivid.
Slowly, it all came together again, and the emotions washed over me, I wept.
Processing that event took a long time. I can tell you the will to thrive is something I cultivated.
The rest is sort of fear of fear. We need fear to survive and respond, but we also need to be present and for me it is a sort of detachment. Like a cold, do what I can core comes up and is in charge, until later, danger past.
A near car accident saw a similar thing happen much later in life, time slows and thought is action.
Like, nothing else matters. And to a person in those moments, maybe that is true.
While I write this, it may seem cool, or a boast.
It is not either of those. I feel messed up, like thrashed and it is all very unpleasant. Sometimes I feel like I should not be here, or that I had help, or got super lucky, or it was just not my time.
It will be. What then? Will that state not take hold, leaving only fear to remain?
All that said, yes! I have taught that method to others, just in case. I have no idea what compelled me to do it that day.
I’ve been doing this for fun (and rest) since I was 12 in swim team. I enjoy the feeling of controlling whether I float or sink, and launching off the bottom is less strenuous than treading water. I had no idea it was a Navy standard procedure.
It's actually a really good technique that everyone should be taught in their first swimming lesson or at school, even if you don't do any swimming classes.
It's such an easy thing.
Now, next thing is to make learning to swim mandatory at all elementary schools.
I'm sorry if this comes across as crass (maybe you have a severe phobia) but to be clear, you panicked and thought you were going to die while at the halfway point of trying to cross a pool only 8 feet wide? even thrashing about should have been enough to get you across the remaining four feet to grab an edge, no?
Yeah it was 8 feet deep (I mentioned my height for reference).
I don't have any phobia of water. In fact, a week after the incident I signed up for more swimming lessons (8 1:1 sessions) and I believe I'm a pretty decent swimmer now.
I was actually planning to start training for the Alcatraz swim but moved out of the Bay before that could happen!
I thought I knew enough to jump into the swimming pool in my apartment complex. It was a quiet evening, and I was the only person in the swimming pool. Without thinking too much, I jumped into the pool, started executing the weird moves, and managed to reach the middle of the pool. It was at that time that the horror began.
Suddenly, I realized that I was in the middle of this 8' pool (I am 6' and some change) and that the water was pulling me in. I felt really helpless, and at that moment, it struck me that I might be drowning. This was it.
I was 23, fresh out of college with a decent job, had a whole bunch of plans, and it was all going to evaporate just like that. I didn't get any flashbacks of the life I've had so far, but I clearly remember thinking that my parents will be really sad and that the travel plans I had for the next month will never materialize. I really did think that I was going to die. I screamed out for help, but there wasn't anyone around (and I might not have been making much sound).
Fortunately, I didn't give up, and something told me to keep moving my arms and legs. I felt that I was finally moving ahead. I gave it everything I had and grabbed a corner of the pool. I came out and ran back to my apartment. All of this took about ~20 seconds or less. Still, I could have been dead (later that night, I looked up the statistics for the number of deaths per year due to drowning in a swimming pool, and it was a non-trivial number, ~4000/year in the US IIRC).
So anyway, that incident changed my perspective of life and death altogether. I care about my life a lot, and I don't want to die, but something changed that day. I developed an urgency to get to things on my to-do list, because I realized that the lights can go off rather unceremoniously and without much notice. I also like to think that I'm less scared of death now, but who knows, really.
I don't suggest having a near-death experience to lose your fear of death, but maybe try not to overthink things not in your hand in general. Some things are just too random to worry about.