Psychological issues

So, recently I've been telling people about one of my big fears. As some people know, I have (a form of) aquaphobia--the fear of water or drowning. I have a really strong fear of drowning. This extends to the point where having water on my face is unbearable (most of the time--I'll explain the exceptions below). As I've mentioned before, I'm okay with being in water, even when I forget to take my iPod and phone out of my pockets. As long as my face doesn't get wet, I'm fine.

I used to be fine with water. Up through the 5th grade, I could even swim. And when swimming was part of freshman gym class, I was able to get into the water. However, by that point, I had forgotten how to swim.

In case you're wondering, yes I have nearly drowned in my youth. The closest was the time I was nearly killed by someone trying to save my life--I won't go into that now, maybe in a future post. There were a few others where almost nothing happened, so they'll only get a passing mention. Then there was the time that I only know about because my mom told me about it. I was wearing one of those floaty rings when I fell in the pool and got stuck upside down. My mom and my aunt each grabbed an ankle and pulled me out. All of these happened by 5th grade (at the latest) so I'm not sure why the fear showed up later, but whatever.

Anyway, the main exception to the extreme discomfort at having water in my face is when it's raining. I love rain, and jumping in puddles afterwards. Yet, showering is a different story--I just can't seem to bring my face under the water. So, yes, that means my face is the least often washed part of my body.

Now you'll notice the title is plural. So what else am I going to tell about, you ask? Well, it's simple. This most recently came up yesterday, but it's a semi-common occurrence. The church was having a picnic/gathering for its one-year anniversary, and I passed up on having food. I told some people that I wasn't hungry. While that was true, it was more a symptom of the reason than the reason itself. The real reason (which I told at least one person) is that I can't eat around a lot of people. If it's a small group, I'm fine, but as soon as it becomes a group of ~20 people or more, I'm suddenly not hungry anymore. Get me away from the group, and I'm hungry again. The one exception to this seems to be pizza. With pizza, I can just go to town and eat more than some groups of three (or more).

Well, now you know a little more of what makes this guy tick. Maybe next time I'll talk about the real reasons I often don't go to events/gatherings, why my pockets often accumulate random garbage (and by garbage, I do mean garbage), why I don't like phones, or an in-depth analysis of Inception. Aren't you glad you read this?