Can you swim?

[TheLonelyOne]

Hi, I just wondered how many on here can swim. When I saw my counsellor (for the last time!) this week she said there is a link between swimming and confidence. As I can't swim I wondered how true this was for other people. It's supposed to be something to do with having trust in the water to support you.

Lonely

[Amber Fyre]

You need to be confident to swim. But it's not the same confidence as with SA.
Anybody could swim. The only reason some people can't is because they're too nervous/scared to trust the water and themselves. As soon as you relax and are confident with the water, you can swim!

Anyway, yes, I can swim. Only learnt when I was about 10/11 though.

[Bob Garside]

Last time I went swimming was in 1989. I was a chubby child and I was on one of them water slides and my shorts came off as I got to the bottom.


Didn't stop me from wanting to swim, though, or make me particularly scared.

I just never got round to trying it again.

[faith]

I can swim but have never been good at swimming. Was always in the middle swimming group at school with about 4 other kids while the majority of the class were off diving for plastic bricks and swimming in pyjamas!

They tried to make me dive in to the deep end of the swimming pool once and made me cry- the shame :embarass:

[The Lone Stranger]

I cant I`m totally hopeless although never been taught properly wish I could but don`t want people to see my pathetic body.

[Lostboy]

I'm a poor swimmer. As a kid I was always too anxious about my appearance to be comfortable in the water, and on account of being a below average swimmer I was not comfortable being watched by my peers. So I never really got into swimming in a big way. I did consider going to adult swimming lessons a few years back but chickened out, mostly for the same reasons.

[misslaura]

Originally Posted by Jack

Counsellors come out with some shite. If there is the anything other than the most tenuous of tenuous links between the two, I shall eat my hat.

That it is your last time seeing this person I can only imagine to be a not entirely bad thing. Perhaps the next time (s)he'd tell you that many people with anxiety are insomniacs because lying still in bed relates to some kind of death anxiety.

i read something awhile ago on the net,about children with selective mutism more likely not to be able to swim. Maybe their is a conection,as sa is similar to selective mutism in ways.I cannot swim,even though i have had countless lessons & i believe i had sm as a child. EDIT: 3rd time editing now lol i have thought their may be a connection between this for a while now since reading the article.

I'm a good swimmer but I'm far too self-conscious to go swimming these days.

[Winnie57]

I was going to post a poll like this some time as I have heard quite a few people on here say they can't swim so I thought there might be a link.
I never learned to swim as a child despite lessons.
I did go for adult swimming lessons later in life and managed a few strokes but I don't like my head going under water and I feel self-conscious in a bathing suit. I put no though as I probably wouldn't be able to swim if I tried now.

[hardy]

i can swim quite well but even today there is still an Sa fear of trying to learn a "proper" stroke for fear that somone will critice that its not correct.
I'm not sure whether thers any link between generally being fearful and SA. I suspect there is not. I don't feel less brave than the average person in none social situations.

[TheLonelyOne]

Hmm well it seems there isn't a definite link then. I remember going for swimming lessons as a child and getting nowhere, now I wish I had stuck at it and am considering having adult swimming lessons, although having SA doesn't help, the thought of standing in my swimsuit in front of loads of complete strangers not knowing what to say would be difficult (it's a difficult enough situation fully clothed!) but I am determined to give it a try.

[Amber Fyre]

We should organise a swimming meet!

[Lora]

I had a panic attack in the water when I was 12 - haven't been back since

I'm not sure about there being a connection though, isn't it just as likely that more confident / less socially anxious children are more likely to take swimming lessons?

[fruitloop]

I haven't been swimming in years, I was however very active when I was a kid, I had little fear of the water and used to love swimming, I don't know how well I would do now, but I did used to be a very confident swimmer.

Bugs

[Swollen Goat]

I love swimming, when I win the million from Premium Bonds I will have my own swimming pool .

[Hoople]

I enjoy swimming, I find crawl especially satisfying as I selftaught myself how to do it.
Some tips for crawl are: three strokes then turn head to side and take a breath, breathe out under the water for next three strokes, then head up to the other side for a breath of air, etc
Kick from your hips rather than from your legs, if you kick from your hips its more powerful.
Hit the water with your hand at an angle, like a cutting edge, rather than slapping the water
When your arm hits the water and goes under make an 'S' shape, coming in at the waist and then out.
Goggles are recommended for crawl!

Also enjoy breaststroke. No tips on that as I do a 'scissor' kick rather than a frog kick.

It takes me 1minute to swim (crawl) 50metres.
Takes me about 2mins when doing breast stroke.

[Paul]

When I was a baby my sister nearly drowned me by taking my arm bands off trying to teach me how to swim. She couldn't swim properly herself. She was wearing a floatation suit.

Mummy, mummy baby underwater!!

Or so the story goes. Having said that I've pretty much been ok with swimming from an early age. I guess because I grew up in hot climates. Water is like a comfort blanket to me. If I’m in it I feel less self conscious. I do think my experience of almost drowning affected my anxiety though.

I think your therapist was more suggesting that your reason for not learning to swim might be the same reasons why SA’ers avoid things.

[DMC]

I can swim in that I know I can move about in the water without drowing.

However, the chance of being seen in swimming costume (even by myself) means that there's no way I could do it.

I even went all the way to the barrier reef in Australia and didn't go in the water because I was too scared of how I'd look.

Isn't life a bitch?

[Richard]

Originally Posted by DMC

I can swim in that I know I can move about in the water without drowing.

However, the chance of being seen in swimming costume (even by myself) means that there's no way I could do it.

I even went all the way to the barrier reef in Australia and didn't go in the water because I was too scared of how I'd look.

Isn't life a bitch?

You'd have been alright D.

Hope all is ok.

Richard

[DMC]

Originally Posted by Richard

You'd have been alright D.

Hope all is ok.

Richard

I know I'd have been alright - but didn't stop the anxiety from preventing me even trying :-(

[Madman]

I am a very confident swimmer. I have loved the water ever since i was a child and can swim any style,... and i love diving when going on holiday. I use to be very concious about my looks though as about 6 years ago i put on a little too much weight and was chubby so walking around half naked was scary as i always felt people were staring at me and thinking look at that fat f****.

I am now slim :D and i really dont mind swimming or walking around the beach, swimming pool half naked. If they stare then let them stare.... sometimes i give back a what you looking at look and they quickly stop staring :p

Even did swimming at school were you had the types of people who would constantly pick on some one to make them look cool... but i didnt care, i loved swimming to much!

[Innerspace]

Originally Posted by TheLonelyOne

Hi, I just wondered how many on here can swim. When I saw my counsellor (for the last time!) this week she said there is a link between swimming and confidence. As I can't swim I wondered how true this was for other people. It's supposed to be something to do with having trust in the water to support you.

Lonely

I can sort of see what your counsellor is saying. Thing is though, you can be extremely confident in the water but feel like you are drowning in anxiety socially. Being good at one does not mean you will be good at the other.

My personal experience ties in with what your counsellor said though. What happened with me was that being SA from around 4 or 5 I was very self conscious about going to the baths, even though my infant/primary schools had their own swimming pools.

I was scared of the whole being in a group of people thing, especially when only dressed in trunks and feeling vulnerable. Also, other kids could dive to the bottom with ease, so I felt inadequate and anxious. My anxiety transfared to being in the water and I was convinced I'd drown if my head went under.

I was convinced there was no way I could float or swim, and I couldn't raise enough confidence in myself to do anything but flap about and sink. This made me worse. In many ways this felt exactly the same as I felt in a social situation. In both scenarios I was desperately trying to avoid drowning, rather than actually enjoying the experience and learning how to be good at it.

Amazingly enough, the more I have tackled my SA, the better and more confident I have become in the water. Last year I went into the pool on holiday on Fuerteventura, and I actually snorkelled in a coastal lagoon on the neighbouring island of Lobos. I pushed my boundaries, but made sure I was reasonably safe... which is exactly the same as I do socially.

It is clear that we all have the ability to swim, just as we all have the ability to be ok socially. It is also crystal clear that we need confidence to do either or both. Confidence plays a big part in how we perform in both scenarios. In both, if you lack all confidence you can then freeze and not do the things you need to do to make it work. In this situation, in both scenarios, it can result in the feeling that we will drown.

Anyhow, being good at swimming is no guarantee that we will be confident socially, just as being confident socially does not guarantee we'll be a good swimmer. We all have the ability to do both, and confidence in our ability to do the task is needed for success in either. For many reasons any individual can have zero confidence with one but have an abundance of it with the other.

[hardy]

Seems like most of the posts confirm my suspicion that Saers are less likely to be able to swim but its all concerned with issues of what you look like or how you "perform" NOT actual fear of water or lack of bravery.
but there is some research which suggests that "shy" people are more aware of possible threats in general not just social ones . Shy children even before they are born tend to be more sensitive to sudden noises etc. but does that mean that Saers/shys are less brave than average or just more hypersensitive to potential threats. Thats not the same thing.