Six teenagers drowned Monday in Louisiana’s Red River while attempting to save a friend who had slid into deeper water. The teenagers were wading in a popular recreation area where sandbars give way to 20 foot depths.
Sandbar
Neither the teenagers or the adults watching knew how to swim.
Dekendrix Warner, the lone survivor, was wading near the shore when he slipped on a slick, clay surface and fell into deeper water. The other teens came to his aide but were tragically overcome.
Shreveport Assistant Fire Chief Fred Sanders said, “According to the divers, there was about 12 to 15 feet of water that slowly graded off from ankle depth to about three feet. It’s very slippery and so if you start hitting that bank, it’s very hard to find traction.”
“If you don’t have a swimming capability, you could find yourself slipping down that angle all the way to the 28 feet at the bottom of the river.”
A friend of the families, Marilyn Robinson, told a local newspaper that she watched helplessly as the victims went under. She said a large group of family and friends, including 20 children, were at the sandbar to barbecue.
Robinson claimed that the children were familiar with the water, but “none of us could swim.”
According an USA Swimming survey, lacking swimming skills is far too common. 40 percent of white children have low to no swimming ability; 70 percent of black children have little to no swimming ability, followed by 58 percent of Latino children.
Experts attribute the high numbers to a lack of access to pools, lack of financial means for swimming lessons, and the fact that non swimming parents are significiantly less likely to raise swimming children.
However, the most common reason for not swimming is a fear of drowning. A fear of drowning is closely related to the fear of water, which is known as Aquaphobia. This type of fear can make it nearly impossible to enjoy swimming, whether as a swimmer or spectator. Experts believe that this fear stems from a previous unpleasant experience with swimming.
Common symptoms of Aquaphobia include: high anxiety, dizziness, nausea, trembling, increased heart rate, sweating, the overwhelming desire to flee, and the feeling that if one enters the water they will drown.
Small first steps can be taken to overcome your fear, such as dangling one’s legs in the pool or walking on a beach with someone you trust. Ultimately, behavior therapy can help with this phobia.
With behavior therapy, one of the best treatments may be finding the original source of the fear. If you fear drowning, you have to know where the fear stems from if you want to overcome it. Your counselor will help you learn whether the beliefs surrounding your original fear are real or fake.
If an Aquaphobe can rationally understand and accept the general irrationality of their fear, one will ultimately be able to rethink how they view the water. A fear of drowning doesn’t have to be debilitating or life threatening. Swimming is a necessary survival skill.
As stated earlier, behavior therapy is extremely beneficial. Your therapist at Apex Behavioral Health will help you take small steps in treatment until you can take that giant leap into the pool.
