plugs

just recently stumbled onto your web site I thought it was so funny that I wanted to submit. I find it hilarious that there are other people who are deathly afraid of swimming pool drains other than myself. I am 21 years old and have had this redicluous fear since I was a young child. When I was younger my uncle used to torture me by throwing me into my grandparents pool so I would end up right near the filter. I hated it! When I was a little bit older (maybe 9 or 10) I used to go to this country club with my friend from school to swim in the giant inground pool. I'll never forget it because the pool had this huge drain at the bottom right bellow the diving board. It was like 3 feet x 3 feet, it was black and you could see the metal grate things on it. I wouldn't jump off the diving board for fear of accidently hitting it at the bottom or something. This fear has always haunted me, it won't go to water parks because they always have huge drains and I won't swim in a pool that has one unless there are like a bunch of other people in it. I took classes last summer to become a lifeguard at the beach but I ended up not going after the 2nd class because they made us swim in this pool with these huge black drains at the bottom, you couldn't avoid them and went you went under water you could hear them too. It freaked me out wayyyyy too much, I couldn't do it! I know people can get sucked into these drain because I saw it on a news special a couple years ago, people can get their hair or arms or legs stuck in the drain if the cover is missing. I'm fine in the shower the bathtub drain doesn't bother me, however, I cannot close my eyes for more than like 2 seconds because I feel the water on me and I think about those nasty pool drains! Eeeekkk! I hate this fear so much, I wish it would go away but I know it won't because I'm 21 and still can't get over it! If I ever have kids I won't let them swim near the drain because I won't be able to save them if they get stuck, I'd have a heart attack I know it!! Thanks for letting me get this out in the open! Happy swimming!!!

I just wanted to add my entry to the pool drain phobia section.  Hehe! I've been afraid of pool drains for as long as I can remember, and my fear has only gotten worse with time.  Like the other person who wrote in, I'm not afraid of being "sucked in" (although I've read that people have been disemboweled this way), it's just the look of them.  I'm a good swimmer, I've taken lessons many times, and actually used to be a lifeguard and swimming instructor, but even then, I was seriously afraid of pool drains.  When we had to do laps in our swimming classes, I would make sure that I knew exactly which lane the pool drain was in, and go to the furthest lane away from it.  It didn't help much though, because I could still see the drain at the corner of my eye, so I would start swimming as quickly as I could to get past that point.  Deep ends in general now, make me freak, so I just avoid pools altogether now.

Also any body of water where I can't see the bottom, like in a lake, I  won't go in alone.  Fear of the unknown I suppose.

Ok...and here all along I thought I was the ONLY one with this hang-up!  As long as I can remember I've had a fear of swimming pool and hot tub drains.  A few years ago we had a beautiful pool built in our back yard and I was terrified of my OWN pool drains!  We've since sold that house and moved on, but the memories are still fresh.  I couldn't even swim over the damn things, I had to swim around it and turn my mind off onto something else and not look down or I would absolutely panic!  I didn't even like floating above them on a blow-up raft...just knowing that they were down below me...eeck!!!  We actually had four ducts, two drains and to outgoing ducts that were for the hot water, so in all truth there were four of them lurking down there taunting me, and I hated it!  I remember once when I was a kid we went swimming at our local pool and I dove off the diving board into what must've been about ten feet of water and I somehow misjudged my angle and ended up going in a lot deeper than I meant to, and when I got all the way down to the bottom of my dive and opened my eyes I was staring into this big, black square swimming pool drain and I almost had a coronary!!!  I've not been the same since.  I won't go near an inground spa...AT ALL.  But is so embarrassing, I don't want to tell my husband and my kids would think I was ridiculous, so I just keep my silly little phobia all to myself.  But it is very real to me.  :-\

I am absolutely terrified of pool drains. I've been like this since I can remember...I can't even go inside of a pool fence if there is no one in the pool, let alone get in  on my own. Im a really good swimmer and always have been but it doesn't help ease my fear. I dont know exactly what it is about drains (bathroom and kitchen sink drains don't bother me)... I guess it's how big they are..and the fact that they are underwater..and usually black (which makes them look even more intimidating). They're so deep under the water too and as the water moves it makes the drain look as if its moving. I must sound like a real freak. But I can't help it! I can't swim over them or anywhere near them and I know I could never bring myself to touch one!!  Once someone who was supposed to be my friend dragged me down into the deep end of her pool so she could make me touch the drain...I've never been so terrified in my life. You shouldn't test peoples fears, no matter how irrational they are. Its wrong and cruel...because even if the phobia may seem stupid to you...the fear is very real.

hi i am 15 years old and ever scince i remember i have been afraid of drains and pretty much every drain that is submerged under water and i you float over top of. pool drains in particular. i am not afraid of the suction or anything like that its just thier presence that makes me cringe. i'll go near them in ceartain pools when there is people in like my 70x25 pool at my compleax but anything like 15' deep publuc poo, no way! and i woldn't dare go near the one in 10' deep backyard pools. i am not embarressed about and i don't care if anyone found out about it but it affect my swimming a lot!. i am afraid to look down at them when i swim over top of them and i won't dar swim or float in the deep end of a back yard pool. when going off the diving board in a back yard pool I make sure i don't go down all the way and I swim to the side really fast. I also hate it when my swimming instructer makes me swim in the the lanes that go over top of the lanes. I am suprises that I am not the only one I thought I was actually nuts!
 
(By 10' back yard pool I mean the 10'x20'x10' bowl shaped pool that care commonly found in the back yard of houses.)

I hate pool drains with all my passion. Seeing them scares the bejesus out of me.  I thought I was the only freak on earth that felt that way, but I guess not!  I will only go on the lazy river in the waterpark, I won't go on any body slides because I am afraid that I will end up near a drain at splashdown! Once, when I was a kid, I went on a body slide that shot you out about 4 feet above the water surface and into a 10 ft deep pool, I ended up hitting the bottom with my foot and touched the drain!  That was the day I vowed never to go on a waterslide again, and I won't play marco polo in an inground pool!  It's funny, like most people on this site I'm not scared of bathtub or sink drains, nor am I afraid of getting sucked in.  I think that the mere fact of the size of those drains scares me most, and the shape.  The ultimate scary thing when you have "drainaphobia", is being in a pool with those drains, and it being dark or no lights are on! I think I would have a heart attack and die right there! Thanks for letting me submit.  T-NYC

I am thrilled to know that I am not the only crazy one out there.  I never would have thought that anyone else would have a fear of pool drains.  I'm also afraid of spiders and of people following me, but my biggest fear is of pool drains.  I don't know what it is about them.  I know it isn't that I think I will get sucked up into one, besides the fact that someone has actually died from getting their hair caught in one.  I know that is not my fear.  My guess is that my fear is just the fact that they look creepy and evil and freaky and whoo.  I'm getting cold chills just thinking about it.  One time, I tried to face my fear of pool drains.  I was in Georgia.  We went to the pool and had a good time.  Of course I avoided the deep end comepletely.  But when we got out, I noticed that in the kiddie pool, *you know,  the pool that is like, a foot deep?* the cover of the pool drain was off, and it was just sitting there.  Well, feeling brave, I stepped into the pool, walked to it, got about a half foot away from it, looked down at it, and about had a heart attack.  I don't think I've ever moved so fast trying to get away from that horrible thing.  You know, I really honestly don't know what it is about pool drains, but they just creep me out.  Anyway,  I was really excited to know that I wasn't the only one.  To tell you the truth, I was beginning to think I was a little messed up if you know what I mean.  I feel so much better.  Thank you for listening to me rant.  I hope you all have an easy time staying away from drains.

Hi�thank you so much for your page on drainophobia! It has cheered me up so much to know there are other people like me. I am completely terrified of drains, lights, underwater viewing windows and the corners of swimming pools! I have arranged to go swimming with a friend this evening and for the last 3 days it is all I have thought about. I�ve been looking at pictures on the net to try and prepare me and help me overcome my fear but all it�s done is make my throat close over in fear and my toes curl up inside of me. I feel literally sick from worrying about it! Like many of the other people�s stories I�ve just read, it�s not really a fear of being sucked in, it�s just the movement of the water making them look so evil and black. I was made to go to swimming lessons at a local pool when I was younger- it was a diving pool, 6 meters deep at the deepest end, with 4 metal drains about 1m square. The sun used to shine through the window and illuminate them. Every time I had to go there I thought I would pass out from fear. I have to walk around the entire parameter and make sure I know where every drain is. Something else which has the same effect on me are the black diving blocks that people throw into the pool to then dive down and retrieve. They freak me out as much as the drains!