Is it normal to fear vastness?
I have this strange fear of swimming down a few feet into either an ocean or pool and then looking around me and not seeing anything. I have no idea how this fear came to be but I noticed my uneasiness when I was surfing the internet and I came upon a picture of a girl some 15 to 20 feet underwater and it was just her and the ocean. You couldn't see fish, coral, or even the occasional sensationalized shark. Instantly my heart started to beat fast, my hands started to sweat, and I had to click out of that picture. I just shrugged it off and moved on with life until last summer my friend invited me to her pool. She started to swim underwater and I was jealous that she could do that. So I started trying until I was able to. It got late and the light in the pool dimmed. It wasn't 100% dark but it was dark enough to make it seem like I was in the ocean somewhere. I don't have a problem with vastness outside the ocean and if I see a picture of someone underwater with a fish or two it doesn't bother me. Rivers and lakes don't scare me. I don't mind if the water is muddy. It bothers me that I can see I'm alone in underwater. Above the water, no problem. Under it, we have a huge problem. I have tried in vain to find a name for this but I have come up short. Which makes me wonder if this is normal.