Deep Water (William Douglas)

Douglas’s fear began when he

Douglas’s fear began when he was three or four years old at a beach in California, where waves knocked him down and filled him with terror. This early

When Douglas was about ten

When Douglas was about ten or eleven years old, an eighteen-year-old boy jokingly threw him into the deep end of the Y.M.C.A. pool in Yakima. He nearl

Douglas describes panic in vivid detail

Douglas describes panic in vivid detail: breathlessness, paralysis, helplessness, and the feeling of being pulled under. The fear was not only physica

Douglas later hired an instructor who

Douglas later hired an instructor who trained him five days a week, an hour each day, using a belt-and-pulley rope system. The instructor taught him t

At first

At first, panic returned whenever Douglas was in water, but after months of training the fear began to weaken. He was able to swim alone, then across