Is your child's life/safety enough to overcome your fear?

[Anonymous]

I'm afraid of some things but my major phobia is beaches/oceans. I can swim but panic if the water is too deep (7ft and above), is too far and there is nothing to grab in to. Yes I'm afraid of deep water. I can handle other fears but that. Anything but that.

Lets say in the worst case scenario:
If I had a child and he/she was struggling on deep waters, had nothing to grab and in the process of drowning... would that be enough to overcome my major phobia?

Updates

1 y

I don't have kids yet and just like everyone else, we all have fears. I just imagine that if your child happens to be in harm's way and it deals with your own phobia... then that would be enough to overcome it even if it meant you get harm in the process.

[Anonymous]

Yes. ANY child's safety is enough to overcome my fear.

I took a trip to Gatlinburg, TN once with my family. We stayed in some cabins and so did another family about 5 football fields away. These cabins were equipped with panic buttons that would summon park police in the event of a wild animal sighting but the response could take 5-10 minutes.

A cougar (aka puma/mountain lion) came out of the woods for the food while the other family's children were running around outside. The running caught the attention of the cougar and it started chasing the kids and I was closer to the cougar than the rest of my family or the other family.

In most cases I would not chase a cougar, much less fight it bare handed. However, I could not let myself stand by while children were in danger. I caught up to the cougar and kicked it in its side. This pissed it off and made it turn on me. I could have retreated but I stood and fought because I could not risk looking away to see if the kids were safe or the cougar would have used the opening to kill me. The cougar was able to bite my left hand bad enough to make it useless but somehow I fought it off long enough for park rangers to assist. Because it had tasted human blood it had to be put down unfortunately. This sucked because had the cougar only spotted me and I was still it would have probably just moved on but its hunting instinct kicked in when the kids ran.

[dustybiker]

Yes. You’d be surprised the things you can do when adrenaline kicks in. People have been known to lift cars off accident victims.