[ARCHIVED] Fear of Swimming triggered without apparent cause

This is occurring in my fave as well except I'm in the Drake Hall I'm Discover University.  The are no pools or ocean nearby but my Sims continually gets the fear of swimming. Tried bulldozing and rebuilding but still happens.

I had seen this in conjunction with this bug: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-IL-Scared-moodlets-from-Thalassophobia-when-not-near-the/td-p/9283184/highlight/false

I had presumed that bug was causing this one (fear of water moodlet leading to fear of swimming trait). As explained in my post there, my Sim was living in Streamlet Single. It's next to a canal, but he never went fishing, the canal isn't swimmable, and he'd typically get this moodlet just while hanging out indoors.

My sim was on his home lot in Oasis Springs just walking around when he randomly received a fear of swimming after digging for collectibles in the Acquisition Butte neighborhood.  There are no pools, hot tubs, ponds, nor bodies of water on his lot nor in his neighborhood.  I do own the Island Living expansion pack.

I do have mods, and also I’m traumatized by my experiences with Thalassophobia. That said, I’m reasonably certain of what I did to trigger it. (!!!)

I have a Uni household of two mers, two vamps, and a normal, non-occult Sim in Darkwing House (I added a bed so they could go together). I gave the vamps sunlight reversal cocktail and sent everyone swimming to celebrate that they’d finished their homework, presentations, and term papers and had Sunday free. We all went to the river area next to Darkwing House. 

It was bugged and cursed. One vampire kept t-posing because of her umbrella and got Thalassophobia and a fear of swimming pop up. AAAAAAA. So, because I was frustrated, and because she had the spiky bubble to cure it but couldn’t swim where we were without t-posing and resetting, I pressed M to travel.

(This is a habit of mine and I think it’s how I’ve gotten Thalassophobia before, but…)

Good news! Vampire girl was cured of her fear of swimming! 

Bad news! Vampire boy and the non-occult Sim started getting pop ups about being afraid of swimming. In their living room, or standing outside class. For a week after, they’d get these pop ups on dry land and they’d get a curse word and the UI cheats mod treatment, but it kept coming back anyway.

Remembering my experience with Thalassophobia, I sent the two affected Sims back to the river to swim and made sure they left the water properly. They both ended up with the relaxing swim moodlet. Hopefully they’re cured, but only time will tell. 

My working theory is that if you press M to travel with non-mers (mermaids appear to be immune to Thalassophobia but sometimes their outfits will bug out temporarily* if you press M while they’re swimming), if they’re jussssst about to get the moodlet (or, worse, have it and you don’t notice) it can cause this “stuck” behavior where the moodlets and fears can pop up at inappropriate times, ie not near the water. I’m going to try to remember to not press M when Sims are actively swimming. If it works like Pre-Fears Thalassophobia, leaving the water properly allows the stuck buff to remove properly.

 I hope that helps!

[edit] I played out the test of the week, and there were no further pop ups about fear of swimming.

* “bugged out mermaid outfit” = “Winter outfit? Swimsuit. Daily? Swimsuit. Party? Swimsuit. Formal? Swimsuit! ALL OUTFITS ARE SWIMSUIT!!!”

@TheSimsDirect  I cured my Sims, but I’ll see what I can do about reproducing it. 🤞🤞🤞

This just happened to my sim again…in the town area of Stangerville. She is Paranoid but this also happened before she got the trait. It doesn’t happen to any of my other sims, but repeatedly to this one. I’m on console so no mods.