Hydrophobia - fear of water: why it occurs and how to treat it

Hydrophobia - fear of water, was described in past centuries. This is a fairly common phobia of children and adults. A person cannot respond adequately to a glass of tea, rain outside the window or large bodies of water. An irrational fear of water causes panic, adrenaline rush and other physical symptoms. People susceptible to this phobia cannot live a full life, because water makes up 70% of our body, it is everywhere and is simply necessary for humans.

What is hydrophobia

Aquaphobia is characterized as having fear at the sight of water, the mention of it, or even the thought of it. It occurs as a reaction to psychological trauma.

Psychologists write about the name of a phobia - fear of water. Official name: hydrophobia or aquaphobia.

Fear provokes vegetative-vascular reactions. So, a patient, seeing a filled bath, may experience dizziness and a panic attack. An incorrect reaction of the brain gives a protective reflex: adrenaline is released into the blood, which helps to escape from danger. The heart begins to beat faster, the pressure rises.

Symptoms of aquaphobia include: cold extremities, trembling in the body, rapid breathing. There may be a feeling of lack of air, tingling in the arms and legs. Discomfort can occur without contact with water, but only at the thought of it. The brain does not need to receive a picture or contact; it is enough to give a signal that “danger is approaching” and a reaction will appear.

The concept of hydrophobia

Hydrophobia - what is it? Hydrophobia (aquaphobia) is a mental illness that is characterized by the fact that a person cannot control himself when seeing water. The patient experiences fear when washing, when absorbing liquid, near large bodies of water. This phobia is also sometimes called hydrophobia or fear of water and dampness. The deviation is usually formed in those people who once had a bad experience of learning to swim, but were never able to master this skill. There may be a fear of open water (clear or cloudy), as well as swimming pools and saunas.

Types of disorder

The forms of hydrophobia differ, since water is a multifaceted substance. Some may be afraid of rain. Someone is afraid to be near the seashore, but feels calm in the bathroom. And there are people for whom even tea in a mug causes fear.

Forms of hydrophobia:

• Chionophobia is a manifestation of the fear of ice or snow. The reaction is caused by water in a solid state. Quite a rare occurrence.
• Thalassophobia is the fear of the open sea, the ocean. Often occurs in children who read fairy tales about sea monsters.
• Ablutophobia is the fear of medical procedures involving water.
• Bathophobia is the fear of large volumes of water: lakes, rivers and oceans. Occurs due to a traumatic situation.

The forms are different, but the symptoms are similar.

Reasons for the development of fear of depth

Bathophobia is caused by various events from childhood or adulthood.

• Fear of a child choking in the bathtub.
• Water has flowed into your ears or nose, causing pain.
• Someone close or familiar drowned or almost drowned.
• A man witnessed someone drowning.
• The child listened to or watched fairy tales/films where sea monsters dragged ships to the bottom and mermaids killed sailors.
• Films about shipwrecks.
• Fear of getting tangled in seaweed or a fishing net.
• Myths, legends told to an impressionable person.

Any traumatic events associated with water can trigger the development of bathophobia or fear of depth.

Causes of fear of water

The cause of hydrophobia is most often psychological trauma. This could be an unpleasant event that happened during rainy weather. Hydrophobia often occurs in people who, under certain circumstances, have drowned or fallen through the ice. A phobia of water can be associated with medical procedures where water is present: enema, injections. If the enema caused pain, another time even the sight of it will cause a panic attack in the child: ablutophobia.

When people witnessed others drowning, someone being drowned, this also becomes the cause of aquaphobia. Any negative events that occur in water cause an association with it.

Example. They tried to drown the girl. She is afraid of water and does not bathe anywhere except in the shower. Fear is devoid of logic because it is irrational. The water is not a threat, it was the person who tried to harm it. But it is water that the girl is now afraid of. He can calmly look at his ill-wisher, but he doesn’t come close to the water. This is the peculiarity of the work of the psyche.

In psychological practice, there have been cases when a person, having choked, began to be afraid of the water in the mug. At the same time, he calmly swims in the sea. Theoretically, even if a girl breaks up with a guy while swimming in the river, this could provoke hydrophobia in him.

Non-psychological cause of phobia

Hydrophobia is also a sign of a deadly disease - rabies. This is often how animals that are sick are tested: if they drink water, they don’t have rabies.

Hydrophobia due to rabies occurs when the brain is damaged by the virus. It is so powerful that a person begins to shake if he is near a glass of water or sees a drop on the table. Convulsions and panic begin. Patients with rabies are isolated and kept in rooms without even heating pipes. The sound of water can also provoke such a reaction.

Remember! Rabies is incurable.
It occurs upon contact with sick animals. More likely - through contact with his blood or a bite. If you are bitten by an animal - it doesn’t matter whether it’s a fox, a rabbit or a domestic cat, you need to go to the hospital. There are only a few days for this.

Symptoms and signs of aquaphobia

The main signal that a person has a fear of water is avoidance of being near or in it. Panic can begin even when just a few drops get on the skin. However, experts call for a distinction between psychogenic illness and rabies infection. The fact is that at the second stage of rabies, hydrophobia also develops, but it is due to completely different reasons.

All symptoms of aquaphobia are usually divided into two large groups: psychological and vegetative.

Here are the main signs of mental deviation:

• irritation when water gets on the skin;
• fear of deep reservoirs, rivers and lakes;
• fear of swimming, plunging into the bath;
• reluctance to leave the house when it rains;
• sometimes – anxiety while drinking.

Physiological symptoms of aquaphobia:

• nausea;
• increased blood pressure;
• headache;
• increased sweat production.

If a person finds himself in the middle of the water, he may experience convulsions, panic, and other signs that are life-threatening.

How to recognize hydrophobia

If your child cries every time in the bathroom, he probably has some degree of hydrophobia. If the child is already talking, you can ask him about fear. If not yet, just watch the reaction.

An adult can recognize hydrophobia by the following signs:

• an attack of fear begins in front of a certain type of water;
• every time the thought of going to the bath or the beach causes an unpleasant reaction;
• if you have had traumatic situations in the past related to water, this is a contributing factor, a predisposition;
• Sometimes I have dreams about someone drowning.

Only a specialist can make an accurate diagnosis. If a person does not have a physical factor, vegetative-vascular manifestations of aquaphobia, then it may not exist. Or it occurs in a mild form. You can find anything on your own: most often people make mistakes because they don’t see the full picture. To figure out whether the disease is present, you will have to contact a professional psychotherapist or psychologist.

Treatment of bathophobia

Bathophobia or fear of depth can be treated with the right approach.

What are the advantages of treatment with a psychotherapist?

• He will make the correct diagnosis.
• Reveals the type of fear.
• Find the cause of the fear of depth.
• Prescribe the right sedatives to relieve anxiety.
• Eliminates associated disorders.

Fear of depth can be confused with fear of water. A person cannot independently diagnose himself. It happens that there was no traumatic situation related to water at all. He’s just an impressionable person, he’s seen enough films. Or has irrational beliefs about water and depth.

Hydrophobia in children: how to help a child overcome hydrophobia

The fears of young children are deep, to the point of despair. The child does not have a complete picture of the world. If an adult can understand the bias of his fears, then a child’s fear is similar to that of an animal, primitive. Therefore, children's fears almost always develop into mental disorders: hypochondria, OCD, neurosis.

The best option is the help of a psychologist. This will bring the fastest results. Another option: help your child cope with the problem yourself.

• Explain that this fear is temporary and will soon pass.
• Replace fear with positive emotions every day.
• You can show pictures of children frolicking in the water, show the inhabitants of the underwater world. Cartoons and documentaries that show water in a positive light.
• Show that the water is not dangerous.
• Teach swimming so that the child can see with his own eyes that the water is safe. Just do this carefully so as not to cause a panic attack. Only if the child agrees to try.

The main thing is to do no harm. Hydrophobia is a complex disorder. And it is better to consult a psychologist. If you are unable to attend an appointment, you can always call the helpline. There are toll-free psychological help numbers in every city. There, a qualified psychologist will tell you what parents can do on their own in each specific case. For one child, swimming in the pool will serve as a way to get rid of hydrophobia, while for another, a more severe form of the disorder may begin. Everything is individual.

Why does bathophobia occur?

Fear of depth is one of the manifestations of the fear of death; most often a person is afraid of depth because of the possibility of drowning or choking. Bathophobia is one of the most common phobias that can cause significant harm to the human body. Finding himself in the abyss, a person with a mental disorder begins to experience panic attacks that interfere with concentration in the water (even if the person is an excellent swimmer).

There is an opinion that to say goodbye to bathophobia, it is enough to learn to swim well. Learning to swim is just a good opportunity to reduce the symptoms of your phobia, but real deliverance from all persecuted fears can only occur at a deep subconscious level. There are often cases when people turn to trusted specialists for help in combating a phobia. There are many ways to independently understand your fears and achieve the desired result.

Features of hydrophobia in adults: how to live with hydrophobia

The fear of water has its consequences. The person seems to be physically healthy, but the disorder prevents him from living normally.

• When friends' holidays are held at a water park, you have to come up with reasons for your absence.
• The man doesn't go to the beach.
• Constantly or periodically faces panic attacks and vegetative-vascular manifestations of phobia.
• Taking your own child to the pool and teaching him to swim is also a problem.

Any phobia limits us. And hydrophobia completely interferes with living a normal life, because water is everywhere: bathroom, kitchen, bathhouse, refrigerator. Hospital, store, fountain near the house. Aquarium. Huge puddles after rain. Autumn showers. Snow and ice 4-5 months a year. You yourself are made of water. And without it there is no life, water is life. And it is simply necessary to develop a normal attitude towards it.

Reasons for appearance

While aquaphobia - what it is - can be easily understood, it is not always possible to understand the reasons for its occurrence. Among them are several:

• previously experienced stress while in the water;
• watching drowning scenes in movies;
• personal presence in case of an accident;
• viral diseases (rabies, tetanus).

Also, the formation of fear is influenced by traumatic situations associated with shipwrecks, natural disasters, an unsuccessful attempt to learn to swim, and long stays under water.

How to treat a fear of water

Phobias are treated with psychotherapy. There is no need to be afraid of this word. Psychotherapy is a conversation with a person who understands the mechanisms of the psyche. He will help you find the cause of fear and eliminate it. It's like finding and untying a knot inside. The psyche will no longer react to water as a danger.

In addition to psychotherapy, sedatives are used to alleviate the condition. These may be mild herbal sedatives or antidepressants. Depends on how strong the fears are.

Remember: phobias are not healthy. Adrenaline, constantly released into the blood, undermines health. The heart and blood vessels weaken. And overcoming fear is a necessity.

What is aquaphobia?

The term "aquaphobia" describes a type of anxiety disorder that involves an intense fear or aversion to water. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in 2015, 264 million people worldwide had at least one anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders include a group of conditions associated with feelings of fear and anxiety. Specific phobias, including aquaphobia, are a type of anxiety disorder.

As with other anxiety disorders, the severity of aquaphobia varies. Some people may be afraid of deep bodies of water or fast-moving rivers, while others may be afraid of any body of water, including swimming pools, hot tubs, and regular bathtubs.

Fear of drowning

This phobia is called aquaphobia and, like the others, has a number of symptoms: mental and vegetative.

Mental symptoms look like this:

— Unpleasant sensations when the skin comes into contact with water. - Inexplicable fear of a banal bath. - Of course, we already know the fear of depth and the fear of large expanses of water. - Anxious feeling before drinking any liquid. Be it tea, coffee or water. - Fear and reluctance to go outside during rain or thunderstorms. The list of physical symptoms is as follows:

• Nausea.
• Dizziness.
• High blood pressure.
• Profuse sweating.
• Headache.

If the phobia is not treated, then sooner or later a situation may arise when the aquaphobe ends up in the water and begins to have convulsions. In this state, a complete blackout of consciousness occurs, so the person will definitely not be able to help himself. Aquaphobia is very, very dangerous and must be eliminated at the first sign.

Treatment

Most often, hydrophobia has fairly mild symptoms, which become more pronounced when immersed in a stressful situation (panic attacks, fussiness, attempts to get out of the water occur). Diagnosis of deviations is carried out by interviewing the patient and observing his reactions to stimuli.

How to stop being afraid of water

The main way to stop being afraid of water is psychotherapy, art therapy, and medications. A doctor will allow a person to quickly understand the reason for the formation of a phobia, overcome it and choose a tactic of action. There are also some differences in the treatment of individual forms of deviation. Thus, ablutophobia and thalassophobia can be easily eliminated with the help of hypnosis. The patient is also gradually taught to touch the water and feel it without experiencing a feeling of horror.

Another method is art therapy. A person in class depicts what he is afraid of. It is assumed that during the description the patient understands that his fear is insignificant. Visualization works similarly when it is necessary to imagine what a person fears.

Both group and individual therapy may be involved. In addition, introspection and self-hypnosis are used.

Drug therapy is prescribed only if the patient shows excessive anxiety, panics, and is nervous. He is prescribed a course of sedatives.

Main causes of phobia

All varieties have common psychological and somatic prerequisites.

The most common stressful situations are:

On average, fear of water develops at 3–5 years of age and persists thereafter. That is, adult fears, as a rule, come from childhood. In turn, in childhood, fear of water may appear for the following reasons:

• injuries in the form of attempted drowning of a child or someone’s death before his eyes;
• extreme methods of teaching swimming that frightened the child or caused physical injury;
• punishment with water, child abuse;
• personal negative experience with water (frostbite, burns, fear, pain, unpleasant tingling of the eyes, etc.);
• convulsions that occurred while the child was in the water;
• parents misunderstanding the child’s fears and forcibly pushing him into the water;
• improper bathing of the child (hot or cold water, sudden immersion in the bath);
• improper child care (wet diapers).

Childhood psychotrauma may be indirectly related to water. For example, one of the parents died when it was raining outside. Or mom and dad had a big fight while the family was on the beach. Or an angry parent splashed cold water on a child. And so on.

In adulthood, aquaphobia can develop after violence near or using water, after the death of a loved one in the water, after a seizure or other unpleasant situation that happened in the water. And also if a person had to survive a natural disaster.

Both in childhood and among adults, impressionable people are at risk. Such a person may develop a phobia, fear of water, after watching a film about a water disaster or after watching horror and thrillers with scenes of violence. Or after news of someone drowning, shark attack, etc.

This is interesting! Among the physical prerequisites for hydrophobia are rabies and tetanus, fetal hypoxia during pregnancy, and throat diseases that interfere with drinking water. When contracting rabies, hydrophobia (fear of water) is one of the symptoms.

The most common occurrence: surviving an accident

No one is insured against an accident. And even if everything ends well, the memory of what happened will haunt the person for the rest of his life.

Examples of situations and accidents:

• drowning while swimming;
• shipwreck;
• choking on water while eating;
• natural disasters (storm, snow drift);
• thunderstorm (scares children, fear transfers to any situation involving water);
• a person does not feel the bottom while swimming.

The risk of developing a phobia increases if an accident occurred in childhood. Sometimes a fear of water at this age can develop against the background of a fictitious accident. Children under 6 years of age are prone to fantasizing, and they themselves can be frightened by their own made-up stories.

Treatment methods

A person suffering from hydrophobia definitely needs to consult a psychotherapist. Treatment of a neurotic disorder involves the use of effective methods of psychotherapy. Drug therapy is used extremely rarely, since the phobia does not constantly bother the patient, but is aggravated only by the sight of water.

Psychotherapist

Effective psychotherapeutic techniques allow you to get rid of hydrophobia and panic fear of water.

Most often used:

1. Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy allows you to eliminate subconscious attitudes and change a person’s thinking, tuning him to an adequate perception of bodies of water.
2. Modeling situations - discussing with a psychotherapist the causes of panic fear, visiting indoor pools, gaining confidence that the water does not pose a potential danger.
3. Hypnotic therapy acts directly on a person’s subconscious, allowing you to get rid of existing fears.

We recommend that you read: Fear of holes and a large number of holes

Art therapy is used to treat hydrophobia in children. Sessions are conducted in a playful way, the child draws his emotions, and then studies them with a psychotherapist. It is considered one of the most effective methods of treating hydrophobia.

Self help

Independent methods of treating hydrophobia can only be used for adult patients; such methods can only frighten children and aggravate the course of a neurotic disorder.

One of the most effective ways to overcome hydrophobia is to learn to swim . For this purpose, it is best to sign up for a swimming pool and trust an experienced trainer. If the feeling of fear is very strong, it is best to start self-medication with group water aerobics or visiting a water park.

To relax, it is very useful for a hydrophobe to do meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga. This will help you achieve relaxation and learn to control your feelings and emotions.

This is interesting:

How to overcome the fear of driving a car for a beginner and not be afraid to drive.

How to stop being afraid of the dentist - effective recommendations.

How not to be afraid of childbirth and overcome the fear of pregnancy.