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.
At-risk groups
Most often, aquaphobia occurs in those who cannot swim. Fear goes away as you master swimming techniques. In addition, impressionable, suggestible people are at risk.
Almost all children at the age of 4–5 develop a fear of water; this is associated with cognitive activity. As a rule, the phobia goes away on its own if the parents do not aggravate the situation, support the child, and help him get used to the water. If parents behave incorrectly, for example, they try to teach a child to swim by throwing him into the water, then the fear is reinforced.
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.
Destructive
Destructive bathophobia or fear of water is the most complex case. It is associated with vivid fantasy and mental disorders. A man at sea does not enjoy beauty, but imagines sea monsters, situations in which he could drown. These are fantasies based on films and fairy tales.
Destructive bathophobia occurs in nervous people, as a rule, with a fine mental organization and wild imagination. Against the backdrop of one’s own fantasies, one may feel as if one hears the voices of mermaids, sees a shark’s fin above the water, or feels the depths draw in.
All three forms of bathophobia are reversible. For each of them, psychologists will select individual therapy.
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.
Treatment of children
Hydrophobia is one of the most common fears among children. It is important that parents make the maximum amount of effort to work with such a phobia, since fear subsequently accompanies the person for the rest of his life.
In the first stages, parents should find out the reasons that cause a phobia of water. If necessary, you can seek help from psychotherapists.
The first fears appear when the baby is immersed in water with a low temperature. In such situations, you need to combine bathing the child with play elements. For example, you can play with soap bubbles or use water toys. This way, water will become normal for the child. It is also practiced to have special rules that the baby himself decides how exactly he will bathe and what objects he will use. A phobia of water with such actions on the part of adults simply cannot develop in childhood. So the child himself controls his relationship with the water space, and accordingly there is no room for the emergence of fears.
To overcome hydrophobia, there is a method of telling a child about heroes who were not afraid of water and did heroic deeds. The child should feel like a character who saves other people and prevents them from drowning.
In some cases, children refuse to swim naked. At the same time, they feel panicky fear. It is important to give the child the opportunity to plunge into the water with clothes on; you need to have patience. As you grow older, your fears go away. It is possible that over time the child will simply forget that such fear exists in his life. There is no need to focus on the fact that a phobia of water interferes with a person’s life. This causes him to replay unpleasant memories in his head over and over again.
If your child does not agree to take baths, it is important to be patient. Under no circumstances should you raise your voice at children, as this creates even more stressful situations and strengthens fears. Such a child withdraws into himself; he does not hear the arguments of adults. Communication problems may arise in the future.
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.
What can you do about bathophobia yourself?
- Create positive associations with water. Watch positive films about fish, beautiful photographs of the depths of the sea.
- Slowly force yourself to go into the water. First, just wet your feet. Then - knee-deep. And so gradually. You can do this in the pool.
- Remember all possible traumatic situations that contributed to the development of bathophobia. Take them apart. Develop the correct reaction.
- Eliminate fear from the subconscious, replace it with positive feelings. Every time you feel fear, replace it, for example, with sympathy for sea creatures. Admiration for sailors and surfers.
The list is small. Psychotherapy is an ever-evolving industry. And this is the best solution for everyone who suffers from one form or another of bathophobia. Psychologists see more than a person can understand on their own. In some cases, psychologists suggest using hypnosis. In a state of hypnosis, the doctor works directly with the subconscious. This way you can not only find a forgotten memory from childhood, but also change negative associations. This is an impact directly on the cause of the problem.
After treatment with a psychotherapist, the fear of depth disappears. There are no more negative associations with water. A person does not feel in danger while on the coast or in his own bathroom.
How to help your child overcome his fear of depth
Children's fears are more complex and deeper than those of adults. It is better to take a child suffering from bathophobia to a psychotherapist. You can only do things on your own that you know won’t do any harm. You can watch documentaries about the inhabitants of the sea. Show the sea from the good side. You can fill the bath with some water and let your baby play. Be sure to wear sleeves to completely prevent water from getting into his nose. Children don't like this.
You can watch other children swim in the pool. With your child's permission, you can try to teach him to swim. But this is done very carefully so as not to provoke a panic attack.
If a child is afraid, you should not drag him into the water. Often scars on the psyche are left by the good old method of parents. This is how many people used to be taught to swim: father and son swim on a log to the middle of the river, and there the father pulls the log out from under his son. Where to go? Instinct makes the child swim.
Such methods leave scars on the human psyche. As a result, bathophobia then appears. You can't do this to a child. There are many other methods to teach a child to swim. But they all need to be used carefully. Especially if there is a fear of depth or water.
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.
Behavior of a person suffering from a fear of depth
People with bathophobia diligently avoid situations where they will have to face their fear:
- Going to the beach.
- Walk along the embankment.
- Swimming in the pool.
- Swimming in open waters.
- Many people are afraid to even take a bath. Most often these are children, but this phobia also occurs in adults. They prefer showers.
- Watching films about water, monsters, sea adventures.
Many people are afraid not of the depth itself, but of getting entangled in algae. Fear arises from the inability to swim out. This happens if there have already been similar cases.
At the root of bathophobia, like many other fears, is the fear of death. A strong instinct of self-preservation dictates to beware of dangerous situations. But the problem is what is considered a dangerous situation:
- Is it dangerous for a child to bathe in the bathtub under adult supervision?
- Is it dangerous to sail a boat on a river if you know how to swim?
- Is it dangerous to swim in the sea with thousands of other beachgoers?
- Is it dangerous to swim in a pool under the supervision of a professional instructor?
No. And the psyche passes off such and other similar situations as danger. The threat is false. But the body’s reaction is real and so is bathophobia.
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.
How it manifests and arises
The impetus for the development of aquaphobia is a psychotraumatic factor, and the pathology can appear against the background of another somatic disease. In the first case, symptoms of fear are observed even at the age of 3-6 years, but parents attach little importance to them, thinking that the child is capricious. As a result, persistent hydrophobia is formed, as well as other neuroses.
As for the psychotraumatic factor, it can occur both in childhood and in adulthood. Often the patient is not ready to name the moment when he first felt fear of water. Usually the cause of fear is stress experienced, both with the participation of the person himself and if he acted as a passive observer. The lower the patient’s level of stress resistance, the more he fixates on the past, the greater the likelihood of developing a phobia of 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.
The child is afraid of water
Often, a child cannot realize the true nature and cause of his fear - he is simply scared. However, of course, there are reasons for everything. Often this is:
- Fear of a new and unknown sensation. Finding yourself in an environment that is unusual for the child.
- Inability to swim and stay on the water.
- Disturbing associations with some film or cartoon.
- Bad mood during the first swim.
- The water temperature is too cold and the child is uncomfortable in it.
- Not a particularly pleasant feeling of pebbles, stones, sand, etc. under your feet. In such situations, adults resort to “emergency measures” to introduce their baby to water. Quite often this ends badly, because the child must first of all feel safety and comfort; in the absence of this, the child is subjected to severe stress and anxiety, as a result of which the child only becomes more afraid of water. His thoughts state that swimming is scary because he was forced to do it.
Because of this approach, the child may well be overcome by panic or even horror when he is at depth. This sometimes leads to very sad consequences.{banner_m-001}
But where does this fear of depth come from?
This particular type of phobia, bathophobia, can be both destructive and objective. The destructive form involves inexplicable fears that there are monsters or any life-threatening things under water. There have been cases where people hear the voices of sirens or other marine life. For example, Cthulhu. There are people who believe that the ocean is a huge thinking creature that is extremely hostile to humans.
Objective fear can be explained, and therefore is not so dangerous. This is a fear of depth that occurs due to inability to swim or fear of drowning. The occurrence of this phobia is associated with experienced traumas, as a result of which a person is simply afraid of becoming drowned.
Sea monsters
Any phobia presupposes the presence of a serious subconscious fear. This fear is expressed in rapid breathing and rapid heartbeat. The standard fight-or-flight defense mechanism is activated. It’s great, of course, if the object of fear, a dog, for example, is standing before your eyes - here you can escape or do something else. But when such fear arises in the depths, it is many times worse and more terrible.
It's quite normal to be afraid of being eaten alive by a shark. But if a diver simply has an unreasonable fear of coral reefs or something similar, this is already a phobia. For some divers, their fear of sea creatures with fangs, such as sharks, is so intense that even swimming in a regular pool becomes an unbearable ordeal.
Fear of the deep sea
This phobia causes quite controversial discussions and opinions. Some experts argue that this particular phobia has its own reasons, some sigh in bewilderment, saying, how can it be so “afraid of a magnificent sea holiday”? Panic fear of the sea and swimming in it is called thalassophobia.
Some people tend to feel wary at the sight of huge amounts of water. Of course, this concerns the sea first of all. However, there are brave souls who are ready to swim very far without any fear of depth or anything else. If a person is overwhelmed by a feeling of inexplicable fear and panic just at the sight of the sea, then it’s worth forgetting about a complete and relaxing holiday, and there’s nothing to say about water sports.
Thalassophobia is also widespread among children. For example, a baby can happily play on the shore, rummage in the sand, but categorically refuse to swim alone. Psychologists even assigned this phenomenon its own classification, called neurotic symptoms.
