How to overcome your fear of water and swimming

9 2984 February 16, 2020 at 10:42 pm Author of the publication: Diana Gadlevskaya, anesthesiologist
Summer, sun, heat... The best way to relax and entertain a child is to go to the beach. A river, sea, lake or just a swimming pool - there are a lot of options, the main thing is the opportunity to swim, splash, dive, jump into the water and have fun cooling off on a summer day.

In addition, mischievous children love to have fun on the water so much, nothing can lure them to the shore; they will swim until their lips turn blue. Satisfied parents have the opportunity to lie down on a sun lounger in the shade, languidly sip a refreshing cocktail through a straw, and discuss the latest news with friends.

But some kids don’t support their parents’ enthusiasm at all and don’t share mom and dad’s enthusiasm for water procedures; they don’t even wet their feet, being afraid to approach the water’s edge. No amount of hot weather or exhortations about how great it is to swim will produce the expected effect. Demonstration of a swimming dad, frolicking children or offering a variety of “watercraft” also does not give anything; the child still refuses to go into the water. Flatly!

In this case, you can often see a picture of how a baby is simply picked up and carried into the water under a deafening scream, crying and all sorts of protests on his part, motivating such a decision by the fact that “he’ll try it, it’s nice, and he’ll want it himself” or “let him gets used to fighting his fears” and the like.

The child clings with all his might to the parent, who is trying to tear his child away from him and show all the delights of summer swimming in a pond, sobs, screams and asks to return him to the shore.

Similar “swims” are repeated several times: “well, it’s hot, so as not to overheat,” “he’ll roar and get used to it,” “he’s a boy, so he should be able to swim,” there are a lot of arguments, and the parents sincerely believe that they are doing nothing bad, but, on the contrary, they are trying to instill in the child, if not sports skills, then a love of water treatments and active recreation in nature.

Let's try to systematically understand why some children are not at all afraid of water and even love to swim more than anything else, while others are simply horrified at the prospect of plunging into a pond or even getting their feet wet.

Where does the fear of water come from and is it possible to change a child’s attitude towards water?

Where does fear of water come from?

It is worth immediately separating the fear of water as a psychological phobia and as a symptom of rabies. In the 21st century, such a terrible disease as rabies is quite rare, but if infection occurs, especially with late diagnosis, it is fatal in 99.9% of cases. The outdated name for this disease is hydrophobia. The fact is that at the second stage of the disease a group of symptoms appears, including a panicky fear of water.

If we talk about a psychological disorder, then this, like other phobias, can arise due to various reasons. Most often, fear of water occurs after a negative personal experience. This can be either an innocent episode when bathing a child, when he plunged headlong into the water for a split second, or a really dangerous situation when a person was on the verge of drowning, but was saved. A phobia can even be caused by a case in which the patient choked heavily and this physical sensation, when water entered the respiratory tract, was imprinted in an unconscious state.

There are people who got their phobia after witnessing someone drowning. Especially in childhood, when such a psycho-emotional impact can be had not only by a real incident, but also by a scene from a film.

Advice from psychologists

1. Psychologists say that children's memory is very short and in order for the baby to forget about some unpleasant event associated with water, it is enough to simply skip swimming for 4-5 days. And then the baby won’t even remember what upset him.
2. If the baby bathed and received negative emotions, then spend subsequent bathing in another room for a while. After all, in his memory fear is associated not only directly with contact with water, but precisely with the place where he experienced it.
3. Be sure to start water procedures only when the baby is in a good mood; if he is dissatisfied with something, it is better to postpone bathing.
4. When the baby gets older, talk to him, ask his opinion about everything related to bathing: how much water to pour, whether it should be colder or warmer, what toys to give.
5. While bathing your baby, do not yell at him, talk calmly, sing songs, or turn on pleasant music.
6. It’s rare, but there are cases when children 5-6 years old are afraid of water. You can ask them to draw their fear on paper: this usually helps a lot.

What is the scientific name of a phobia?

Fear of water has several scientific names: hydrophobia (from ancient Greek ὕδωρ - water and φόβος - fear) and its synonym - aquaphobia, where aqua - “water” in Latin. In the classic case, this disorder represents a fear of bathing in bodies of water, swimming, or immersion in water. Hydrophobes often do not know how to swim because of this feature, so such fear begins to rely on the instinct of self-preservation. Thus, the circle closes, the person is afraid of drowning, because he does not know how to swim, and he does not know how to swim because he is afraid of water and does not want to learn.

There is another specific phobia called ablutophobia. Ablutio translated from Latin means “washing” or “washing away.” With ablutophobia, a person, often a child, experiences panic fear or anxiety when water gets on their face or while bathing in a bath. Thus, ablutophobia creates difficulties in carrying out basic hygiene procedures, while aquaphobes basically deprive themselves of the pleasure of swimming in reservoirs or taking cruises.

TECHNIQUES TO ELIMINATE A CHILD'S FEARS OF WATER

Before you can understand how to help your child cope with his fears, you need to find out what he is actually afraid of. Children who can already speak can be asked to talk about their fears. But this doesn't always work out. In such cases, the child can be asked to draw something that he would not like to experience in the water or to show his fear in playing with dolls or toys.

When the cause of fear is clear, you can work with it.

If the main reason is fear of separation from parents, then the best way would be to take a bath or swim in the pool together. Then, as the child gets used to the water, the time spent with him in the water can be gradually reduced, alternating between separate and shared swimming or bathing with the child.

If you have problems with shampoo or soap, you can use neutral baby shampoo and prevent shampoo from getting into your eyes with a visor or swimming goggles.

If the fear is caused by the possibility of being sucked into the sewer, you can demonstrate to the child on a doll that even she will not be able to fit into the small drain hole.

If the fear is caused by underwater monsters from fantasies, talk to your child about the difference between fiction and reality: prove to them that there are no monsters and sharks in the bathtub and there may be monsters. Use goggles or a mask so your child can see underwater.

To get used to water, you can use the desensitization method, that is, a gradual decrease in sensitivity. To do this, the child is gradually accustomed to water, starting with wiping with a damp cloth, immersing his hands in water and continuing with taking a shower, immersing his feet and, gradually, the whole body in water. Achievements at each stage must be reinforced with encouragement, and in every possible way show how proud you are of the child’s achievements - children usually really want to please their parents. Respect your child's feelings and fears and don't push him to go faster than he can.

How to overcome your fear of water

Depending on the severity of the phobia, you can fight it either with the help of psychotherapy or on your own. If a hydrophobe suffers from a mild form of the disorder, then it is quite possible to overcome the fear of water and learn to swim without the involvement of specialists.

To implement it, it is recommended to start contacting with a small volume of water, in pleasant and calm conditions.

For example, visiting beaches, going into water up to your ankle, knee, waist - gradually getting used to the sensations and coming to terms with the non-danger of the actions. It’s good to do all this in the presence of close, reliable people - their support will help the aquaphobe calm down and feel safe. For those who are afraid of depth and the unknown, it will be useful to start with a visit to the pool. Transparent water, visibility of the bottom, a special vest, a trainer - all this helps to calm the hydrophobe, despite the “dangerous” environment for him. After a person learns to swim in a pool, the fear of open water will also go away.

What to do if a child is sick?

If you suddenly begin to notice that your child is terribly afraid of water, then under no circumstances should you panic. It is enough to follow some tips:

• Under no circumstances force your child to get into the water (it is quite enough to water him, for example, from a watering can while on the shore);
• Teach your child to dive underwater while holding their breath.

Only after you understand that your child is no longer afraid can he be released into open water.

Fear of water is a fairly serious disease. That is why do not rush to diagnose it in yourself if you are simply afraid to dive into the dark. After all, the usual instinct of self-preservation speaks in you, which is a normal function of the body. If fear does not lend itself to logic, then we can already talk about a phobia. But it is also quite easy to overcome: all that is required is the desire of the patient and the help of a doctor. And very soon your life will sparkle with new colors.

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Why do you dream about being afraid of water?

Dreams are one of the most mysterious forms of the breakthrough of the unconscious into the consciousness of a sleeping person. Both oneirology and psychoanalysis study and interpret dreams. It would be too bold to speak unambiguously about any meanings of this or that dream. Nevertheless, if we rely on Freud’s theory, then in his interpretation of the “birth” symbol most often there is some kind of interaction with water, an attitude towards water. Fear of water can be dreamed of in connection with upcoming or previous events; it can mean both danger, a threat to life, and deeper individual experiences.

One way or another, if you have the same dream or experience any obsessive thoughts regarding dreams, the best advice would be to consult a psychoanalyst. No consultation with an astrologer or a specialist in system-vector psychology will give you a profound result. Try to solve your problems by resorting to the use of teachings close to science. On the other hand, the human psyche is designed in such a way that the placebo effect can be very strong. If you are an aquaphobe or a religious person, then prayer for fear of water can have a beneficial effect, calm you down and inspire confidence.

Fear of depth: definition and types of phobia

Fear of depth, or bathophobia, is an overwhelming fear of being in a body of water (or a deep pool) above deep, dark water: this phobia can develop in both adults and children, most often as a result of previous traumatic experiences that have formed a negative image of the situation.

Bathophobia has several subtypes:

• Objective fear of depth develops in response to a very real physical threat to life or a previous negative image associated with water. For example, a person who does not know how to swim or dive, as well as a participant or witness to a tragedy may suffer from a fear of depth: an accident on the water, a deliberate attempt to drown, a catastrophe, a large-scale natural disaster (tsunami, flood);
• The subjective form of fear of depth appears without real reasons: it is characteristic of people with increased anxiety and prone to panic attacks;
• A destructive, destructive form of bathophobia is based on illogical fears associated with deep bodies of water, dense thickets of algae and underwater inhabitants. A destructive fear of depth is characteristic of people with a wild imagination. Based on stories they have heard or read about chthonic monsters, mermaids and mermen, films about underwater monsters and large-scale tragedies on the water (sinking of ships, floods, tsunamis, etc.), bathophobes build a negative image of the situation. The most impressionable people are so imbued with these fantastic images that they imagine, supposedly hear the sounds made by underwater inhabitants, and see their shadows in the water.

What exactly might a person suffering from bathophobia be afraid of:

• Algae Fear: A person may be frightened by the sight of underwater vegetation or fauna hiding in it. A person may also be haunted by the fear of getting entangled or lost in the thickness of algae;
• Fear of encountering underwater fauna: crustaceans, mollusks, jellyfish, echinoderms, small and large mammals or amphibians, etc.;
• Fear of scary underwater inhabitants: chthonic monsters, mythological creatures, monsters inspired by cinema and science fiction literature;
• Phobia of artifacts lost in the water column, sunken ships, remains of ancient civilizations;
• Fear of bumping into the body of a drowned man;
• Phobia of the unknown: a person is afraid of the depth of water because he does not know what it contains (one of the variations of the fear of death). It can occur in people who cannot swim and in experienced swimmers;
• Fear of losing control of oneself.

Coping with fear in adults

According to one theory, hydrophobia, like any other phobia, is a clear embodiment of internal anxiety caused by an external, unconscious cause. Especially if the phobia appeared “out of nowhere,” the best option would be to contact a psychologist-psychotherapist who deals with in-depth analysis. If the reason for the emergence of aquaphobia on the surface is that you have experienced a psychotraumatic situation, which you remember very well, but cannot overcome the fear on your own, then a consultant psychologist or psychotherapist will help you return to a full life. One of the effective methods of working with phobias is cognitive behavioral therapy. The patient develops the “correct” model of behavior when interacting with a frightening environment through gradual contact.

It is also possible to overcome the fear of water in adults with the help of hypnosis. This method shows good results, but is not suitable for everyone, due to the individual characteristics of the body. Art therapy techniques are often used to overcome the problem. When visualizing a phobia in a picture, the attitude towards the object of fear changes. Aquaphobes can exhibit compensatory behavior - taking boat trips, despite feeling terrible - rapid heartbeat, increased sweating, hand tremors, nausea. Some, on the contrary, will put off going to a specialist with all their might, convincing themselves and others that the phobia does not interfere with their lives. By the way, many hydrophobes never find it necessary to cope with their fear, and for the rest of my days I avoid swimming in a lake, sea or ocean.

Symptoms of hydrophobia

Numerous symptoms are divided into two categories: autonomic and psychological.

Psychological manifestations of the disease:

• fear of open water and depth;
• reluctance to go outside when it is snowing or raining outside;
• tactile fears associated with the fact that a person is afraid of direct skin contact with water - he has no desire to wash or take a shower;
• anxiety before drinking any drink.

Among the physical symptoms indicating that a person has a fear of water are:

• feeling of nausea;
• slight dizziness;
• significant increase in pressure;
• headache occurs when the patient begins to think about water;
• increased sweating.

Psychosomatic symptoms of phobia

As a rule, hydrophobia or aquaphobia does not cause a person any particular inconvenience, but certainly affects the quality of life. Such people cannot walk near bodies of water; they cannot be forced to go for a “swim” or go on a boat ride. For them, even fishing is something terrible.

The disease is characterized by symptoms such as:

• Profuse sweating;
• Increased nervousness;
• Chills and trembling throughout the body;
• Dizziness;
• Dilated pupils;
• Shortness of breath or numbness of the limbs;
• Cardiopalmus;
• Pre-disturbance state;
• Loss of self-control;

In addition, a person suffering from hydrophobia often suffers from muscle tension, as well as nausea.

The symptoms of hydrophobia can manifest themselves in different ways; in some cases, its manifestations may not be clearly expressed. In most cases these include:

• a strong desire to avoid contact with water (reluctance to be in open water, immerse in a filled bath, etc.);
• the appearance of muscle hypertonicity, dry mouth, and dizziness during contact with water;
• behavioral disorders (uncontrolled aggression, panic, fear);
• convulsions;
• reluctance to leave the house in rainy and snowy weather.

In some cases, the above symptoms do not appear so clearly, and the immersion of a person suffering from hydrophobia is accompanied only by a feeling of causeless anxiety and fear. Therefore, this disorder can be diagnosed by paying attention only to the totality of manifestations of behavioral reactions during contact with a source of discomfort.

The patient experiences severe discomfort while being outside during the rain.

Features of overcoming fear by children

Children's fear of water can also take many forms. Some children are afraid of swimming in a pond, but at the same time calmly tolerate being in an inflatable pool of water; others cannot stand it when shower water is poured on their heads while washing in the bath. There are many possible manifestations of aquaphobia or ablutophobia in a child. These fears must be dealt with carefully and gradually.

Do not under any circumstances put pressure on your child, do not devalue his feeling of fear, do not compare him with other, more “brave” children. These are the main mistakes that parents can make in such situations.

The child must be sure that his parents are on his side, they understand him, support him, and will help him overcome his fear. If instead you shame the child or try to force him into the water, you will no longer have trust. Children will simply start hiding their feelings from you because they won't be sure that you are a reliable, understanding adult.

A parent can try to help a child in the same way as an art therapist would - offer to draw their fear. And then, carry out some manipulations with the drawing. You can tear it up or add elements to it that will no longer frighten the baby, but, on the contrary, will begin to evoke positive emotions. In the same way, gradual contact with “danger” is recommended; you can try to attract floating toys that the child likes, and come up with games. If you can’t overcome your fear of water on your own, you can contact a child psychologist. He can use the same techniques, plus fairy tale therapy or sand therapy, which has a good effect on children. But do not forget, most disorders in a child indicate the presence of problems among adults in the family.

This video explains how the fear of water manifests itself in a small child and how you can combat this phobia.

Monsters in the water

Fear of bodies of water, fear of swimming, fear of depth, fear of losing support under your feet - all feelings have one common root - fear of death.

All people, to one degree or another, can fear for their lives, but only people with a visual vector have the fear of death as a deep, ancient and intense sensation, sometimes developing into phobias. The fear of death, which is embodied in the fear of water, heights, closed spaces, darkness, snakes, spiders, mice and other things, can significantly influence the quality of life of its owner, pushing him to certain actions or depriving him of the opportunity to fully realize himself in society.

A small child with a visual vector is just trying to develop his innate psychological properties, and the state when he is in fear is not a reason for parents to take drastic measures, but just one of the options for the manifestation of certain mental properties.

Fear in any of its incarnations is the starting point for the development of the visual vector, which can (and should!) be continued up to the highest point - the ability for effective compassion, empathy for another person, a feeling of love for all humanity, in which there is absolutely no place for fear.

The development of vector properties occurs before the end of puberty, that is, up to 12–15 years. After this, these properties are realized at the level to which they managed to develop in childhood. The process of realization continues throughout a person’s life and can be either a full-fledged embodiment of all the innate properties of the vector, giving the same complete and powerful feeling of satisfaction, or clumsy attempts to slightly realize themselves in order to simply relieve tension and fill the growing voids inside.

Therefore, a systematic approach to raising a visual child plays an extremely important role in the development of the child’s psychological properties, and therefore the entire life scenario of the future personality.

For raising a visual child, the important points are a strong emotional connection with the mother, the opportunity to show one’s emotions at any time, be it delight or sadness, the complete absence of any frightening moments (scary fairy tales, homemade “educational” scares, games in the dark with scares, evil or cruel cartoons or computer games, etc.), the formation in a child of a sense of compassion with a gradual transition from caring for dolls, plants, animals to empathy for people who need help - the sick, lonely, homeless.

In this way, the child learns to shift the emotional focus from the loved one to another person, tries to receive satisfaction from an emotional connection with another, from the outpouring of emotions and compassion, from love for one’s neighbor and all humanity. This allows him, already in adulthood, to find such an option for the implementation of innate psychological properties that gives the most complete feeling of joy and satisfaction with his own activities and life in general.

The fear is not of the water itself, but of what is underneath it

This is precisely the explanation of their phobia that people suffering from aquaphobia often give. There is another term - limnophobia, which means fear of lakes, but these particular bodies of water stand out because they most often have an opaque bottom. Limnophobes are also afraid of ponds, swamps and other mysterious places. Even the images in the picture can cause discomfort in the body. At the same time, people suffering from this disorder do not experience any discomfort when visiting a water park or swimming pool. The fear of what is under water is often provoked by horror films and other influences on the unformed psyche of impressionable individuals.

A few words in conclusion, you can get rid of hydrophobia on your own, if the degree of severity allows it, or with the help of psychotherapy. Techniques used by specialists range from cognitive behavioral to psychoanalysis. The fear of water in children usually goes away with age, with the correct, non-traumatic behavior of adults. There are people who prefer not to resist fear and avoid certain contacts with water throughout their lives.

WHY IS A CHILD AFRAID OF WATER?

Why does a child have a fear of water? Very often, during the development process, young children receive a distorted, unrealistic idea of ​​the potential dangers of the water element.

At the age of 9 months, the baby first understands that he exists separately from his father and mother. This awareness can be the cause of psychological stress, which manifests itself in tears and fears every time the parents leave the room. Placing a child in a separate environment, container or room from the parents can link the fear of separation from the parents to the bath or pool.

At the age of two years, fears of water may be due to illogical conclusions from one’s own observations. For example, watching bath water drain down the drain, a child may think that he too might be sucked into the drain and die. Or watching other children dive and disappear under water, he may imagine that they are drowning.

At three years old, children have a well-developed imagination, but have not yet learned to distinguish between reality and the world of fiction based on works of fiction. Children's fantasies at this age can create fairy-tale monsters and monsters living under water or in sewer pipes that can absorb them.

At any age, negative experiences associated with bathing or swimming, for example, slipping or unexpectedly diving headlong under water, getting injured or being startled by a sharp sound (a motor boat on the beach) or someone's joke, can develop a persistent fear of water.

Getting shampoo, soap, or chlorinated water into the eyes, nose, and mouth can also create a persistent reluctance in a child of any age to repeat this unpleasant experience associated with water.

Elimination of hydrophobia in an adult

Hydrophobia can manifest itself not only in children, but also in adults who at one time were unable to learn to swim or experienced some terrible situation where water acted as a traumatic factor. Sometimes the fear of water arose in childhood, in which case it will be much more difficult to cope with it. You can eliminate this phobia using some exercises:

1. Take a large sheet of paper. Write down all your fears that are related to water and number them from one to ten. The number 10 should be placed above the situation that is the most terrible and frightening for you. The number 1 should be placed over the situation that causes mild discomfort or discomfort.
2. Then try to take control of the situation. First, take a deep breath and exhale, bring your pulse and breathing back to normal, and only now proceed to analyze the specific situations that you wrote down on a piece of paper. First you need to imagine situation number 1. Having plunged into it, you must try with all your might to bring your breathing and pulse back to normal. Only when, when remembering this situation, your breathing and pulse are not disturbed, you can move on to number 2. This is how you need to analyze the first three situations. If it is difficult for you to do this on your own, ask that a loved one be with you at this moment. The next day you can proceed to the following situations, which are written down on the sheet. This needs to be done gradually. If you feel that this situation is causing you anxiety, then it is not recommended to move on to the next one until you have finally dealt with the previous one.
3. If you successfully complete such a task, be sure to reward yourself with something pleasant. As a present for yourself, you can choose a trip to a water park, where you can try to learn swimming if you didn’t know how to do it. The water park is the ideal place where you can learn how to stay afloat.
4. Sessions with a psychotherapist. It is the specialist who will be able to correctly identify the true cause of the patient’s phobia, which complicates his life. Sometimes one session is not enough, because the problem of existing hydrophobia can be deep-rooted.
5. Treatment with hypnosis. This method is used in especially severe cases; often it helps to identify the origins of aquaphobia.

First of all, you need to honestly admit to yourself the existing problem. If necessary, be sure to contact a specialist. In this case, you, as a patient, will undergo an examination, the doctor will determine the cause of the phobia, prescribe a set of exercises and special techniques to eliminate hydrophobia. In the end result, you will understand that water does not pose any danger to both human life and health.

Adviсe

What's scary underwater is scary - go to the pool

1. If you are very afraid of the depths, then no one forces you to be there. You can swim closer to the shore or in lakes where there are no deep areas.
2. If you are afraid of what is hidden in the water, then you can go to places where the water is clear and you can clearly see what is at the bottom. In addition, you can go to the pool; there are definitely no algae, no fish, or, especially, any monsters there.
3. If you are afraid of flooding, then you need to change your place of residence to an area that will be far enough from open bodies of water. And if you already live in such a place, then you need to realize that nothing threatens you.
4. If there is a fear of water in any of its manifestations, then you must seek help from a specialist.

Now you know how not to be afraid to swim and generally come into contact with water. It is necessary to realize that the presence of any phobia complicates life even for a small person. Therefore, it is so important to act in time when characteristic manifestations occur. If you can’t do it on your own, then contact an experienced specialist.

Reasons for the development of fear of depth

In most cases, a person develops a fear of depth after a traumatic event that occurred on the water. Such traumas are experienced most acutely in childhood: an unsuccessful first swimming experience, comic attempts by peers to drag a child into the water, and the presence of another person during drowning strengthens the negative image and forms a phobic disorder.

At the same time, a person suffering from bathophobia throughout his entire adult life may not even remember his childhood trauma. In this case, in order to “get to the bottom” of the root causes, you will need the help of a hypnotherapist such as Nikita Valerievich Baturin.

Possible causes of hydrophobia and bathophobia:

• Diseases associated with difficulty breathing, for example, rabies and tetanus. A person infected with rabies experiences excruciating pain and difficulty swallowing: the virus attacks the nerves that innervate the swallowing centers. In ancient times, this disease was called “hydrophobia”. Unreasonable fear of water is one of the late signs of infection: at this stage the mortality rate is 100%. The patient loses touch with reality, experiences horror even before an ordinary glass of water, and becomes aggressive;
• Mental disorders: hysteria and panic attacks can be both a consequence and the original cause of a phobia;
• Negative experience of learning to swim or dive. Often, in an attempt to stimulate children's natural instinct of self-preservation, parents or coaches immediately throw them into the deep. Depending on your emotional makeup and sensitivity, this situation can cause psychological trauma and panic fear of water;
• Watching films about disasters occurring on the water, or monsters hiding in the depths.

Fear of depth and aquaphobia are most common in emotional people who, due to the characteristics of their nervous system, have a high level of anxiety and are prone to panic attacks.

Phobia of deep water and fear of drowning, accompanied by nightmares, can be caused by psychological problems. Often the cause of such dreams is the excessive pressure of everyday problems, the fear of remaining unnoticed, hidden in the shadow of one’s partner or relative (in a dream this can be felt as an irresistible pull under water, further and further from the surface and sunlight).

1. Fury. A serious condition in which the patient has difficulty swallowing water. Water procedures bring him terrible torment. Even after undergoing a course of treatment, the patient still has a pathological fear of water. Viral diseases and tetanus are the result of the development of symptoms of hydrophobia.
2. Hysteria. The patient begins to panic and scream loudly at the mere sight of water.
3. Stressful case. Perhaps the most common cause of this illness. For example, a person once had an unfortunate episode with water. Even time is not a cure for such fear. After all, the instinct of self-preservation remains for a long time.
4. The influence of films. The shock of seeing a death in one of the scenes on a television screen can leave a heavy mark on the memory. Then it turns into real fears.
5. Human death from water. If a person happened to witness a sunken ship or a suicide falling from a bridge into the water.

Aquaphobia is a complex painful condition and has many features. So, with this diagnosis, a person can hardly stay in the bath. Ordinary hygiene procedures turn into a real test.

Such patients try to be away from fountains, ponds or streams. In their opinion, the water hides within itself terrible sea monsters that are about to grab and devour a person.

When touching or seeing water, aquaphobes experience a surge of fear. Their heart rate begins to increase, dizziness occurs, apathy and vomiting appear. There is also increased sweating and temporary loss of judgment. First of all, they try to move a long distance away from water sources.

Aquaphobia is observed much more often in young children than in adults. After all, a child perceives an anxious state at the level of natural instincts. With proper psychological treatment, this fear disappears over time.