Hydrophobia is an uncontrollable, rampant fear of drowning. Proven ways to get rid of the fear of water. Fear of water is a phobia as it is called.

Hydrophobia is a phobia of water that is one of the most common fears. It occurs in both adults and children. Sometimes, in order to reduce the influence of certain objects or phenomena in a person’s life, it is enough not to come into contact with them. The fear of water cannot be avoided, especially if there is a lake or river near the house.

What is fear of water

When answering the question of what the fear of water is called, experts use the word hydrophobia. In other words, the term aquaphobia can be applied to such fear. A person with such fear avoids open water spaces; he does not want to swim. This phobia creates many inconveniences in life. For example, people with a phobia of water cannot visit swimming pools or saunas. For some, difficulties arise in everyday life. Taking a shower turns into an ordeal.

Fear of water has a special terminology in psychology. Such definitions are necessary to identify a specific fear. Next, we’ll figure out what each phobia is called and what it means.

Ablutophobia means fear of contact with water. Bathophobia indicates that a person is afraid of the deep bottom. Fear of water can also manifest itself as limnophobia (large volume of liquid). The definition of thalassophobia is usually applied to people who have a fear of the sea. There is also anthlophobia, omnophobia and chionophobia. Individuals may be afraid of flooding, flooding, exposure to rain and snow.

Main causes of phobia

To get rid of hydrophobia, you need to find out the reasons for its occurrence. The state of fear can be caused by a number of factors. Most of them are based on negative experiences using water or being in water, usually in childhood.

The most common stressful situations include:

Often adults try to teach their children to swim. Not all attempts have positive experiences. The child could simply be frightened of the water area, and the adult responded with aggression. Children also develop anxiety due to the threat to the safety of their lives; some attempts to learn to swim end in injuries on the mental and physical level.
Children and adults who handle water well could find themselves in emergency situations in which they drowned and screamed for help. For example, a man fell from a pier and swam into the depths. Here a stressful situation is remembered, the picture is postponed to the subconscious level. The sight of a body of water begins to cause panic in a person.
When taking a bath you also get scared. You might just hear a strange, frightening sound and lose your balance. This is how negative memories become fixed in the mind.
A phobia of water is often associated with fairy tales about mermen that adults tell their children. The child will constantly feel that the river or sea is dangerous, there are forbidden places and evil monsters there.

All these factors form hydrophobia. Additionally, psychologists consider cases of shipwrecks that survived floods. People who easily empathize with others may have developed a fear of water from watching others drown.

After experts find out what a water phobia is called and classify such fears, together with patients, psychotherapists usually look for the reasons.

The most common occurrence is an accident.

In life, it may happen that a person begins to drown due to negligence. Despite the fact that he will be given help, the phobia of water remains for life if it is not purposefully eliminated. Fears may also include swimming to depths or experiencing a shipwreck.

Psychologists often refer to fear of water as cases where a child or adult choked on water while eating. People sometimes encounter terrible natural phenomena in their lives. It could be a storm, a snow law. Then the phobia of water is projected onto the seasons. Each such episode leaves its imprint on the subconscious level. The most vulnerable psyche is that of children. At this age, hydrophobia most often occurs.

The child’s rich imagination can also influence the fear of water. They can watch films that end with a water-related disaster.

In some cases, fear of water in children is associated with careless behavior of adults. Parents teach swimming and do not always follow safety precautions. For example, they start swimming in cold water. A phobia of water is also formed on the basis of such a natural phenomenon as a thunderstorm. The child experiences fear of loud sounds and strong light effects. The reaction at the moment of fear is fixed in the brain. It is projected onto any other situations where water or water space will be present. Such negative episodes settle deep in children's memory. The child is aimed at understanding the world; he collects his impressions of events. Experiences in negative situations are stored in the subconscious.

Symptoms

A phobia such as the fear of water does not cause any particular inconvenience. Despite this, a person’s quality of life suffers. For example, a man and his friends cannot go to the bathhouse, or the family does not go to the seaside during the holiday season.

Walking near water bodies is also prohibited for such people. They may begin to have panic attacks. Boating puts you in a bad mood, to say the least. In some cases, fear becomes so strong that a person’s breathing and pulse quicken, he begins to blush, and his pupils dilate. Sometimes it feels like your heart is stopping. As the phobia develops, the signs begin to appear more and more clearly.

The disease has the following symptoms:

increased nervousness;
dizziness;
trembling and chills;
profuse sweating;
a state close to fainting.

In addition, a person may lose self-control and become more nervous. With hydrophobia, muscles tense and there are the first signs of nausea.

How to recognize a phobia

The fear of water does not always have a mental cause. There are often accidents that result in people drowning. Then, on a physical level, the body remembers the situation and all the visual and tactile objects associated with it.

Unlike rabies, hydrophobia does not have symptoms such as delusions, photophobia and hallucinations. A phobia of water is not fatal. It's just a mental disorder. It’s better not to joke with rabies; if you have the first signs of it, you should definitely consult a doctor.

Aquaphobia includes psychological and vegetative symptoms.

At the mental level, the following symptoms exist:

a person does not like it when water comes into contact with his skin;
he is afraid of depth and open waters;
the individual panicky does not want to swim or bathe.

Also, if there is snow or a thunderstorm outside, the phobia of water manifests itself in the form of a fear of leaving the room. The rarest cases include anxiety regarding the use of liquids inside the body.

At the physical level, water phobia manifests itself as follows:

a person feels sick;
dizzy;
constant headache;
pressure rises.

Please note that fear of water can cause profuse sweating.

If left untreated, an aquaphobe may experience panic attacks if they go far into the water. Seizures and other somatic symptoms often occur. A person’s consciousness tends to turn off in such situations; he no longer controls his thoughts and actions. At this moment, life may be at risk. It is important to overcome your phobia of water at the earliest stages.

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.

Treatment for adults

The manifestation of hydrophobia is observed not only in children, but also in adults. Some people at one time could not overcome the fear of drowning, others never learned to swim. In some cases, such fears are associated with the fear of being ridiculed; sometimes the water space causes trauma to a person on a mental and physical level.

If a fear of water arises in childhood, the help of a psychotherapist is often required. Memories can be located deep in a person’s subconscious and have a direct impact on reality.

Psychologists advise performing special exercises. For example, on a piece of paper you can write down all your fears that were associated with water or that you currently have. Then you can write about how other people would act to cope with such a phobia, or why such fears may be unfounded. It is important to have a positive attitude towards any situation. The phobia of water disappears if you give your mind rational reasons why it is stupid to be afraid of water, especially if there have been no real accidents in your life.

Another exercise is to simply imagine the situation of contact with water. It is worth trying to regulate your breathing and heartbeat. Next, it is important to analyze the situation, what exactly is scary about it. If necessary, you can ask close people to be nearby. The phobia of water does not disappear immediately. Sometimes this requires years of training, it all depends on how quickly a person is ready to part with his fears. There is no need to complicate the situation, you need to look for a way out of it.

There are cases when hydrophobia is treated exclusively with hypnosis. This is usually associated with difficult childhood memories. Psychotherapists are not always able to independently determine the causes of fears. At the end of the session, specialists prescribe a set of exercises and techniques that should help the patient get rid of the fear of water and water space. It is important to trust the psychotherapist and follow his instructions, and also not to be afraid of internal changes. Any mental problem has a solution.

Getting rid of a phobia

First of all, you should contact a qualified specialist for help. He will find out how strong a person’s desire is to work on himself, what his motivation is. A psychologist will usually provide guidance on how water phobia can go away. It is important to avoid frustration and anxiety, as well as relapses.

Psychotherapeutic methods are used to get rid of the fear of water. The psychotherapist often suggests interacting with the water space. For example, the patient may be immersed in a small pool. Each time the volume of water is added. Specialists strive to ensure that the patient feels comfortable around the object of his fears. Thanks to this method, the phobia of water gradually disappears.

There are additional methods to combat panic attacks. The specialist advises to imagine a person plunging into a river or swimming in the sea. At the same time, you need to remember the pleasant moments from life, to feel that there is nothing terrible in this process. Positive dynamics can be achieved through visualization at the system level. The patient's behavior is constantly modeled and adjusted.

Fear of water interferes with a full life for the following reasons:

The individual cannot fully interact with the environment.
Difficulties arise in organizing leisure time with friends and family in nature.
At an unexpected moment, when touching or being near open water, panic attacks may occur, and your health condition will sharply worsen.

Please note that children with a fear of water have fewer places where they could interact with their peers. Adults cannot take their child on a seaside holiday or visit a water park. Simply taking a bath can result in serious psychological trauma for a child.

It is important to create a peaceful environment, talk with the person more often about the reasons for his fears, and assure him that any obstacle can be overcome. It’s better to go to the river or lake with your loved ones.

Art therapy can also be a way out of the situation. A person draws his phobia, shows that the fear is not as great as the imagination imagines it. It often turns out that the fear was far-fetched and it is difficult to depict it on paper. You can take pictures and show the patient where human interaction with water spaces is presented in positive colors.

In order to overcome your phobia of water on your own, it is enough to choose a picturesque place where, for example, there is a lake nearby. You should try to spend as much time as possible in nature near water. Reading books, chatting with friends, and cycling are suitable here.

Often water helps a person relax, so you can simply take soothing baths and add aromatic oils to them. With such a procedure, it is important to think that the aquatic environment is positive, helping the body to be healthier and the person himself happier.

Mothers are often interested in what the fear of water is professionally called and how you can get rid of it. The child does not want to bathe, is constantly nervous and cries, which worries the concerned parent. However, not only children, but also adults can be afraid of water.

Aquaphobia disease

Aquaphobia, or hydrophobia, is a fairly common phobia. It got its name after studying such fears as:

Just “dive” into the water,
Swim where you don't feel the bottom underneath you,
Reluctance to swim after drowning or seeing a tragedy happen,
Fear of cold water
Fear of muddy, dirty water,
Reluctance to swim at night.

Fear of water manifests itself in the sea, lake, or open body of water. People with this disorder may feel comfortable taking a shower and bath, but going to the pool can result in panic attacks. Aquaphobia can manifest itself at absolutely any age. More often women suffer from it.

Important! Phobia is not a congenital disorder. However, young children often suffer from it. When considering all aspects, the birth process, complicated childbirth, and fetal hypoxia are often the source of fear of water. Occasionally, the phobia is transmitted from parents who are also afraid of water. Qualified specialists will help in this matter.

Hydrophobia is often characteristic of those who cannot swim. Occasionally, there are cases where a skilled swimmer experiences stress in the water and acquires aquaphobia.

Reasons for appearance

Most often, a phobia of water develops in childhood. This is usually facilitated by some situation that traumatizes the child’s psyche. He may try to swim and, if he tries unsuccessfully, begin to drown. Strong fear can settle in the mind for a long time.

Sometimes the fear of water arises after watching disaster films or news about incidents involving the death of people in water.

Fear of swimming is often associated with the fact that a person is afraid of sea creatures. In any case, a phobia always occurs against a background of severe stress.

Main development factors

The reasons for the development of aquaphobia may be the following:

Psychological trauma in childhood. In this case, the person may not even remember what happened to him.
Stressful events related to water. This includes an unsuccessful swimming experience, a long stay in the water, a tragedy seen with subsequent death, and natural disasters.
Viral diseases. When drinking water, an infected person experiences a spasm that prevents them from swallowing the liquid.

Diagnosis of aquaphobia

To deal with the issue of phobia for fear of drowning, you should go to see a psychotherapist. In the Russian Federation, this consultation costs about 1000 rubles in private centers. The doctor will conduct a conversation with the patient, where he will find out the type of phobia and the reason for its development.

Note! Diagnosis can only be made by a professional doctor. The person himself will not be able to correctly determine the type of phobia. The subsequent therapy regimen is also not suitable for each patient, so it is selected strictly individually. If the fear of water can be overcome on your own, the doctor will draw up a treatment regimen at home and give the necessary recommendations.

Types of disease

Fear of drowning is divided into several types:

Bathophobia - reluctance to swim in too deep bodies of water,
Thalassophobia is the fear of going into water, being in a boat or on a ship, or being at sea.
Absolutephobia is the fear of being not only in the sea, but also in the shower, bathtub, and reluctance to even brush your teeth. It causes great discomfort to a person.
Chionophobia – fear of snow.

Symptoms

It is customary to distinguish both psychological and vegetative signs of hydrophobia. They can be either pronounced or completely indistinct. Thus, in young children, fear may initially be veiled by a reluctance to simply go swimming. The child begins to be capricious and cry.

In some cases, a person may vomit at the sight of water. Then you should definitely seek the help of specialists.

Mental manifestations:

Hostility when water comes into contact with skin,
Fear of depth
Fear when swimming, taking a bath,
Anxiety when being outside during periods of rain or snow,
Rarely anxiety when drinking liquid.

Physical signs arise when thinking about contact with water, directly upon contact:

Nausea,
Dry mouth
Migraine,
Fever,
Tachycardia,
Tremor,
Breathing is lost
Sweating.

How to get rid

Aquaphobia is a disease and therefore requires treatment. Each person needs an individual approach. In some cases, psychotherapy may require medication and long visits to a psychotherapist.

Getting rid of an adult's fear of water

Psychotherapy includes several treatment methods:

Individual counseling to identify the root cause of fear.
Group therapy. All patients help each other overcome fear by visualizing water, but without coming into contact with it.
Then comes the moment when the patient comes into contact with the object of fear.
Often the doctor resorts to hypnosis, which helps to achieve quick results in a short time.
For severe cases of the disease, sedatives are used, such as Novo-passit, Sanasol, Valordin. They are prescribed exclusively by the attending physician.

Additional Information. Art therapy has proven itself very well in the treatment of aquaphobia. The patient depicts his fear on paper. Then he analyzes from the outside what exactly he is afraid of. As a rule, a person comes to the conclusion that there is nothing to be afraid of; he sees everything from a different perspective.

How to help a child

Every child needs security. He receives it when there are parents or an adult nearby. To prevent the baby from experiencing severe stress when immersed in water, all procedures and familiarization with water are done sequentially. Be sure to stay close to the child and, if possible, hold him in the water in your hands. In this case, the baby’s first swimming experiences will leave only positive memories.

What you can do yourself

You can help yourself only at the initial stage of the disease. Self-medication is carried out according to these instructions:

Choose a quiet place, a gently sloping bank of a pond (even a bathtub will do).
Ask someone close to you to be nearby and provide backup.
Get used to the water gradually. First, touch it, shake it with your hand. Sink slowly. You can take your mattress with you.
Be sure to relax and worry less. If desired, turn on calm, soothing music.

Hydrophobia, like any phobia, is curable. Despite the fact that the disease is unpleasant, it is now possible to select individually effective methods of psychotherapy and hypnosis. Fear does not go away on its own, so you should call it by name and show proper resistance.

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The pathological fear of water is called “hydrophobia”. It provokes the development of complex panic attacks. The disorder can cause loss of coordination, seizures, and loss of consciousness. Such conditions pose a huge danger to life if the aquaphobe suddenly finds himself far out at sea or alone with the natural elements. Hydrophobia develops as a result of tetanus or infection with rabies. It is worth noting that the fear of water in these fatal diseases develops at the second stage, when it is almost impossible to avoid death.

Clinical picture

Fear of water, fear of swimming, negative attitude towards water procedures is defined in psychology as hydrophobia (aquaphobia). Attacks associated with this fear cause significant discomfort, since the phobia even manifests itself in a reluctance to take a shower or bath. People suffering from this disorder do not like hygiene procedures related to bathing or washing. They refuse to go to the bathhouse or swimming pool.

This disease most often affects people who cannot swim. However, uncontrollable fear appears even before the need to take a few sips of water. Some people develop hydrophobia in front of any types of liquid, drinks, rain, or dampness.

Experts emphasize that the consequences of this phobia can affect not only the emotional and psychological, but also the physical side of the individual. It is important to carry out the main mandatory correction methods only with a psychotherapist. Self-medication when choosing any option leads to a deterioration in the patient’s well-being.

Any aquaphobe is afraid of contact with water. Some are frightened by the vastness of the ocean, others begin to panic because of the need to wash their face in the morning. Obsessive irrational uncontrollable fear of water manifests itself in various types:

1. Bathophobia. Characteristic of people who are afraid of bodies of water of great depth.
2. Thalassophobia. Pathological fear directly only of the sea. Develops with a panicky refusal to accept sea water, swimming or sailing on various vessels. The patient cannot even overcome himself to simply walk along the shore.
3. Ablutophobia. Diagnosed in children. The essence of the problem is a pathological fear of washing, taking a bath, and even brushing your teeth. Psychologists consider this phobia to be one of the most difficult, because it causes a lot of problems for the child every day.
4. Chionophobia. Represents fear of snow, rain, thunderstorms.

It is worth noting that overcoming oneself to achieve a goal in contact with water often provokes serious painful experiences. You cannot force a person to wash or swim in the sea. Experts say that provoking factors may not only be mental in nature. Fear of water often develops with rabies.

Causes

Unpleasant incidents are recognized as the main cause of hydrophobia. Perhaps problems with bathing go back to childhood. Accidents to the sick person or his loved ones cannot be ruled out. Hydrophobia also develops after a person almost choked while eating liquid food. There is a risk that the patient has witnessed a terrible flood or other natural disaster.

An episode with an accident leaves an imprint on a person’s psyche. It is known that such fears develop even on a subconscious level. Situations cannot be excluded in which the patient does not remember anything about past incidents.

Impressionable individuals experience a negative attitude towards water as a result of watching a disaster film. If the parents treated the child carelessly or were careless when developing bathing skills, this can also be considered a provoking factor. Dangerous episodes are projected onto future life and prevent one from feeling fully and confidently in similar situations.

Symptoms

The psychogenic nature of the disease is excluded when the patient has tetanus or rabies infection . Rabies is viral in nature, but hydrophobia develops in the second stage, when death is inevitable. To exclude such a terrible disease, it is necessary to identify the accompanying symptoms.

In addition to fear of water, hallucinations, aggression, and fear of bright light and sun appear. If the diagnosis of rabies or tetanus is not confirmed, corrective therapy should be carried out under the direct supervision of a psychotherapist. The symptomatic picture of the disorder is determined by vegetative and psychological characteristics.

From the emotional background, the following manifestations are possible:

aversion to interaction between skin and water;
fear of depth and open water;
fear of basic water procedures at home;
categorical reluctance to go outside during snowfall, rain or thunderstorms;
in exceptional cases, anxiety before drinking liquid.

Possible physiological signs begin to bother the patient when thinking about swimming or during direct contact with water:

dizziness;
circles before the eyes;
nausea or vomiting;
increased blood pressure;
excessive sweating;
headache.

Ignoring treatment for a phobia leads to the development of situations that are life-threatening to the aquaphobe himself. If by chance the patient falls into the water or goes far into the sea, attacks of panic and hysteria begin. Among the somatic symptoms, the most common are loss of orientation, convulsions, and loss of the ability to control one’s body. A person with severe aquaphobia often loses consciousness.

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 the 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 unsafe for health. Adrenaline, constantly released into the blood, undermines health. The heart and blood vessels weaken. And overcoming fear is a necessity.

Conclusion

Hydrophobia is a common phenomenon. It is very versatile, each case is individual. The physiological manifestations of a phobia and the events that provoke fear differ. Some are afraid to drink water, others are afraid to swim. Someone loses consciousness at the sight of the sea or a wide river.

Fears could be triggered by traumatic events from deep childhood or the recent past. An experienced psychotherapist will help you figure this out. If you remember what caused the development of aquaphobia, make an appointment. For your part, you can engage in introspection and provoke positive associations with water. Remember: it’s not the water’s fault that people drown in it. She is life. Water only causes death if it is used incorrectly.

Many people have a fear of water. Aquaphobia called pathological fear, fear of touching liquid and hostility to swimming. Panic anxiety before water is expressed in several categories:

Limnophobia. A person is afraid of the lake and the creatures living in it. To such people, lakes seem dangerous and scary. Often this phobia arises as a result of a childhood shock.
Potamophobia. Fear of rivers and strong streams. Such symptoms occur when waterfalls or powerful currents are close to each other.
Thalassophobia. Feeling of anxiety when swimming in the seas or oceans. People with such fear prefer to avoid sea travel.
Antlophobia. A state of panic characterized by fear of flooding.
Chionophobia. Neglect of snow.
Ombrophobia. People with such fears are afraid of getting wet in the rain.
Ablutophobia. Aversion to water in any form. A person suffering from this phobia may refuse even basic hand washing. At the mere thought or contact with a stream of water, a person begins to tremble. Sometimes there is nausea and headaches. Mostly children and women are susceptible to this fear. According to psychologists, the reason lies in childhood trauma or an accident.

All these fears are absurd in their essence. Fortunately, such fears are quite rare. Let's take a closer look at known anxiety conditions.

Hydrophobia – this is a panic disorder when in contact with water. A person is afraid to come into contact with water; it seems to him that he might drown. As a rule, such people do not know how to swim. The reason for this behavior may be a water related accident. Those suffering from this phobia cannot wash, swim or even drink normally.

The main factors in the emergence and development of aquaphobia:

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.
Hysteria. The patient begins to panic and scream loudly at the mere sight of water.
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.
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.
Human death from water. If a person happened to witness a sunken ship or a suicide falling from a bridge into the water.

Aquaphobia– 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.

Treatment

You can get rid of the disease using self-hypnosis. Doctors heal patients in a way that is called “wedge by wedge.” Aquaphobes should start coming into contact with a small amount of water first. And then just increase the volume. Patients can swim in the pool with their trainer or relatives. Thus, a person begins to independently fight his phobias.

Many psychotherapists actively practice hypnosis and cognitive therapy.

Fear of depth

Some people experience anxiety before diving into water. This is a panicky fear of plunging into the abyss. Bathophobia is what the fear of depth is called.

However, you should not be skeptical about such behavior. Water is a powerful and dangerous element that has consumed the destinies of many people more than once. Young children and adults can easily become victims of water if they do not take precautions. Those who survived the fight with water will never forget it. It’s another matter when this incident negatively affects a person’s psyche. Therefore, every time he comes into contact with water, he experiences panic fear and anxiety.

What does this mean?

a person cannot fully enjoy a holiday at sea;
difficulties arise with conventional water procedures;
a negative attitude towards drinking drinks appears;
It is impossible to practice water sports.

Sometimes patients themselves do not understand the true motives for water rejection. Experts believe that any phobia develops according to the same type of plot. It is possible to get rid of unpleasant fear. The main thing is to understand that by following the usual rules, you can safely enjoy swimming. But an aquaphobe does not come to this right away. With desire and perseverance, anyone can get rid of their fears.

Sources and methods of combating bathophobia:

Inability and fear of swimming at all. To overcome fear, you just need to take the first step. For example, enter the pool. You can ask your family to stay nearby.
Fear of monsters under water. Some people think that there are many monsters and devils lurking under the water. In this case, self-hypnosis will help. If the human consciousness believes the existence of sea monsters, it may well not believe in it.
Childhood fear. It's much easier with small children. There is nothing better than a kind word and support. The child will begin to calm down and have fun.

Conclusion

Aquaphobia is a rather unpleasant disease. However, it can be cured. There are effective methods of behavioral therapy, hypnosis, and psychotherapy. Young children require proper adult behavior and attention. Fear itself will not go away if you do not provide it with proper resistance.