Aquaphobia is an abnormal fear of water. Most people have some fear of and respect for water and recognise that it can be dangerous in certain situations. For people suffering from aquaphobia, this “normal” fear becomes extreme fear, which may interfere with their quality of life.
Sufferers may avoid everyday activities such as driving over a bridge, swimming or boating, even though they realise the water poses no imminent threat. This anxiety generally extends to unexpectedly getting wet or splashed with water. Feelings of unease, anxiety, elevated heart rate, sweating, nausea and hyperventilating can be experienced.
The term aquaphobia is preferred over the term hydrophobia, as the latter also refers to the symptoms of the later stages of rabies and manifests in humans as difficulty in swallowing.
Causes
Fear of water can be the result of a traumatic water experience in and around water, for example when a person was personally involved in a near drowning accident or fell out of a boat. This is also called a direct learning experience. Another cause can be through indirect learning experience, for example when people witness or hear about such incidents or watch movies or read books in which people drown or are attacked in water. Another cause can be cultural conditions, for example people who grew up in desert climates may find the sight of large bodies of water intimidating. Some people may not even be aware of their aquatic fear and subconsciously avoid situations in which water is present.
Treatment
Learning how to swim is the first step towards overcoming aquaphobia. A trained swimming instructor must first teach breathing and relaxation techniques and then slowly and gradually get the person to float. The more comfortable the person gets in the water, the more confidence he or she will have in being in it and thus overcome the fear.
However, a phobia can defeat all logic and aquaphobia is often treated with psychotherapy. One of the approaches is called systematic desensitisation in which the person is slowly exposed over time to the origin of the phobia in order to un-learn the fear associated with it. For example, the treatment may start with photos of water and then slowly progress to visiting a pool and gradual exposure to water.
Our Employee Wellbeing Programme (EAP) is available 24 hours a day if you want to know more about aquaphobia.