Water is one of the most essential elements for the life of living beings. Therefore, not coming into contact with it regularly is complex, becoming a problem for those who suffer from hydrophobia.
Hydrophobia or fear of water is defined as the handicap that humans may suffer when they come into contact with the aquatic environment for the first time. During the first stages of exploration, discovery, and adaptation, we encounter a reluctant behavior towards water (Saquicela and Jacinto, 2010).
Hydrophobia or phobia of water is a psychological disorder characterized by an irrational, excessive, and unjustified fear of water.
Symptoms of hydrophobia
Physical symptoms :
- Increased heart rate.
- Increased respiratory rate.
- Hyperventilation or feelings of suffocation.
- Generalized muscle tension.
- Excessive sweating all over the body and/or cold sweats.
- Stomach and/or headaches.
- The feeling of unreality or depersonalization.
- Pupillary dilation.
- Dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
Cognitive symptoms :
Physical symptoms reinforce cognitive symptoms, causing negative thoughts when the person is near water. In addition, these negative thoughts produce and feed doubts about the ability of the person with hydrophobia to cope with water.
Behavioral symptoms :
- Avoidance. The person avoids contact with water at all costs, which contributes to increasing the fear and prevents it from being overcome.
- Escape. When a person has been unable to avoid contact with water, they will try to get out of the situation as quickly as possible.
“Fear is always ready to see things worse than they are.”
-Tito Livio-
Causes of hydrophobia
According to Calamnia (1993), we can group the causes of hydrophobia into two blocks:
- Education of fear towards the aquatic environment. The adult transmits his fear so that the child integrates it into his organism before having experienced the fear in the first person. This is the most frequent form.
- Previous bad experiences or stressful situations such as induced dives.
According to Zubiaur and Gutiérrez (2003), hydrophobia in motor behavior can be due to multiple factors:
– Fears of psychological threats:
- Fear of failure. This is one of the most common causes in children and increases with age. It may be because they do not trust their abilities or because they fear the consequences of failure.
- Fear of being evaluated negatively.
- Fear of being made a fool of in society. This has a great influence on adolescence and in many cases can persist into adulthood.
- Fear of competition.
– Fear of physical insecurity:
Beginners have to deal with unusual movements, often in unusual environments, or perform unusual movements that can cause loss of spatial orientation or balance, which can cause fear.
If we add to this the novelty of the situation, uncertainty about the results and the importance of achieving success, and the feeling of fear during, and perhaps after, the execution can become very intense.
How to treat hydrophobia?
Exposure therapy, as with almost all phobias, is usually the most commonly used treatment for treating hydrophobia. Exposure can be of two types: in vivo exposure or virtual exposure (the latter thanks to the arrival of new technologies). In either case, the person is exposed to the fearful environment and learns to “unlearn their fear” of water gradually, moving from situations that cause the most fear to those that cause the least fear.
In combination with exposure therapy, doctors often prescribe certain medications that can help phobics relearn how to react to fears. SSRIs or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors can reduce anxiety and panic attacks. Remember: Medications do not have long-lasting effects and may have withdrawal symptoms. Therefore, care should be taken to avoid long-term use.
Stress reduction techniques such as relaxation, yoga, meditation, etc. are also used. In addition, more and more aids are used every day that focus on recovering full consciousness: mindfulness and focusing.