Aquaphobia

Aquaphobia (from Latin aqua 'water', and Ancient Greek φόβος (phóbos) 'fear') is an irrational fear of water.[1]

Not to be confused with Hydrophobia or Thalassophobia.
Aquaphobia
SpecialtyPsychology

Aquaphobia is considered a Specific Phobia of natural environment type in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. A specific phobia is an intense fear of something that poses little or no actual danger.[2]

Prevalence

A study of epidemiological data from 22 low, lower-middle, upper-middle and high-income countries revealed "fear of still water or weather events" had a prevalence of 2.3%, across all countries; in the US the prevalence was 4.3%.[3] In an article on anxiety disorders, Lindal and Stefansson suggest that aquaphobia may affect as many as 1.8% of the general Icelandic population, or almost one in fifty people.[4]

Manifestation for aquaphobia

Specific phobias are a type of anxiety disorder in which a person may feel extremely anxious or has a panic attack when exposed to the object of fear. Specific phobias are a common mental disorder.[5]

Psychologists indicate that aquaphobia manifests itself in people through a combination of experiential and genetic factors.[6] In the case of a 37 year old media professor, he noted that his fear initially presented itself as a, "severe pain, accompanied by a tightness of his forehead," and a choking sensation, discrete panic attacks and a reduction in his intake of fluids.[7]

Etymology

The correct Greek-derived term for "water-fear" is hydrophobia, from ὕδωρ (hudōr), "water"[8] and φόβος (phobos), "fear".[9] However, this word has long been used in English to refer specifically to a symptom of later-stage rabies, which manifests itself in humans as difficulty in swallowing, fear when presented with liquids to drink, and an inability to quench one's thirst.

See also

References
  1. Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. Elsevier. 2011. p. 122.
  2. "Anxiety disorders". Office on Women's Health. US Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved 20 November 2019. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. Wardenaar, K. J.; Lim, C. C. W.; Al-Hamzawi, A. O.; Alonso, J.; Andrade, L. H.; Benjet, C.; Bunting, B.; de Girolamo, G.; Demyttenaere, K.; Florescu, S. E.; Gureje, O. (2017). "The cross-national epidemiology of specific phobia in the World Mental Health Surveys". Psychological Medicine. 47 (10): 1744–1760. doi:10.1017/S0033291717000174. ISSN 1469-8978. PMC 5674525. PMID 28222820.
  4. Líndal, E.; Stefánsson, J. G. (1993). "The lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders in Iceland as estimated by the US National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule". Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 88 (1): 29–34. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1993.tb03410.x. ISSN 0001-690X. PMID 8372693. S2CID 42323599.
  5. "Phobia - simple/specific". MedlinePlus. Retrieved 20 November 2019. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. Lynne L. Hall, Fighting Phobias, the Things That Go Bump in the Mind, FDA Consumer Magazine, Volume 31 No. 2, March 1997
  7. Ajinkya. "Cognitive Hypnotherapy for Panic disorder with Aquaphobia". Sleep and Hypnosis. 17.
  8. ὕδωρ, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  9. φόβος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
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