Aquaphobia is a kind of specific phobia, an abnormal and persistent fear of water.^[1] It involves a level of fear that is beyond control or that may interfere with daily life.^[2] Specifically, people suffering from aquaphobia may experience anxiety even though they realize the water in an ocean, a river, a lake, a creek or even a bathtub may pose no imminent threat. They may avoid such activities as boating and swimming, or they may avoid swimming in the deep ocean despite having mastered basic swimming skills. At home, they may even be afraid to take baths or showers.^[3] A specific phobia is a generic term for any kind of anxiety disorder that amounts to an unreasonable or irrational fear related to exposure to specific objects or situations. ...

Prevalence

Phobias (in the clinical meaning of the term) are the most common form of anxiety disorders. An American study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found that between 8.7% and 18.1% of Americans suffer from phobias.^[4] Broken down by age and gender, the study found that phobias were the most common mental illness among women in all age groups and the second most common illness among men older than 25. The term phobia, which comes from the Ancient Greek word for fear (φόβος, fobos), denotes a number of psychological and physiological conditions that can range from serious disabilities to common fears to minor quirks. ... Anxiety disorder is a blanket term covering several different forms of abnormal anxiety, fear, phobia and nervous condition, that come on suddenly and prevent pursuing normal daily routines. ... The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States federal governments principal biomedical and behavioral research agency. ... Mental illness (or emotional disability, cognitive dysfunction) is a broad generic label for a category of illnesses that may include affective or emotional instability, behavioral dysregulation, and/or cognitive dysfunction or impairment. ...

Of the simple phobias, aquaphobia is among the more common subtypes. 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 roughly one in fifty people.^[5] Taken as a standard, their work implies that in the United States, for example, almost five million people may suffer from aquaphobia.So thats why they are retarted and smell

Causes

Medical professionals indicate that aquaphobia may manifest itself in a person through their specific experiences or due to biological factors.^[6] Some people may develop the phobia as a reaction to a traumatic water experience---a near drowning or other such event. Others may have simply failed to have acquired experience in the water through casual events like swimming or boating events due to cultural factors. Other individuals may suffer from an "instinctive reaction" to the water which arises separate from any observable factors. They have a gut reaction that limits their fundamental comfort level in any sort of casual water activities, such as swimming. Others suffers may experience discomfort around the water without falling into any of the previous three categories.

• Traumatic water experience
• Cultural limitations
• Instinctive fear
• Other

Confusion between aquaphobia and hydrophobia

Many people mistakenly refer to aquaphobia as 'hydrophobia'; hydrophobia is in fact a symptom of later-stage rabies, and manifests itself in humans as difficulty in swallowing, fear when presented with liquids to drink and an inability to quench one's thirst. "Hydro-" is Greek and "aqua-" Latin, both meaning "water". Most phobias have a Greek prefix, but because the word "hydrophobia" was first used to describe late-stage rabies, the term "aquaphobia" using a Latin prefix was used to prevent confusion. Bold text Hydrophobis is: Hydrophobia, a set of symptoms of the later stages of a rabies infection, in which the victim has difficulty swallowing, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench his or her thirst. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Aquaphobia as part of the public imagination

• Aquaphobia (1997) on IMDB

References

↑  The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary

↑  Edmund J. Bourne, The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook, 4th ed, New Harbinger Publications, 2005, ISBN 1-57224-413-5

↑  Dr. Kennedy's cumulative Vocabulary Course

↑  Kessler et al, Prevalence, Severity, and Comorbidity of 12-Month DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, June 2005, Archive of General Psychiatry, Vol. 20

↑  Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1993 Jul;88(1):29-34.

↑  Lynne L. Hall, Fighting Phobias, the Things That Go Bump in the Mind, FDA Consumer Magazine, Volume 31 No. 2, March 1997

External links

• Strategies for Overcoming Aquaphobia
• UK Treatment site