Can a person overcome his fear which now has turned into a phobia? Let’s talk about Aquaphobia
The first feeling a human experience in his life is fear. The child cries as he fears the surrounding because he is not aware of the environment. No matter what age a person is, fear remains constant. Everybody has fear of something or the other in their lives. It is an integral part of a human’s life. And not just humans all the living creatures on this planet have this feeling of fear in them. It has a great impact on the behaviour of a person.
When this fear evolves it becomes a phobia. A word which is used to describe the advanced level of fear of a particular thing. A phobia could be from anything and also have different names. One of which is Aquaphobia- fear of water.
- Difference between Aquaphobia and Hydrophobia
People often assume that both Hydrophobia and Aquaphobia are the same things but this is a misconception as there is a huge difference. Hydrophobia is the advanced stage of Rabies; it is actually a symptom of a later stage where a person develops a fear of water. While Aquaphobia is the extreme fear of water where it is very difficult for a person to have any control over it.
- The person suffering from Aquaphobia
The person suffering from aquaphobia does not only experience the fear of drowning but he experiences anxiety when he is close to any water body. In some cases it is seen that the person even fears a bathtub and cannot step into it, some people are afraid of taking a look at the photographs where there is a picture of any large water body like ocean or sea, it shivers them.
- Causes responsible for Aquaphobia
The primary reason for aquaphobia is- any sort of accident which is directly or indirectly related to the person. In Indirect cases, a person himself experiences the incident as he was almost drowned but saved eventually, he fell from the boat or pushed; all these things can adversely affect a person and result in his fear.
Direct cases, a person is fearful because he has lost his loved one in an accident, where the person is drowned in front of him, this severely affects the person.
- Symptoms of Aquaphobia
- The person suffering from aquaphobia avoids water bodies.
- They easily panic and face anxiety when they are asked to go near the water bodies.
- The patient avoids taking bath for a long period of time and develops bad hygiene.
- As soon as they see a water body their blood pressure shoots and their breathing becomes shallow.
- How to overcome the fear of Aquaphobia
The treatment for the aquaphobia is the Exposure Therapy, this is of two types, in-vivo and virtual exposure. In this, the patient is asked to face and experience the situations which he generally avoids. Slowly and gradually the patient’s fear starts vanishing and he becomes normal. Medicines are also given to the patient.
The patient should face the water and try to enter a pool, he should feel the water and gradually move forward. Initially, he should try to go knee deep and then waist deep in a pool and when he is able to overcome his fear then he can go chest deep.
A person can also overcome his fear of water by controlling his panic attack. If a person can have control over his anxiety then he can easily get rid of his aquaphobia.
Conclusion
People fear from many things in life and till some extent it is good also but one should always remember that the fear should not have control over them instead they should have a control on their fear.
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