Aquaphobia

Aquaphobia is an irrational and persistent fear of water, its name combining the Latin word for water with the Greek word for fear. The condition can appear in everyday encounters with water, such as drinking it, washing dishes, or showering, or it can center specifically on large bodies of water and the danger of drowning. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders classifies aquaphobia as a specific phobia of the natural environment type, a category defined by intense fear of something that poses little or no real danger in the situation at hand. Surveys suggest the condition affects roughly 2.3 percent of people across twenty two countries studied and around 4.3 percent of adults in the United States, and broader water related unease is even more common, with close to half of American adults reporting fear of deep water in a swimming pool and nearly two thirds reporting fear of deep open water. The term aquaphobia is preferred in clinical use over the Greek derived hydrophobia, since that word is reserved for a specific symptom of rabies involving difficulty swallowing and a fear of liquids caused by throat spasms.