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Afraid of Water, but Perhaps a More Intricate Phobia(s)?

For a few years now (maybe eight), I've had this irrational fear of not only water, but plumbing and pool pumps and the like. I'll go for a few days without showering, but of course suck it up a couple times a week and take a shower because being dirty is just gross. I'll get in the shower and see the shower head and everything attached to it, the marble walls and floor, and the drain and just freak out. It's not really much worse with the water on.

I have no issues with drinking water or being splashed, but if I need to spend time in any body of water, or even any sort of water vessel, there's a problem.

Some other things I'm afraid of include: toilets, sinks/water faucets, pools, pool pumps, pipes (attached to a water supply), water heaters, air conditioning/heating units, basements/crawlspaces/attics, and certain brands (not only plumbing like Kohler or Eljer, but things like certain film production companies [e.g. Mohawk Productions, aka "Fetus of Doom"], Unilever, roller coaster manufacturers like Vekoma or Intamin, or water park attraction suppliers like WhiteWater West).

I also find myself semi-frequently fixated on researching plumbing, roller coaster and water park attraction companies, and film production companies (like watching logos shown at the end of shows on Youtube, or reading about incidents involving amusement parks on Wikipedia) for unknown reasons. Perhaps I'm subconsciously trying to overcome my fears. However, these fears often merge when I'm about to get into the shower, making my hesitate for a while before entering (yeah, the water bill is a bit high because of this).

I've no idea if any of those are connected or if I just have a buttload of irrational fears that tend to smear together, but any help with this would be awesome, because I've been looking into this for a while now (I feel that I've done adequate research, but maybe not?), and am starting to feel a bit helpless to them.

Posted Dec 2, 2011, 4:17 AM UTC

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