Talk:Ablutophobia

Real or invented?
The English-speaking Wiktionary lists this fear as invented. See unattested phobias. Since I am not an expert on phobias or psychology I dare not suggest this article for deletion. However, it does seem like a candidate for discussion. --Teodor 16:38, 1 August 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Teodor605 (talk • contribs)

It's definitely a real disorder
It's very common with child abuse survivors - specifically survivors of early childhood abuse. Most CA survivors don't think or speak about it as a 'phobia', so this term isn't commonly in use - although the syndrome it describes is quite common amongst that demographic. I volunteer with CA survivors and have seen several 'paths' to developing this disorder.

In early childhood abuse, attempted drowning &/or torture of infants or toddlers, by holding their heads under water. or other various types of abuse with water such as scalding often produces this type of fear in survivors. (Note that death by drowning is one of the main causes of homicide of infants, and immersion burns are common indicators of infant abuse.)  Neglect can also produce this, if a child was left for extended periods alone in the tub &/or had near drowning experiences. Familial sexual abuse also happens frequently in bathrooms and while bathing, and can result in ablutophobia even when the children are relatively older at the time of abuse. Whenever I've seen ablutophobia in men, I've always found sexual abuse (and usually early childhood abuse) by female caregivers in their histories; same thing with female survivors of FSA. This is possibly because female caregivers are more likely to sexually abuse during routine caretaking activities such as bathing. Lastly, this type of fear can be especially strong in cases of extreme abuse where survivors were forced to live in unsanitary conditions &/or be unclean themselves, and were punished for attempting to clean themselves of their environment (typical of cases of child torture and some children of hoarders).

Ablutophobia can also be found (but less commonly) in survivors of adult rape where the attack started when they were bathing.

I believe the term 'irrational fear' should be removed - at least for cases resulting from trauma which I understand ablutophobia almost always is. In cases such as the above, the fear is an acquired aversion after life-threatening experience.

References for above (there are better sources - but difficult to find because obscure - will post when I find them. Trust this is enough for 'Talk' page?): "Sudden fear of bathing or toileting" (as an indicator of abuse) -  http://apd.myflorida.com/zero-tolerance/common-signs/ Unexplained fear of certain places (i.e. bathroooms) - http://www.sandf.org/resources/symptoms_of_sexual_abuse.php Having unexplained difficulty with things like bathing own children http://www.sandf.org/resources/symptoms_of_sexual_abuse.php Child torture - http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40653-014-0009-9 70.54.143.250 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 23:58, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

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