Shower Anxiety

[Aree Wongwanlee]

Fortunately I don't have this kind of anxiety. I close my eyes tightly when I shower because I don't like water getting in my eyes. Maybe it's the quality of water where I live, but if just a few drops get into my eyes, my eyes would become very red, like I have been crying for hours. What I do worry about is the bathroom floor. I am really scared of slippery bathroom floors. I have heard of many old people who slipped, fell, knocked their heads on something in the bathroom and died on the spot. I am not planning to let that happen to me. So I scrub my bathroom floor to make sure it's not slippery at all.

 

[fcuco]

Well, I have a cat so I know that she will always be there watching me shower behind the curtain, I can't even close the bathroom's door because her litter box is there and I don't want to give her any excuses not to use it.


What I do have is a clear and transparent plastic shower curtain so I have a clear view of the bathroom all the time, I suggest you use something like that as those are probably not hard to find. The only drawback is that it gets dirty pretty quickly but maybe this could work for you, I mean, it prevents the water for leaving the shower so it does it work, it is just clear: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/3/clear-shower-curtains

 

[VanM]

I can definitely relate to this. Although I must also consider the possibility of all the scary movies I watched during my childhood having their effect on my shower time anxiety. In addition, I also constantly have to check the bathroom door, like I do with all main doors of the house before I go to bed. I can't seem to proceed showering until I'm convinced no one can just barge in.

 

[misszerable]

Oh, I have a different kind of trauma when it comes to showers. I was taking a shower at around 4:30 in the afternoon on July 16, 1990 when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit our place. I was on the second floor and the house tilted violently. I was naked and I would slip when I tried to reach for the towel to cover myself. I felt helpless and sat on the bathroom floor while crying and waiting for the tremors to end. It was traumatic. Thousands of people died or were injured in that earthquake. For a few weeks after that, I would take a bath or shower with my clothes on. 

 

[Choochoo]

I had this when I was younger and I do think it stemmed mostly from my interest in horror movies and shows and also maybe my wild imagination at the time. As I grew older I started to become less and less afraid of horror themed stories though and with that I started to shed this particular anxiety of mine as well without even noticing it all that much. Having gone through it I can definitely sympathize with the feeling you get as it has caused me to dread showering sometimes in the past. 

 

[hades_leae]

The one thing I hate on this planet more than anything else is sleeping because it's when I'm at my most vulnerable, and it's also the one thing I love to do most because I love the feeling of feeling refreshed. In a way you might as well accept what you feel because there is nothing that you can do about it, if you feel there is something behind the shower curtain then open your eyes. It doesn't matter if you feel burning because you're in the shower, just wash it out. Problem solved.

 

[Wandering Capybara]

I don't think it's because of horror movies

Sometimes it'll be to the extent that I'm overcome with the irrational fear that a face will be staring at me when I open my eyes that I open them before I rinse out the shampoo and burn my eyes and of course, every time, no one's there, it's exactly like it was when I closed my eyes and yet that doesn't really seem to help, what does is typically just making light of it to myself and just thinking "Haha, silly me, of course there's no one watching"

I haven't talked about with my friends, I'm bit worried they think it's silly, especially because a couple years ago I left Christianity and became an materialist atheist so I don't believe in any sort of "demon hauntings" "ghosts" or other sorts of made up spiritual nonsense (in my opinion) and I don't watch nearly any horror movies and always look the door.

My theory is possibly it's an evolutionary psychology survival mechanism, because I also get it when I lean down to get a drink from the faucet. When our ancient ancestors would kneel down at a water hole to take a drink that's when they were most vulnerable to predators like lions, so they developed this fear to extra attentive to nearby predators and since our brains are like Windows 10, Windows xp, Windows 98 running on Commodore 64 old software all the way from ancient ancestors through the billions of years life has existed, I still have this fear from 50,000 years ago.

At least that's what I think is the most probable cause, no longer necessary antiquated survival instincts passed down from our hunter gatherer forebearers.

 

[Wandering Capybara]

Oh, my! I've never had anxiety like that, but it actually does sound terrifying. We all have strange fears, so you're not alone. Could you try showering with the curtain open?

It's predominantly when our eyes are closed when washing our hair

 

[Wandering Capybara]

Okay, I have to admit, I've never talked to anyone with this particular fear. But you mentioned it might be inspired by horror movies and that makes perfect sense. I'm curious, do you watch a lot of them?


Oh! And I'm wondering, Do you lock your bathroom door?


Plus, you're spot on when you say the fear comes because of the unknown. Yes, it's not rational to be afraid that something scary will happen whenever you close your eyes in the shower - but that's what anxiety is, right? It's not rational.


Do you have the same feeling when you close your eyes at night?

At least for me typically only water, like a shower or leaning down to take a drink or possibly behind a door, I suppose to a much lesser extent when my eyes are closed, but's not that too bad

 

[Concernedgal]

Sometimes ..I get a drowning sensation while i'm in the shower . What I do is...I hum a song and take my shower as fast as possible. Shower anxiety sucks but, it's''like my therapist says (if it give anxiety attention. ..it will get worst) but,it' so darn hard not to give it attention huh? Lol