Scary water

Maybe but they do it in work too or at least in my previous jobs 

It does sound like a very real fear, but based on childhood trauma of toilets being loud and splashy. I wonder if some therapy could help with that aspect? Hand driers in toilets used to make my kids cry too. 

In the very small window when I did go to night clubs (at the start of uni when I was really trying to fit in), I prefered going with someone else for the safety aspect -having to move through the crowd and not being alone after, trying to get back to everyone. Same reason I didn't like going up to the bar on my own. But that was only one or two people, never more and no photos! 

That was the only time it was acceptable for me.

I think women going to the toilet as a group is so as they can gossip about who they've met and fancy etc.

This is one thing without any strange history I have always hated about being a woman…. Why do girls go to the toilet in groups? Why do they talk to each other in there and why even worse do they all think the toilet is the ideal location for a group photograph? 

my entire life - I go to the toilet alone, I take a moment and I leave … couldn’t think of anything worse than it being a group activity 

I do remember seeing a toilet that blocked and overflowed as a child which scared the life out of me, that is quite possibly where the visual fear comes from, I’ve always been sensitive to sounds and as a child toilets and urinals used to make loud hissing sounds and were generally very loud.

As a younger adult I decided to confront the fears bead on and trained as a plumber and I am a lot better than I used to be. But when it comes to old darker bathrooms or commercial toilets it’s like being that scared child again. Maybe it’s something that will never go away but I don’t want my children to pick up on my fears and make them scared as well.

thanks for your reply

Hi, thanks for your reply. That makes sense. I trained as a plumber in order to confront the fears and handling and tipping water doesn’t really bother me. I think it’s the uncontrolled sense of a flushing toilet more than anything else. Back in the 1980’s when I was a child toilets made very loud noises and seemed to flush violently. Im not as bad as I was with the newer toilets, but the older types with the high level cistern still absolutely terrify me.

thanks for your response. I will keep trying new ways of easing the anxiety, I don’t want my children to pick up on my fears and become scared themselves

I used to not like the sound of toilets flushing or of running water, I used to be scared of baths and showers too, water getting in my face, I love both baths and showers now and the ear of flushing has lessened. But I wonder how much of it came from seeing pictures of hands coming out of the toilet and stuff like that?

COuld have seen something that really scared you as a child that you've never been able to articulate and therefore move on from? 

Could you stand with a bucket of water at waist height and slowly tip it out? If yes, then it is less likely to be the just the sound and sight of the water.

I may be a cleanliness thing related to being splashed. So more of a fear response causing you to freeze.