This woman believes the toilet will swallow her if she flushes

Oct 24, 2012 01:51 GMT  ·  By

Ney Decino, of Church Village, Mid Glamorgan, in the UK is petrified of water. She avoids not only swimming pools, lakes and, of course, the seaside, but also flushing the toilet.

“The sound of the water sends shivers down my spine. It’s awful,” she explained in an interview with the Mirror.

It all dates back to when she saw the Toilet Man, a toilet monster that swallowed up children in the 1990 movie Look Who’s Talking Too.

“I flush the loo and then run out of the bathroom unless someone is with me. I use the kitchen to wash my hands. The sound of the water sends shivers down my spine. It’s awful.

“I swear it will swallow me up. Once I’ve flushed, the sound of it and the look of the water going down, it freaks me out,” she says.

Ney is 20 years old, and she is a mother of one. During her pregnancy, her anxiety about toilets intensified, as she had to use the bathroom quite often. When at home, she is assisted by her family and her partner, who do the flushing for her.

She usually chooses to work in venues close to her apartment. Her biggest fears in life are loos with a pull chain and bathroom cubicles.

“Cubicles all in a row are a nightmare. That’s why I only go when out in public in an absolute emergency,” she adds.

Oddly enough, four million people apparently suffer from toilet phobia. Ney has set up a Facebook page titled Scared of the Toilet Flush, to help people face their fear and share stories.

Most cases of loo anxiety are not related to the fear of water, but to germ phobia. User of public bathrooms usually believe they are less hygienic then the ones they have at home.