Let’s talk about your water bottle. Yes, you know the one, you carry it around religiously, you’re panicked when you can’t find it and it just makes you feel a lot more comfortable when you have it around you. This water bottle is different, it’s special, and no bottle can take it’s place. Its your emotional support water bottle, and despite that phrase having more than 30,000 tags on TikTok, its much more than just a trend.
Roberta Satow, an American Psychoanalyst and author of Our Time is Up explains gives us one possible reason this phenomenon has occurred. “There’s an idea of a ‘transitional object’ that was conceived in the 50s, this is the first attachment in your life that is not another person. We call them ‘not need possessions,’ and they can be anything, like a blanket or a teddy bear. It object is supposed to represent the components of mothering, so you feel safe away from your mother.
“You carry these objects around with you when you are a child, and when you loose it your anxiety increases, and sometimes kids even have a meltdown. The object is a comforting presence.”
So this is for children, and you are probably wondering how it applies to you. Interestingly, many adults still have transitional objects, and once you see it, you’ll see it everywhere. “It’s very common in adults, have you ever seen someone on a plane who has their pillow from home,” points out Roberta. “Some people even smoke because a cigarette is this object for them. They feel anxious without a cigarette in hand, its not the nicotine that keeps them smoking.
“This is what a water bottle could be for someone, it’s what helps them be alone and regulate their anxiety.”
Most likely, your transitional object from childhood is not what you keep on you now. In adulthood, being without a transitional object for years, life events can bring you back to them. “Stuff can happen that leaves you feeling out of control,” explains Roberta, “and this can drive you to bonding with something as everyday as your bottle, it just helps you feel in control, it helps you feel whole.”
Jarrod Williams, a Graduate Student at Mississippi State University offers another explanation. “Object attachment is a very normal part of human experience, but it varies from person to person.”
For Jarrod, the best explanation for emotional support water bottles is conditioning. “Think about when you’re thirsty, that’s a negative emotion that’s taken way by a feeling of relief when you use your bottle. If you have a reusable bottle, then your conditioning yourself to feel better when you’re around your it.
“I think it also stems from an uptick in health trends,” he expands, “It’s a healthy choice to carry around a reusable water bottle. This growing idea of an ’emotional support water bottle’ is an intersection between these trends and normal object attachment.”
So there you have it, you aren’t insane for loving your water bottle, the science says your just like every body else.
Thirsty for more food psychology? Read here.
