Ivan Vdovin
1700 1 0
Few people can admit their childhood fears. There are even fewer who can look their fear in the eye. And this is the most key method with the answer to the question of how to stop being afraid of the dark. But it’s business, and you need to be fully prepared if you, of course, want to remove your childhood fears and become even more self-confident.
What Lies Behind the Fear of the Dark
Behind the fear of the dark lies something that we do not know and do not expect. Can be compared with our life. We don't know what will happen tomorrow, and everything can change at any second. Imagine you are alone in the dark and suddenly an image of what you are afraid of appears in front of you. What are your plans? Are you planning to die right away or are you still resisting?
But if you know and understand your fear very well and believe with complete confidence that all evil spirits are the inventions of science fiction writers, you will not be afraid. And with complete confidence you will walk through the dark forest completely alone.
I’ll say it again, it’s not the object itself that we’re afraid of, but the fact that it may appear suddenly and greatly frighten us. And it seems to me that any person will be afraid if he does not have experience interacting with various ghosts, spirits, aliens and so on, what we are afraid of.
What is nyctophobia and why does it occur?
The word nyctophobia comes to us from the Greek language. Nyktos is translated into Russian as night. That is, the fear of darkness is identified with the fear of the night, when a person cannot see the approaching danger.
Fear is given to us for the same reason that pain is given - to protect ourselves from harm. When a person touches a hot iron, he feels a sharp pain and a burn appears on his body. Consequently, he will be afraid of such a touch. This is a normal reaction of the body.
The fear of the dark originates from the distant past, when at night a person could not see an approaching predator or a representative of another tribe who could kill him.
Nyctophobia still lives in us at the genetic level. Even in their own safe apartment in the dark, many people cannot feel confident. In the United States alone, more than ten percent of the population is susceptible to nyctophobia.
Although it is natural for anyone to be afraid of the dark, a certain percentage of people around the world experience overly strong emotions that border on terror. The reason may be childhood memories, an attack on a dark street, or other negative experiences. Sometimes nyctophobia can be caused by an ordinary horror film.
The main causes of nyctophobia are:
- cruel treatment;
- experienced a catastrophe or natural disaster;
- violence:
- lack of love and attention in childhood.
Interesting research by psychiatrists from the UK, who found that even common illnesses can cause nyctophobia. For example, thyroid disease, not to mention mental disorders, can increase fear of the dark.
The use of drugs, alcohol and even caffeine leads to increased anxiety during the dark period of the day.
Do you need to get rid of your fear of the dark?
Let me ask you a question: Are you so afraid of the dark that you even sleep with the light on? If the answer is yes, then you urgently need to work through your fear of the dark. If you just feel uncomfortable in the dark and different thoughts come into your head. Can you bear it? In the second case, I think you don’t have to worry too much.
But with the first example we need to do something. And do it gradually, and not immediately rush into battle. Once I was visiting a friend in the village, and his grandmother was very afraid of the dark. So, when there was no one at home, she slept only with the light on. As a child, she saw something and since then she has not been able to overcome her fear of the dark. And I understand her perfectly.
Causes of nyctophobia
Any phobia has an underlying object that is perceived subjectively by the individual and creates anxiety. The essence of nyctophobia is that a person experiences anxiety not because of darkness itself, but because of the absence of light. The object of his phobia is imaginary images, what may “lurk in the darkness,” and a feeling of his own helplessness in front of these imaginary images. After all, he is “deprived of vision” and will not be able to escape or react to danger in time.
In the absence of the ability to see well in the dark, the nyctophobe’s brain synthesizes visual objects, and their character depends only on the degree of richness of his imagination. He is often visited by images seen in horror films, characters from fairy tales heard in childhood, various mystical stories, and myths. When such visual pseudohallucinations are constant and stable and cause pathological anxiety, we can talk about the presence of a disease such as nyctophobia.
In the absence of proper treatment and work on oneself, a phobia can develop unfavorably: pseudohallucinations become frequent and stable, and the consciousness stops analyzing them and begins to perceive them as reality. In this case, it is very dangerous to neglect treatment of the existing problem. An innocent and harmless childhood fear of the dark, under the worst circumstances, can lead to persistent visual hallucinations and complete mental disorder, which is already a serious psychological illness.
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