Ivan Vdovin
1701 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.
Causes
Let's find out why people are afraid of the dark.
- Fear that is inherited. If the parents had this phobia, it is likely that their children will have it too.
- It often develops against the backdrop of stories about monsters, Baba Yaga, Babai, a gray wolf who can drag you away. Attempts to force a child to be obedient in childhood develop into the development of a phobia.
- Physiological feature of vision. Fear arises when a person does not see what surrounds him, everything is thought out by the imagination.
- Psychological trauma in childhood, for example, was frightened by a dog that ran out of the dark or punished by mother by locking him in a dark closet.
- The feeling of loneliness also causes the fear of being in the dark.
- An overdeveloped imagination draws monsters and gives rise to great fears. All objects in the room mentally come to life and begin to move.
- Consequences of regular stress.
- It is not surprising, but even a lack of microelements can affect the emotional state and the development of fear.
- A strong belief in the existence of dark forces makes one fear that they may appear in the dark.
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.
What the statistics say
Photo by cottonbro: Pexels
In psychology, the fear of the dark has its own name - nyctophobia. This is perhaps the most widespread phenomenon in the world, covering over 10% of the entire world population.
Nyctophobia most often occurs in children. Part of the reason for this is the approach of adults (in particular, animators, storytellers and, naturally, parents themselves), who instill in children from an early age that all bad things happen under the cover of night.
In children's fear of the dark, Sigmund Freud saw the guilt of parents who leave the baby alone in a room without light at night.
In such conditions, the baby begins to react acutely and emotionally to forced loneliness. A child's fear of the dark is equivalent to the fear of losing mom and dad.
But sometimes even adults experience an irrational panicky feeling of fear of the dark. This condition greatly reduces the quality of life, depriving a person of evening walks, entertainment in nightclubs, going to restaurants, etc. The phobia has a lot of negative consequences for health, and therefore requires mandatory treatment.
What can you do to stop being afraid of the dark?
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