Pathological Fears - Darkness

Growing up many children fear being in the dark and crave a light from a hallway or a nightlight within their bedroom. However there are children that grow into adults that are desperately afraid of the dark, to the point that they refuse to sleep, they live in bright lit rooms and refuse to leave their homes at night. This phobia is called Nyctophobia or Scotophobia.

Phobia's mean that whatever you are afraid of is above and beyond the reasonable fear of the average person. They also mean that there is usually no reason for the fear to be present. Nyctophobia specifically can be caused by usually two reasons. One would be emotional conflict and your mind needs a way to release its fear of a bad situation in your life and exhibits itself in the form of a phobia. The other reason would be a traumatic even usually when you're young of being stuck completely in the dark for a long enough time to affect you mentally.

Symptoms you have you Nyctophobia can include, panic attacks involving sweating, panting, hyperventilating, vomiting, and being unable to think in a clear manner. This phobia like many other can also lead to madness if untreated and allowed to become severe. Unknown to many is how common this phobia is within the United States. Although it is usually not in its most severe form, many people have a fear of the dark.

Unfortunately as with most phobias there is not a specific cure all to make the fear go away. However anti-anxiety medications are used on a regular basis to help people make it through their daily routine without incident. For a more permanent fix what will usually helps is seeing a psychologist which can assist in helping the phobia victim realize they are just as safe in the dark as in the light. Due to the significant amount people who have Nyctophobia that have been traumatized due to a terrible event as children, doctors find once they can come to terms with this incident the phobia will pass. Some people also find that training themselves with things such as dimmer switches in their home can help start the healing process. They will turn down the light every week or month depending on the intensity of their fear and as time goes on they may find they can tolerate and eventually become more accustomed to the dark.

As with all healing trying to come out from under a phobia takes time however complete recovery is possible and does happen. Facing the fear and others within seems to be the hardest but most successful way to become completely independent of that phobia.