The Fear of Dark

When the lights go out everything can become really scary. We get familiar with the fear of dark as children and sometime we still experience it when we grow up. When it gets dark, one thing can look like another and the imagination is working twice as hard to find you something to be scared of... suddenly the coat on your door looks like a monster, or that creature that's hiding in silence under your bed starts existing again. The almost shut door of the wardrobe makes you think twice. You get that sense which spreads in you mind and builds up, convincing you that something malicious is hiding out of sight and within arm’s reach, waiting for its moment to strike and cause harm. But even if you are not experiencing any of these, there is still this other thing: Not being able to see at all. Sometimes not seeing is even worse as you are fearing the unknown. If we don't know what awaits us, we can't be prepared to fight it... and who knows what may be lurking in the shadows. It is a sensation of an uncontrollable fear, which is triggered by our mind's perceptoon of what could happen..

The fear or the dark is also known as Nyctophobia or Scotophobia. It is one of the most common phobias in children. In many cases, the phobia of dark passes quite naturally as the child matures. Usually if a child does not overcome or is not treated for the fear of dark, the Nyctophobia continues. In older children and adults (particularly those who suffer from nightmares or have suffered a traumatic incident) it can have an extremely negative impact and even become paralyzing. Despite the knowledge you have as an adult, that 'there is nothing there', the fear is usually much stronger and overwhelms any logic.

Most people go thruogh some "patches" of a fear of the dark throughout their lives. This fear may very well be of an evolutionary nature, as many predators hunt at night, so that fear serves a purpose of making us more aware and perhaps even have heightened senses when we can't use the sense of sight. Just as well, darkness is a frequently used element in horror movies and is even a crucial part of creating the right scary atmosphere for Halloween events. Understanding this fear stems from a defence mechanism could be helpful in regaining the ability to think rationally. However, ghost stories, television shows and scary movies often tend to play on the negative side to get a reaction from the crowd it is targeted for (people who enjoy having a big of a fright as a thrill) Instead of explaining the logic behind it, they take into harsh places (just in case your imaganation isn't supplying you with enough thrills) and exposing young chlidren to these can actually manifest the fear in them as they might not be able to tell fact from fiction yet.