Fear of the dark: causes and methods of getting rid

Everyone at least once in their life had to experience an inexplicable feeling of anxiety in an unlit room. Some unreasonably exaggerate the danger of darkness, and then the fear gradually develops into a phobia. To begin treatment, it is necessary to understand the peculiarities of the appearance of fear in the evening and at night.

The panic fear of the dark is called nyphobia. The word is translated from Greek as "fear of the night" (from the Greek nyktos - "night" and phobos - "fear"). Scotophobia (from the Greek skotos - "darkness"), ahluophobia and eluophobia are synonymous terms that mean an irresistible fear of the dark.

Most often, the disease manifests itself in children. The world of the night is associated with mystery, imaginary images, and a nightmare. Subsequently, for most of the kids, the fear of nightfall decreases and disappears completely. But it also happens that over the years, nytophobia only intensifies. A pathological fear of the dark affects 10% of the world's population.

The peculiarity of this phobia is that the all-consuming horror is caused not by the darkness itself, but by the absence of illumination. Fear arises from the inability to obtain information about the surrounding space. Uncertainty makes a person's rich imagination work hard. Eerie, non-existent phenomena and objects appear in fantasies.

A person suffering from scotophobia experiences incredible fear, even while in their own completely safe apartment. More often than others, people with high intelligence, non-standard thinking and strong imagination suffer.

Often people in complete darkness feel discomfort from the opportunity to collide with any object and nothing more. Phobia differs from ordinary fear in that anxiety gradually builds up and turns into panic horror. As darkness approaches, the phobic person sometimes experiences the following symptoms:

• tachycardia;
• discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract, stomach cramps;
• frequent urge to urinate;
• difficulty breathing;
• Strong headache;
• a sharp increase or decrease in blood pressure;
• dizziness;
• increased sweating;
• chill in the whole body;
• chills, internal tremors, tremors of the hands;
• anxiety;
• fainting;
• hysterics;
• stuttering, confusion and speech delay;
• dry mouth, loss of voice;
• decrease or increase in muscle tone;
• weakness in limp legs;
• neurotic condition;
• paranoia.

On an emotional level, phobia can manifest itself in shallow sleep and excruciating nightmares. The person wakes up abruptly in a cold sweat. At this moment, he is unable to immediately understand what happened. Fear and despair give rise to physical activity and an irresistible desire to escape somewhere. Subsequently, suspicion and nervousness develop.

Phobia can be beneficial: a person who is afraid of darkness is not inclined to take risks. Attentiveness and caution is shown not only at the moment of being in a dark room, but everywhere. Extreme sports and drug use do not attract nymphobes. Such people have a well-developed instinct for self-preservation.

However, these are all pluses. The pathological state of fear often negatively affects the quality of life. Nightmares interfere with daily life. Lack of sleep, fatigue and lethargy prevent a person from concentrating and lead to distraction. There is a chance to earn obsessive-compulsive disorder that has nothing to do with the dark.

A person is afraid to move along the street in the evening. An unlit room brings the patient to a stressful state. Regular fears, worries, emotional upheavals are harmful to the body. Exacerbation of latent diseases is possible. The result of constant nervous overstrain can be the development of diabetes mellitus, arthrosis, and oncology.

Fear of the dark can arise for several reasons.

• The genetic code is inherited. The ancient people experienced horror before the onset of pitch darkness because of a possible attack on them by an enemy tribe or predatory animals. And in a modern person, a sense of self-preservation sends a signal to the brain about the approach of the most dangerous time of day - night.
• Vision in the dark decreases sharply, a person begins to feel his complete helplessness and defenselessness... Due to the loss of visual acuity, deterioration of the sense of smell, there is a danger of an accident at night.
• Almost all children are terrified of the dark. Anxiety in the dark begins due to the absence of the mother. Children's fears can develop into neurosis. This is facilitated by all sorts of scary stories about creepy night inhabitants and teaching the child to fall asleep alone with the lights off.
• There are parents who themselves instill fear in the baby before the onset of the night. By manipulating the child, they program him to fear the dark. Intimidation of children with fairy-tale and mythical characters causes great excitement in those, fear of being left alone in an unlit room appears. The fear of evil spirits, ghosts begins, sometimes the fear intensifies due to the appearance of sounds of unknown origin.
• Excessive parental care contributes to the emergence of cowardice and self-doubt, which contributes to the emergence of severe anxiety.
• Single-parent family makes the little man feel insecure.
• In adults, nyphobia is the ingraining of childhood fears.therefore it is very important to eliminate the disease at an early stage. Most often, the fear of pitch darkness progresses over the years. There is a possibility of its transformation into a mental disorder.
• The fear of being alone in the dark can lead to abnormal fantasies. The imagination is designed to distort some things in the room. Stormy imagination contributes to the creation of scary pictures.
• Many are reflected in their excessive impressionability from watching a crime chronicle, a detective or a horror movie in the evening.... In low light, and even a slight darkening, overly susceptible individuals begin to see monsters, imaginary images.
• Some people associate darkness with nothingness.... The fear of death arises from its frequent occurrence in the dark. In this case, psychologists are working to eradicate the fear of death.
• The feeling of loneliness causes the need for the presence of a loved one nearby. The closeness of a living soul instills calmness and serenity.
• Stress, nervousness, conflicts also often provoke a phobia. Troubles at work, lack of stable earnings, illness of loved ones distort the mechanism of the self-preservation instinct. A feeling of insecurity arises. A kid, a teenager, and even a person of a respectable age is able to experience fear of pitch darkness because of the beginning of disagreements with loved ones.
• Lack of micronutrients in the body caused by restriction of food during the diet, worsens the emotional health of a person and affects the appearance of nightmares.
• Psychological trauma can remain for many years after an unpleasant incident that occurred in an unlit room or in the evening on the street. According to statistics, only 20% of those who have been robbed in the dark over time get rid of their phobia.

A feature of the phobia is avoidance of dark places. The apartment of people suffering from phobia is illuminated from all sides: the lights are on everywhere. An unlit room signals danger. In the dark, ordinary objects are perceived slightly differently. Scary pictures are drawn. Any rustle scares and causes severe panic.

Sometimes fictional images begin to float before your eyes, as if in reality. The processes in the subconscious are so disturbed that pseudo-hallucinations arise. Failure to distinguish between imaginary eerie images and reality can cause severe mental illness. Some have destructive behavior: flight or a wild scream.

Sometimes adults leave a flashlight next to them just in case they go to bed. There are people who prefer to fall asleep to the sound of the TV. Someone is afraid to see the shadow of deceased relatives, someone is oppressed by the feeling of uncertainty. All kinds of squeaks, rustling do not allow you to sleep peacefully. Some listen intensely to the grinding and peer into the darkness. Others, on the contrary, try to close their eyes tightly and cover their ears with a blanket.

For scotophobes, the biggest tragedy is a sudden blackout or failure of electrical appliances. In this case, they stock up in advance with candles, flashlights and a mobile phone with a bright screen. In the absence of an additional light source, such people flee. If it is impossible to find a lighted area, they begin to panic, shout, and call for help.

Nyphobia is much easier in childhood than in adulthood. You cannot allow an increase in childhood phobia and allow it to transform into a serious illness. From an early age, it is necessary to tune the child in a positive mood, in every possible way to help maintain a good mood of the baby.

Fairy-tale and mythical characters often become the objects of children's fears. Babies find it very difficult to fall asleep due to intimidation by monsters and horror stories. It is necessary to explain to the little man that in real life these monsters do not exist. They are the fruit of someone's wild imagination. Impressionable children should not watch television at night.

Experiencing incredible horror, the child cries, wakes up the parents at night. In no case should you scold him for this and call him a coward. It is necessary to hug the baby, calm down, support. If the little man is too afraid, you can turn on the night lamp for him or leave the door to his room open.

Modern psychology offers many interesting techniques for displacing phobias with positive emotions.

To fight the disease, you need to start with the onset of the first symptoms. Children's fears are much easier to overcome. The older a person is, the more difficult it is to get rid of the disease. It is important for a kid to feel tenderness, love, care of parents. A hug and a kiss from a mother or father can be the best cure for all fears.

Most of all, the child is afraid in the darkness of the unknown. You can stick glowing stars and a crescent moon all over the room. It is very important to ask your child to close their eyes before going to bed. After that, you need to get rid of the lighting with the words: "I turn off the light."

A soft toy or pet is a good therapy. Let the child sleep with his pet. In order to avoid the development of infantility or excessive superstition in the future, some psychologists recommend removing the “defender” as soon as there is no urgent need for him.

It is imperative to find out from the kid who or what exactly he is afraid of in the dark. After that, you should draw a frightening object, illuminated by a bright sun and a light bulb. From a sheet with a picture, you need to make a boat, which the child himself will send to sail along the river.

Sometimes the child does not need outside help. By the age of 8-10, the phobia disappears by itself. As a preventive measure, the baby can be offered to look for something in a dark room by touch. At the same time, you need to have a cheerful conversation with him, joke, laugh. When fear arises, the child can be offered a flashlight. He must feel his complete safety in the absence of light.

You can move with your child from a lighted room to a dark room. The action must be repeated several times. You can arrange a game with the light on and off, while you need to focus the child's attention not on the lighting and darkness, but on songs, claps, jumping, funny words.

Children's psyche is plastic. It is easy to treat. No medicines are needed. Phobia can be easily eliminated with creative techniques. Fairytale therapy, classes with sand, special games make the child go through his fears, make sure that there is no threat. Telling your child about his own night-time horrors can also help him cope with his phobia.

In this case, you need to give the person the opportunity to throw out their emotions and cleanse themselves of experiences. Art therapy, symbol drama and some other techniques are aimed at correcting the situation. Timely referral to a psychotherapist guarantees the complete elimination of this phobia.

If the fear of the dark does not cause severe inconvenience, then there is the likelihood of getting rid of it on your own. You can overcome a phobia as follows.

• Gradually reduce the brightness of the lighting, thereby weaning yourself off the light. First you need to adapt yourself to the twilight.Then, with the growth of darkness, it is necessary to find the very moment of the emergence of fear. It is necessary to look at this fear from the outside, to analyze objects or phenomena that cause horror. You need to understand where the image came from in your head, to experience it. The fear gradually dissipates.
• You need to figure out what exactly looks threatening at night in the imagination and challenge it.
• During the day, you should periodically relax for the onset of complete relaxation at night. You need to learn to exercise control over your body. Breathing exercises based on the duration of the exhalation promote relaxation. First you need to freeze, completely hold your breath. In ancient times, they did this so that predators would not notice. A calm and long exhalation is performed with a mental count of up to 8-10.
• Usually, the fear of the dark appears when a person is alone in an unlit room. You can invite a loved one for a while, and stay with him until the onset of complete darkness, and then remain there alone.
• It is important to look at darkness from a completely different angle: the night time enables a person to enjoy deep sleep and relaxation.

When the situation gets out of control, you need to seek help from a qualified specialist. Sleeping with the lights on doesn't solve the problem. He only delays her decision. Remember: the darker the room, the deeper the sleep.

It is difficult to correct the fear of the dark, which has arisen due to the personality traits of the individual. An adult should not be ashamed of the fear of the dark, because healthy sleep improves vital functions.

Drug treatment is possible during an exacerbation, to relieve some of the symptoms. Medicines will not completely overcome the phobia. Sedatives and antidepressants protect against the onset of severe depression, but they do not solve the problem. In addition, the drugs are addictive.

A psychotherapist may suggest hypnotic sessions. The phobia sufferer is put into a trance for a while. The inclusion of the subconscious makes it possible to replace creepy thoughts with the recognition of the unjustified fear of the dark time of day. This method will be relevant only for those individuals who tolerate hypnosis well.

The hypnologist corrects the psyche, "puts" it in the right direction. At the end of the course of hypnosis, fears dissipate, the phobia is supplanted by positive thoughts:

• there is no sharp reaction to the approach of night;
• a person understands that there is nothing terrible in the dark;
• the mental state is gradually recovering;
• the fear of the appearance of mysterious shadows and unknown phenomena in an unlit room disappears.

The result of the therapy is very long-lasting. However, each client needs to "pick up his own key", and the task of the psychotherapist is to help the patient. Otherwise, neurasthenia only intensifies, there is a likelihood of the formation of associated phobias that are not associated with the fear of the dark. If this happens, the therapist prescribes different drugs.

There are special trainings that teach you to relax, bring your breathing back to normal and control your emotions. Initially, a person suffering from a phobia must answer himself a number of questions:

• when did I become afraid of my fantasies?
• what can happen if i fall asleep with the lights off?
• Why am I anxious, and how can I deal with it?
• Why am I afraid of this particular creature?
• what happens to me if i fall asleep?
• can I overcome fear on my own?

Before going to bed, you need to visualize your dream, remember the pleasant moments of life. All your thoughts must be directed in a positive direction. It would be nice to recode negative associations into positive ones in a comfortable position, with closed eyes and to the accompaniment of calm music.It is advisable at these moments to imagine the smooth surface of the azure sea, crumbly golden sand, blue sky, green bushes and trees, beautiful flowers.