Fear of the Dark

If you search for "Fear of the Dark" on Google, you will find a song by the group "Iron Maiden." Type in "Nyctophobia" instead and you will find two wikipedia pages. First is "Nyctophobia" the other is "Fear of the dark," not the song, the actual fear. Some might be asking what the difference is. If you haven't followed the links, don't bother, I will tell you the difference.

The main difference is that when people use the word "phobia," it is pathological, while fear of the dark is natural. Phobias are a common way to describe general fears, but clinically, this is not so. According to the Wikipedia entry: The different possible conventional symptoms many of the phobias have in correlation include “dyspnea (“air hunger”), palpitation (rapid beating of the heart), chest pain or discomfort, choking or smothering sensations, dizziness or vertigo, feelings of unreality, paresthesia (tingling in the hands and feet), hot or cold flashes, sweating, faintness, trembling or shaking, and a fear of dying, going crazy, or doing something uncontrollable.” You may have the fear, but it probably isn't classified as a phobia.





Anyway, back to the fear. This is not fear of absence of light, but about imagination, about fears of what could happe in the dark. It is completely natural and chances are that you have had it at one point, so don't try and fool yourself into thinking otherwise. In addition, some may not want to believe it, but you still have this fear to some degree. Some may be thinking that they have outgrown this stage in their life, but you haven't. While it may be true you don't take special precautions to invade the imagined monsters that wish to devour you, I ask you this: Have you ever been in the woods or the inner city at night and had absolutely no fear that something was going to happen to you? If the answer is yes, then you are afraid of the dark in one way, if the answer is no, you have either been to neither of the aforementioned places, which I doubt, you are in denial, or you have completely eliminated your fear of the dark.

If you actually have eliminated your fear of the dark, don't be happy for having done it. While fear is not something you should be proud of, it is necessary. Fear is just an emotional reaction to a potential threat. When you are afraid, your senses pick up more around you, making you more aware of changing conditions. It's a basic survival instinct. Some of you may not understand what this has to do with fear of the dark, I'll tell you. You agree that our vision is good for seeing shapes and recognizing figures, but is not the best for detecting general movement. You agree that the less light there is, the harder it is to see. You agree that if vision is obscured enough, you don't know what could be in that obscured area. This is where imagination kicks in. If you receive stimuli in cases like this, your mind imagines what it could be, and if you are afraid, you often assume the worst. If you assume the worst when there is an actual situation, doing that would help you deal with any situation.

While it is not likely that what your imagination could contrive is what you just heard while walking at night, a little vigilance never hurt anyone if something bad did happen.