Strange mental health subject

[Ob1one]

I'm starting to think I'm as weird as everyone says I am:p I'm afraid of the dark yet I'm not afraid of anything that I can name because I'm not afraid to die but for some weird reason that doesn't really click in my mind when its dark.

Its weird its something about the dark, the regular explanation is that your afraid of what you don't know or understand and in the dark you don't know whats there, it could be a mass murderer, rapist, or some guy who thinks hes a monkey lurking in the darkness.

That doesn't explain things for me though. I'm not afraid of anyone or anything so why am I afraid of the dark. If you could give me help with understanding this I would also like advice on how to get over this irrational fear.

P.S. I might be afraid of the guy who thinks hes a monkey:)

[Mark]

Being afraid of the dark is super common. There are a class of situations that people are all vunerable to feeling fearful about, and for the most part, all of these situations involve physical vulnerability. People are afraid of the dark, of insects, heights, blood, etc. and all of these things involve feeling vulnerable.

I've never heard before of anyone who was afraid of being attacked in the dark by a man who thought he was a monkey before:). Maybe I should write a paper about it and become a famous psychologist for discovering a new phobia:). What name should we give this fear? We need pseudo-latin names for each component of the fear, for instance,

agoraphobia = agora (market place) phobia (fear) = fear of the market place

Maybe ?? aluxo-homo-simiano-phobia? ???

[nightfalls]

I just had to comment on the sence of humor here, It is really nice to have a giggle about this topic and I like the new title for this phobia of the man that thinks he's a monkey...lol

I am also absolutly completly afraid of the dark I have been for years now, It seems rediculous that I can't shake this fear and I've tryed but in the night I just can't follow through completly. I've slept in a fully bright room for over 2 years because in the dark I can't close my eyes. It floor's me that I am this afraid. I am trying to shake this but I think it will take alot to get this fear away. I have to many thoughts attached to this that stops me from letting go quickly, I have panic attacks and my mind wanders into the unknown territory of what could be there staring at me. This wouldn't seem so bad if it didn't actually feel like someone was there.

Mabe if I try and think it is the man that thinks he's the monkey I can take the pressure away from the other thoughts I have......hope you don't mind me trying to keep the topic light

Edited July 6, 2008 by nightfalls

[Guest ASchwartz]

Hi Forgeting,

Actually, your fear of the dark is a serious matter and not odd or wierd in any way. Can you tell us what there is about the dark that you find frightening?

Also, do you have ways of comforting your self when this happens?

I am also curious about what types of thoughts you have when you are in bed, in the dark and start thinking?

Allan

[nightfalls]

I suppose my issues with the dark that I find frightning are the belifes in things I can't explain, certain feelings or idea's. This is deficult to explain. I guess I have a idea of something there at times like a negative presence I feel like it watches me, why? who knows, I don't see it but feel like I am going to one day. I just can't tolerate this feeling not at all. I look around like I'm going to see it, making sure it is NOT there. Anyways I kind of have things I feel stop "it" like the lights being on. I feel like "it" can't come at me like it is frozen in one place if the lights are on. I also feel like "it" is only around at a certain time line and go's away at this time. What do I do when this happens, well everynight I leave the lights on. I try and tell myself that it is just my imagination that there is nothing there but this does nothing to help me. I still look around, I still feel tense, I still feel like I'm loosing it. Some times the thoughts I have around this get a bit off and I think I have some issue going on that this is not just a phobia. Some thoughts I have are kinda scary like the negative presence is trying to sway me into a negative person that it is causeing me to be depressed like influncing me in whatever ways it can. That it is going to be standing rate beside me one night and freak the everything out of me at which point I will probibly check myself in somewhere. I guess I feel like I'm going to see something and then snap. So I leave the lights on....

[Mark]

I think this might be a little like pain gets worse at night because during the day, all the activity masks it, but at night when things calm down and there is less "signal" happening, then the sort of baseline anxieties become more visible.

It's nice that you have techniques to keep these feelings at bay that are working for you. It may seem embarrassing that you want to keep on the light, but hey - it's relatively cheap and if it works, more power to you.

Have you ever experiemented with different kinds of light at night? like - would a nightlight be bright enough or does it have to be a fully lit room as you suggest. Have you ever put a lamp on a timer so that it is on for the first part of the night but not the second part?

One thought is that there is a sort of paranoid feel to what you wrote - not as in paranoid schizophrenia (which can get bizarre) but maybe like in sense of OCD sort of compulsive thoughts. Like the idea gets into your head and then you can't let go of it or distract yourself from it. Maybe it would be worth looking into that angle?

Psychiatrists will sometimes use medications to treat OCD symptoms. There are pros and cons to such treatment, of course, and I don't know if the good would outweight the bad in your case. I'm not suggesting that this is what you need or that it would be the right or best course of action, but it might be useful to have in your back pocket to think about if this ever gets to feel more intolerable and paranoid than it does now.

I wonder if something akin to exposure therapy would be helpful for you in overcoming some of these fears which also seem to have a theme to them. In a controled environment, working to imagine or simulate (via virtual reality like second life?) the feared outcomes and trying to figure out how bad it could really be.

For example, I remember a time when I was much younger where I was afraid of ghosts. Then at a certain point I realized that even if there were ghosts and they were angry at me, it wouldn't really be any worse than a living person angry at me, and since I felt I I could handle that secondary scenario, it helped me feel more comfortable with the former. Does that help? A lot of the time, there is this uncomfortable emotion but it isn't examined. And when you examine it rationally, you start to see it for what it is, which is really an uncomfortable emotion that isn't necessarily based on anything real. And you can tolerate that.

[nicole]

I used to be terrified of the dark. I couldn't handle walking through it for even a couple seconds because I was so fearful. I feel like I was a different person then. It wasn't just the dark I was afraid of. I'm not sure what caused it but as embarrassing as this is I would often wet my pants as I would enter the door of my house. I think it was just the anxiety of coming back to that place. But I found as I got older and started slowly eliminating all the things that caused the anxiety and fear in my life I stopped feeling so vulnerable. I trusted a dark and peaceful, everyday night more. But if that is not the problem or that doesn't help then maybe a fish tank with a light on it would help. The sound of the water in the filter is very calming as well as the peaceful fish swimming around in the water.

[SuziQ]

Nicole,

That is the neatest idea. Maybe I'll get a fishtank to help me sleep and soothe me at night. Thanks so much !!!

SuziQ

[Mark]

In the vein of a peaceful noise, some friends bought my wife and I a white noise machine when we had our child a few months ago, as a way to mask baby noises so that one partner could sleep while the other did care. The one we have is by a company called Dex - not sure of the model, but it does nice rain and ocean and beach noises complete with seagulls and buoy noises. It really helps me to sleep more soundly. This doesn't address the fear of the dark, but it does make sleeping more sound (pun intended).

[xaq75]

I remember when I was a small child I would see weird shifting shapes in the darker corners of a dark room. I think Mark is right about when there is a low 'signal' for your senses that your internal thoughts become more prominant. I remember reading in the Newscientist a couple of years ago that there might be an evolutionary advantage to seeing danger when there is none. So perhaps it's like evolutionary white noise.

"Ignorance is bliss" ? ... hmm.

[kittenhugs]

I have a small lamp that I leave on in my room. When it's completely dark my thoughts go crazy and I imagine horrible things. When I close my eyes I sometimes see things like decayed faces. Sometimes I see them whether the light is on or not, but it usually helps. I have visual hallucinations too so it's good for me to leave a light on. I don't think it's anything to be embarrassed about. It's practical anyway so that you don't stub a toe when you get up at night. I have an overactive imagination. It's why I don't watch horrror movies anymore.

[nightfalls]

Hi kittenhugs

How do you know which part is the over active imagination and which is the visual hallusination? which part does the face thing lie into?