Fear of darkness or achluophobia is very common among children, though it may appear among adults in varying degrees.
Causes of the Fear
There are actually a lot of reasons why a person can get too scared of being in the dark. One of these is he or she gets to associate a bad experience to it. For example, an adult might have been robbed of things while walking down in a dark alley.
It could also be caused by nightmares or by strong imagination of children. They may have woken up with the image of a “monster” on their wall when, in fact, it was just the shadow of their stuffed toy.
Lastly, it could just be that you’re scared of what’s going to happen to you when you’re in the dark. You may have read of stories or watched movies where people get killed, kidnapped, or mugged while they are sleeping. You are afraid that somebody may walk inside your home without you knowing it because the entire area is completely dark.
How to Overcome Fear of Darkness
There are a lot of ways on how you can overcome your fear of the dark. The most effective and the most basic is to simply expose yourself to it. The lesson here is that you should come out of it, knowing that there is really nothing to be afraid of. Your anxiety and your fear are just products of your imagination.
If the fear is rooted on a previous experience, you may have to seek the help of a counselor who can help you release yourself from such trauma. Once you are properly counseled of it, you would see darkness in a different way.
Children and adults don’t have to deal with the fear of darkness for a long time. There are solutions available.
