Fear of darkness

By: Gabi Bartmann

What is a fear?

What is a fear? A strong unpleasant feeling caused by being aware of danger, or expecting something bad to happen (Webster's dictionary for students). So what can we possibly do to get over our fear? Well, first, we must find out what the fear is. So lets do a very common fear. Darkness.

Darkness…what is it?

Darkness is actually a very common fear. I know you might think, ‘Ya, for kids,’ but that is not true. It is actually the fourth most common fear, according to selfhelpcollective.com. The fear of the dark is to be afraid to be in the dark, or of the dark. For some people it has gotten so bad that it has become a phobia. Nyctophobia, scotophia, and gynophobia are all phobias of the dark. To get over the fear, you have to know the fear.

People make you afraid

One reason you may be afraid of the dark is because some people want you to be afraid of the dark. For example: writers of horror movies. They want you to be afraid, so that way when something jumps out at you, you are afraid. It wouldn’t be a very good horror movie if you aren’t afraid, now would it? So you are afraid of that.

Examples

Saws (1, 2, 3, etc.) Friday the 13th The Shining I am legend Shutter Island The Dragon Slayer Panic Room

Scared for life

A reason you may be afraid of the dark is you where scared for life. If you saw a horror movie, and you are just so afraid of this movie, you are most likely scared (and not the scar from a cut or something). Some examples might be, someone grabbing you in the dark when you where really little, or being a witness