Are you afraid of the dark?

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  • bluebladeblueblade Posts: 88,859
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    Picto wrote: »
    When darkness falls and all the lights go out does a foreboding anxiety take over.

    Does the small creak you hear turn into a supine monster concealed in the shadows under your bed. Usually it's not the dark itself, but what's concealed in the dark that fuels our fears.

    Some believe that this grinding anxiety is a good thing, a limiting mechanism against reckless behaviour in the dark. Predators prefer the cover of darkness to hunt and our fear stems from the subconscious absolute: stay out of the dark because that's where the danger is.

    Generally the dark holds little fear for me but i do get the odd anxiety knot on occasion, especially after watching a particularly scary horror film. Reaching out into a darkened room, grasping for the light switch, sometimes sends goosepimples down my arm.

    The one thing that did scare me when i was a child was my bedroom had the loft hatch in the ceiling. When the lights went out i always imagined the hatch creaking open slowly with something unknown looking out from the attic.

    Are you afraid of the dark?

    No, not at all. Besides, what we normally experience is not true darkness.

    I once went down a mine, and believe me, once the lights are out, it is literally absolute blackness. That is darkness.
  • TremseTremse Posts: 864
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    I don't have a fear of the dark itself - not in a supernatural sense, what does scare me are the weirdoes that lurk outdoors, in parks or poorly lit areas when I have to walk home.

    Not an irrational fear, just self-preservation.
  • BlueEyedMrsPBlueEyedMrsP Posts: 12,178
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    I'm only afraid that I might trip over something without the lights on, I'm a bit of a klutz sometimes. As a kid I was petrified that something was under my bed ready to grab my foot if I didn't do a running jump onto the bed. :D

    At night I usually leave the bathroom light off if I get up in the middle of the night. Doesn't bother me, the lights in there are too bright anyway.
  • MRSgotobedMRSgotobed Posts: 3,851
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    I hate total darkness, stayed frequently on the Kent Coast, Dungeness and when the lights were off it was black.I'm 46 and I have a nightlight, I just can't help it. I feel for a light switch,trying not to panic until I find it-yet I love horror films and ghost stories, true crime stuff, really grueling and grim stuff. Always been like it.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 53,142
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    yea, i am :D

    I infact have a plugin night light that i leave in and have my bedroom door open ajar so the light comes in abit..i can't sleep if the light/lamp is on but i do that way and i feel better..As a kid i always had the hall light with the door open a bit to get some light in :D
  • Jim_McIntoshJim_McIntosh Posts: 5,866
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    No, not at all. Like Bane and Batman, the darkness is my friend. :)
  • Waj_100Waj_100 Posts: 3,739
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    I'm not afraid of the dark at all. I love being out in the darkest places looking at the stars.

    When I go to Sweden I love to go in the forest to view the Milky Way....fabulous sight :D
  • NX-74205NX-74205 Posts: 4,691
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    I am a man who walks alone
    And when I'm walking a dark road
    At night or strolling through the park

    When the light begins to change
    I sometimes feel a little strange
    A little anxious when it's dark.
  • Ella NutElla Nut Posts: 8,891
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    Nope. I love the dark. Can't bear any light if I'm getting off to sleep. Get up to the loo in the dark and back to bed in the middle of the night etc. However when I was little I had to have the landing light on, my door and curtains open, well probably until 10 or so.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 60
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    As a kid, I was just too afraid of the dark and I do not remember the number of nights I spent awake, petrified in fear. I was basically expecting some sort of skeleton walking out of the shades. Interestingly, the fear was there only when I was alone. This constant fear continued to destroy my life untl I turned 18. I cannot explain this but once I was 18, the fear was gone.
  • Hollie_LouiseHollie_Louise Posts: 39,759
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    I wouldn't say I'm scared of the dark but I do think that I have become more aware of my surrounding when walking at night in recent years.

    When I was 14/15 I would happily walk through the fields/greenway alone to take a quick route home and not even think about the possible dangers (and there were a few where I grew up). These days I'm quite jumpy when walking at night.
  • Ella NutElla Nut Posts: 8,891
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    sola wrote: »
    As a kid, I was just too afraid of the dark and I do not remember the number of nights I spent awake, petrified in fear. I was basically expecting some sort of skeleton walking out of the shades. Interestingly, the fear was there only when I was alone. This constant fear continued to destroy my life untl I turned 18. I cannot explain this but once I was 18, the fear was gone.

    Sounds much like my experience. I had my own room which I hated really because I too spent many nights lying awake, made worse sometimes by the shadows on the wallpaper pattern coming from the headlights on the cars going past on the dual carriageway next to us. There was a point where I wouldn't even try to get off to sleep until someone else in the house was upstairs too. I was the youngest so was sent up to bed first.
  • RadiomaniacRadiomaniac Posts: 43,510
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    No, not at all.
  • Danny_SilverDanny_Silver Posts: 902
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    No but I used to be or that's what my mum used to tell me when I was very small.

    My mum said I used to go bed very early, as soon as the sun goes down I go to bed, I never see night time.

    But now I am the creature of the night.:D
  • Blondie XBlondie X Posts: 28,662
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    I'm not exactly afraid of the dark but I have to have a chink of light at all times because my pupils don't dilate properly and, because of this, my night vision is extremely poor and so being in the dark bother me.
  • TheSilentFezTheSilentFez Posts: 11,103
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    What's that in the mirror,
    or the corner of your eye?
    What's that footstep following,
    never passing by?
    Perhaps they're all just waiting,
    perhaps when we're all dead,
    out they'll come a-slithering,
    from underneath the bed.
  • Alan1981Alan1981 Posts: 5,416
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    The only time I've been afraid of the dark, was when I used to patrol the clay pits at night. And it wasn't the dead that scared me, it was the metal thieves who would happily give you a going over if you caught them stealing .


    As a child though I was scared shitless of the dark. My Brother who was a fair bit older me, was often tasked with baby sitting me . And I was often left to watch freddy Kreuger movies.
  • Keyser_Soze1Keyser_Soze1 Posts: 25,182
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    No, not at all. Like Bane and Batman, the darkness is my friend. :)

    Damn beat me to it! :D

    http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/ignore_jpg_scale_small/9/99801/2132844-darkknightrises20111201.jpg
  • Sam_Williams1Sam_Williams1 Posts: 338
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    Love the dark! Love this side of the year, Autumn, Halloween, bonfire night etc, darker wet nights, so good to cosy up in the comfort of my own home with a bunch of candles and a good horror film. The best time of the day is bedtime, just love it.

    On another not 'Are you afraid of the dark?' loved this tv series as a kid, that and Goosebumps. Some sh** scary episodes to say it was a kids program.

    Hopethishelps.
  • 1fab1fab Posts: 20,052
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    I love the dark night - being outside and looking up at the stars and all that.

    It's only when I'm alone in the house in the dark, and all my fears suddenly come out - and there's a psycho lurking somewhere downstairs and a demon in the attic - the usual stuff.
  • Sam_Williams1Sam_Williams1 Posts: 338
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    I love leaving the curtains open and looking at the dark empty street outside.
    I also love driving in the dark, on old country lanes.

    Hopethishelps
  • Miss XYZMiss XYZ Posts: 14,023
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    Not particularly BUT I do have a very vivid imagination and as soon as I start thinking about something, I imagine allsorts and if it's at night then yes I'll get very scared. I have a big mirror at the top of the stairs and every night I get scared of seeing something in it as I reach the top of the stairs on my way to bed and I also have a fear of an invisible force (like a ghost) pushing me down the stairs when I reach the top (yes, yes I know :blush:). I think it's just part of my nightly routine now, so I look down and walk faster as I reach the top of the stairs each night! :blush::D

    Edit: I also get scared when letting my dog out in the garden for a wee before going to bed. I sometimes imagine someone's hiding in my garden, and will push the door open and attack me! I'm a bit of a wuss in all honesty!
  • Hollie_LouiseHollie_Louise Posts: 39,759
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    Miss XYZ wrote: »
    Not particularly BUT I do have a very vivid imagination and as soon as I start thinking about something, I imagine allsorts and if it's at night then yes I'll get very scared. I have a big mirror at the top of the stairs and every night I get scared of seeing something in it as I reach the top of the stairs on my way to bed and I also have a fear of an invisible force (like a ghost) pushing me down the stairs when I reach the top (yes, yes I know :blush:). I think it's just part of my nightly routine now, so I look down and walk faster as I reach the top of the stairs each night! :blush::D

    Thanks! Now I'm not going to be able to walk up my stairs at night lol.

    I remember being younger and having a strange ass dream that my cousin's abusive boyfriend was going to come and get her at my house coming in from the back garden and I opened the kitchen door and saw him in the window. Until we moved house a few years later, I refused to go through the kitchen at night alone just in case lol.

    And now reading your edit I'm not going outside with my dog tonight lol.
  • Keyser_Soze1Keyser_Soze1 Posts: 25,182
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    Thanks! Now I'm not going to be able to walk up my stairs at night lol.

    I remember being younger and having a strange ass dream that my cousin's abusive boyfriend was going to come and get her at my house coming in from the back garden and I opened the kitchen door and saw him in the window. Until we moved house a few years later, I refused to go through the kitchen at night alone just in case lol.

    And now reading your edit I'm not going outside with my dog tonight lol.

    But do you worry about the evil revenant corpse scrabbling about under your floorboards? :o

    :D
  • Hollie_LouiseHollie_Louise Posts: 39,759
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    But do you worry about the evil revenant corpse scrabbling about under your floorboards? :o

    :D

    If there is any corpse under my floorboards, I put them there. I don't worry about them :D

    (To be completely clear I am joking. I wouldn't bury them under my floorboards)
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