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Sunday, September 29, 2013

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?

 
DARKNESS: NOT OUR OLD FRIEND
 
 
For many, this fear of the dark begins in childhood as a fear of the unexpected,
 
Thomas Ollendick, professor of psychology and director of the Child Study Center at Virginia Tech, told LiveScience,
 
 that something or someone will pop out of the closet or from underneath the bed. Most grow out of these fears as they get older.
 
A survey of 2,000 adults conducted this year by Go Glow found that 40% of us are scared when walking around the house with the lights off.
 
One in 10 admitted they were too terrified to even get up for a toilet trip in the darkness.
 
It’s something Katie Johns, 39, a Londoner who works in communications, knows well – 
 
she can still vividly recall what prompted her lifelong fear of the dark when she was a girl.
 
 “I was half asleep, and I thought I saw someone standing at the top of our stairs, just looking at me and my sister.
 
I lay there in the dark, staring and being scared, not wanting to move.
 
After that I slept with a crucifix for about five years and shared a bedroom with my grandmother. I couldn’t sleep alone.”
 
Now an independent and confident woman, Katie is still not comfortable sleeping in a pitchblack room, and leaves her door open with the landing light on.
 
Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health have found a powerful link between stress and anxiety,
 
indicating that even moderate stress might make you freak out when something happens that's just a little spooky.
 
Especially if it happens when it's dark.
 
Of course it's no secret that humans have an inherent fear of the dark.
 
Scientists, and even us common folks, have known that for a long time.
 
With apologies to Simon and Garfunkel, we know that darkness is really not our old friend.
 
Humans are diurnal, meaning we spend most of our working time in the daylight, and thus are more averse to darkness. So if you want to scare a human, turn out the lights.
 
STEPHEN KING ON FEAR:
 
"At night, when I go to bed, I still am at pains to be sure that my legs are under the blankets after the lights go out.

I'm not a child anymore but... I don't like to sleep with one leg sticking out.

Because if a cool hand ever reached out from under the bed and grasped my ankle, I might scream. Yes, I might scream to wake the dead.

That sort of thing doesn't happen, of course, and we all know that.

The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn't real.

I know that, and I also know that if I'm careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle."

Fear is the emotion that makes us blind.
 
How many things are you afraid of? 
 
Are you afraid of the dark?



9 comments:

  1. There is evil lurking in the dark. That's why I keep my guns close.

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  2. Last night, something went kaplunk in my room. It woke me out of a deep sleep. I peeked under my covers and saw nothing, but this isn't the first time its happened. So yeah, it creeps me out especially when I know that the veil that seperates this world from the other one is thin between to the hours of 9 PM and 6 AM.

    Hugs and chocolate,
    Shelly

    Hope you've been well. I'm still busy with the grandbaby. Wanted to stop in a say 'hi'.

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  3. Walter:
    Guns can't kill the undead. Cue the spooky music. :-)

    Shelly:
    I wish you energy for the grandbaby. I've missed you. I know how personal committments can eat up all your time!

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  4. i am afraid of two things, i have become a germ freak... i am not sure why... the other is a little more graphic, i fear of drowning in a pool of mud.

    things that give me the geebies, watching someone cut their nails, talk about broken nails or showing me that broken nail... i will pass out.

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  5. I used to fear the dark as a kid -- mainly because that's when the cockroaches would come out to play, and I hated stepping on them during my midnight trips to the kitchen for a glass of water...

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  6. Jeremy:
    It is wise to be cautious of germs. To wash your hands four to five times daily will keep your bouts of the flu down.

    Mud and Nails, huh? I hate the nails scratching along the chalkboard!

    Milo:
    The dark at the top of the stairs was it for me. I would watch horror movies Saturday as a kid, and then have to force myself to walk up into that well of darkness that waited for me at the top of the stairs. Brrr!

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  7. A friend who claimed her mother was a sensitive told me to never sleep totally in the dark. It's easier for the dark spirits to enter. Light frightens them.

    I still do not like a totally black house - (I saw Pitch Black for one reason). I remember that Audrey Hepburn movie, too.

    I worry more about humans than the undead, but October is also the time when the fabric thins between the separations in realms, isn't it?

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  8. Yeah, I guess I'm a little afraid of the dark, although I have no trouble getting up in the middle of the night and usually sleep with my feet sticking out from under the covers. It's not like there are spiders around or anything.

    I think that fear of something popping out unexpectedly is spot on. That's exactly what makes me nervous about being in the dark. Just not THAT nervous.

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  9. I'm not afraid of the dark unless something else has spooked me first. For example, if I'm walking alone after dark, I'm fine. If I hear footsteps behind me, not so fine. I hate night-lights, and I like my bedroom pitch black. If I hear a noise I can't identify, that's when the light comes on. And I don't put the lights on when I get up at night, which has resulted in many a VR floor fan collision.

    Mostly I'm afraid of people. Nearly everything else is predictable and/or knowable. People? Not so much.

    VR Barkowski

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