“The night is dark and harbors horrors” is one of the best-known phrases of Melisandre, one of the protagonists of the popular series Game of Thrones. And while being afraid of the dark may be part of normal development in young children, that is not the case in older children and adults. Nyctophobia is an irrational fear of the dark that occurs inappropriately at certain ages and that can lead the person to limit their activities, avoid certain circumstances, and experience anxiety in anticipation of there being no light.
In this Psychology-Online article we will explain what is nyctophobiawhat are your symptoms and its Causesas well as treatment most suitable for this disorder.
What does nyctophobia mean?
The nyctophobia is he intense and irrational fear of the dark. This disorder is classified as a phobia within the disorders or . Sometimes, fear may not be related to the darkness itself, but rather to supposed hidden dangers that occur in the context of the night (which is why darkness is often used in horror films as a method to scare the viewer). . Lack of security and trust can also play a role, especially when you are alone.
Although it is not necessarily bad to feel a certain nervousness when we are in the dark, one of the signs that can alert us that we are facing nyctophobia is feeling of anxiety and anguish. The fear of the dark can become a disorder when it is so scary that interferes with the person’s ability to function in your daily life, at work or in your social environment. The differentiating fact between a simple fear and a phobia is that the latter causes clinically significant discomfort. In the following articles you will find different and.
Nyctophobia in adults: causes and characteristics
Contrary to what it may seem, the fear of the dark or nyctophobia It doesn’t just affect children. Approximately 1 in 10 adults presents nyctophobia or any of the characteristic symptoms of this disorder. An adult is able to rationally analyze the causes and motivations of fears, but in phobias this is irrelevant, since negative sensations are triggered regardless.
For its part, the causes of nyctophobia can be multiple. The origin may be in a traumatic experience suffered by the person and that is related to darkness or night; it may have been triggered by a bad memory or a distorted view of what it is really like to be in the dark; or it may originate due to a observational learning (what is known in psychology as ), which occurs when the person acquires the fear of the dark after seeing that another person reacts with this same emotion in a situation of that type.
Symptoms of nyctophobia
The most common symptoms of nyctophobia are the following:
- Get nervous in any dark environment.
- Need to sleep with a light on.
- Being reluctant to go out at night.
- To experience physiological symptoms of anxiety including: an increased heart rate, sweating, shaking, feeling unwell, nausea, headaches or diarrhea.
In addition to the latter, nyctophobia in adults can cause other more serious symptoms such as the following:
- try to escape of dark rooms or environments.
- Compulsively staying inside a building (home, work, etc.) to avoid going out at night.
- Feel rage or anger when someone tries to encourage the person to spend time in the dark.
How to overcome nyctophobia
To overcome nyctophobia, psychological strategies can be applied in the intervention and drugs can also be used:
Psychological treatment of nyctophobia
The good news is that nyctophobia, like the vast majority of specific phobias, it has treatment and can be overcome. The treatment plan includes the goal of challenging beliefs and fears about darkness, so that negative thoughts are replaced by more realistic and functional ones. One of the therapeutic methods most used in this and other phobias and which we have already talked about in another Psychology-Online article, is the , a procedure that confronts the person with the situation or the feared object (in this case darkness) to help you overcome fears and anxiety; For this, it is important that it be carried out in a safe context, in a state of relaxation and with the help of the therapist, with the aim that the patient cannot escape from the dark situation and learns that the threat is not real.
Another variant of this technique is gradual exposure: the person is asked to expose themselves to a dark environment in “small doses” and progressively, under relaxing conditions and in a safe and controlled context. Through this desensitization the person loses fear little by little and, with repeated practice, anxiety symptoms are subsiding.
Pharmacological treatment of nyctophobia
Another possible way to treat nyctophobia, and complementary to the previous one, is the use of psychotropic drugs. Especially recommended in the most serious cases or in which the disorder causes dysfunction in one or more areas of the person’s life. The most commonly used medications are usually anxiolytics, drugs that are used to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and nervousness characteristic of this and other phobias; and medications antidepressantsLike the serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which serve to regulate the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain in the medium and long term. In the following article you will find.
Is there a difference between nyctophobia and scotophobia?
Nyctophobia or fear of the dark is also often called acluophobia, ligophobia and scotophobia. However, in some areas an attempt has been made to differentiate between nyctophobia, the noun that designates irrational fear or phobia of the night; and scotophobia, as the term that refers to the phobia of the dark. Logically, the night is associated with darkness, although in the fear of darkness it is not so much the night that causes the fear, but rather the risks and dangers that the person imagines or assumes may arise.
However, the three terms can be used synonymously because they refer to the same reality, which is none other than an intense, and often disabling, fear of everything that has to do with darkness, whether it is a product of the night, the shadows or the dark.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Nyctophobia: what it is, symptoms, causes and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- Levos, J., & Zacchilli, T. L. (2015). Nyctophobia: From Imagined to Realistic Fears of the Dark. Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 20(2).
- Li, Y., Ma, W., Kang, Q., Qiao, L., Tang, D., Qiu, J., … & Li, H. (2015). Night or darkness, which intensifies the feeling of fear? International journal of psychophysiology, 97(1), 46-57.