Nyctophobia, My Fear of DARKNESS:
My goal is to overcome my fear of “Nyctophobia”. And I am writing this my own blog by following a principle of progress which is Khudi and self-learning.
I have completed my project and my goal is to overcome my phobia of darkness ,objects that seems scary to me in darkness that disturbs me and bothers me. My mother explained me that i was about 7 years old when we were travelling to Islamabad/Rawalpindi in a train and a tunnel came on our way and when the train was passing through the tunnel, it just became pitch black and i was completely froze.I was unable to say my mom a single word to help me. After the train passed from the tunnel, my parents looked me and rescued me at that time.
I want to overcome my this fear and achieve this goal as i almost got completely shattered and loose my all senses during this phobia attack and as my brothers make fun of this fear of mine and annoy me when it's dark, with another plus point for the darkness as our country is also facing the load shedding issue too.
In the past I was too afraid to visit psychologists in the fear that they will ask me some annoying questions which will torture me and disturb me.
When everyone was usually slept at night and turn off the lights, I used to afraid because of the darkness and sometimes i also got goosebumps because of fear and usually i used to became more conscious with opening my eyes so wide and started to overthink. And i also used to sleep with a torch with me at night and by turning on my side table’s night lamp.
Because when the lights were completely off, I started to panic , started to feel dizzy, got sweat and finds it difficult to even breathe.
As I just studied somewhere NAPOLEON HILL quote that :
“FEARS ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A STATE
OF MIND.”
And then later, I decided to take a step to overcome my this fear and i just started and I identified that i should must adopt these following steps which i have already been started to follow:
1: Wean myself from light
I started to did it step by step. Removed or dimmed light sources little by little and i continuously made myself to remember that I'll be doing my brain and body a massive favor by giving them a better chance for rest. And i also made my mind by always thinking and saying that
there is no need for light, as I am not going to see it anyway because i have to sleep with my eyes closed.
2: Overcame my fear of the darkness by controlling my body
When I became fearful in the night, I started to follow these 2 strategies which were told by my father to me :
• When you become fearful, stop breathing and moving for a few seconds. We do this if we fear we are being watched, as obviously not breathing or moving makes us less detectable to others.
• And when we do start breathing again, we tend to breathe rapidly in short quick breathe.
I adopted these two advises of my father. And my father also told me that breathing in (without much breathing out) stimulates your heart to beat faster and wakes you up. Breathing out longer than you breathe in slows everything down...quite useful if you need to relax and sleep. So I followed them and still following them.
3: Re-framed my idea of 'darkness '
I always feared the dark. As I began to relax with the lights off, I developed a new frame with a reference for what darkness meant and means to me.
Now when I think about the dark, it feels like a friend, no longer the scary enemy. It feels cozy in specially winter; a wonderful velvety blanket of comforting rest time in which it doesn't matter what I look like, what others think. A time into which I can escape and enjoy deep privacy. A time when I dream, no matter what type or dream but I DREAM AT NIGHT.
I realized that being in the dark also helps humans everywhere enjoy deep sleep, the human organ and muscle also rests so that which is also an essential part to live a healthy life and it also makes us capable to enjoy the day times all the more and to meet other phases of daytime life.
My experience has been amazing by doing this project. I just did to work on all my strategies with a strong determination that i can do it. It has increased my self confidence, decreased my fear for this phobia. I practiced it on daily basis.
I faced number of challenges regarding my health issues, but i didn’t give up.
To do this activity i took help from my mother by keeping her hand in my hand during the whole night, discussing my regular condition with my father who motivated me, usually was used to to tell my father about my exact situation and my daily base on going improvement to overcome my fear and i also started to play with my siblings a family’s game which is “Chuppan Chupaai” in desi family’s language and it usually called “Hide and seek”.
I learnt to believe on myself . Nothing is scary if you just start and become determined to overcome that slight personality drawback which you naturally had or have.
I just decided with an aim that
“I am not going to have a breakdown with this kind of phobia. I can overcome it and I will!”
I am feeling much more confident after doing this project because i have shared that part of my life which u just didn't get a chance to share.
My next step is that I will follow all the strategies which I have made to overcome my this fear and I am going to help all other people with full support who are suffering from this fear.
