I was browsing this afternoon when I came across the word Nyctophobia. I’ve never heard of it before, so I was curious.  It turns out it’s a fear of the night or the dark.

We all  know as children that our imagination is on overdrive when the light is turned off, which is why most kids have a night light.  Shadows emerge on curtains, leaves rustle outside the window, and things are ready to leap out of closets or scramble from under the bed. We hide under the covers because we’re scared.

I grew up in Scotland and lived in an ancient building that was built during the 15th century to house soldiers of Mary Queen of Scots.  It had lots of creepy things in it, including ghosts.

Okay, so you don’t believe me about the ghosts, but I could tell a tale or two about what I’ve seen.

As a child, I didn’t like the dark at all.  It was a time fraught with anxiety.  Part of the problem was I had to go outside to use the toilet.  Now, I’m not talking about leave the bedroom and go down the hall to the bathroom.  I’m talking, leave the house! It was outside the apartment door and was shared with a neighbor. (There’s more stories on that, but I’ll stop there.)

But there was more than shadows and imagination at work in my household growing up.  My father was an alcoholic with a violent streak, and as children we spent a great deal of time hiding from him.  Chaos was normal, and uncertainty bred fear and insecurity.  It was something that would haunt me for a long time.  The night was a threatening place and I would have to grow out of that.

In my work  I talk about fear being imagination based.  We believe that whatever happened in the past and was negative, will show up in the future in the same way.  Susan Jeffers, who endorsed The Fearless Factor says “Fear is our inability to trust that we can handle whatever comes our way.”   As a child, I certainly believed that to be true because quite simply I couldn’t.  I was a helpless child. However, as an adult, I know better.  I’ve learned how to trust myself and know that I can overcome any challenge in life.  This didn’t happen overnight, but no longer do I have a fear of the night.