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Fear of darkness, Achluophobia

Fears are emotions triggered by your subconscious mind in order to protect you from danger, the subconscious mind was designed for survival as a basic priority. The problem arises when that fear becomes irrational.

Fear of darkness or Achluophobia is an irrational fear of darkness, the person suffering from Achluophobia usually imagines monsters and evil things trying to harm him as soon as he stays in a dark place. The Achluophobia may impact his life to an extent that he may not sleep until the lights are turned on.(he may also switch on the television in addition to lights) .

what causes fear of darkness (Achluophobia)

Usually phobias are caused by experiencing an emotional trauma associated with the feared situation, for example in the case of Achluophobia in case someone freighted you while being in a dark place (while being a small child) Achluophobia may develop.

how to treat fear of darkness (Achluophobia)

Achluophobia is an irrational fear, after all there nothing to be feared out there, but what makes the idea of being harmed stays in the mind is that the person rarely tests the idea, he just escapes the situation and so the irrational idea remains there.

In order to deal with those irrational ideas a good choice would be exposure therapy (where you will get exposed to darkness unill you discover that there is nothing to be afriad of in there).

If you are too fearful to get directly exposed to the feared situation then systematic desensitization could be used. systematic desensitization is a method of therapy that is helpful in treating anxiety and phobias while not involving sudden direct exposure like the exposure therapy ,in systematic desensitization the fearful situation is divided into levels and each level is experienced alone until you can be relaxed while facing it , if that succeeds you should then move onto the next level and do the same until you end up relaxed in the whole situation.

Finally cognitive behaviour therapy can be used to alter your thoughts and irrational ideas, and since your thoughts are the main cause for your emotions therefore changing the thoughts would prevent the emotions from being triggered.

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Did that help?

well the problem is that i fear ghosts

Yes but tell me more about exposure therapy

Yes but tell me about systematic desensitization

Yes but tell me more about cognitive behaviour therapy