[Closed] Are you scared of the dark?

What can hide in a cupboard and kill you?

A suicide doner.

I'm using the definition "manifesting behavior that is habitual, maladaptive, and compulsive"

Well if you want definitions. A phobia is an unrealistic fear of something that generally will cause no harm.

If this was America we could own all manner of weaponry incase anyone came into the house.

My biggest fear would be having to store, look after and worry about said-firearms accidently discharging.

Meanwhile in 'merica they'd be drinking cans of bud and shooting targets for youtube viewing..

because our primary sense is our eyes, and that the predator that probably evolved to hunt Australopithecus anamensis probably (like a lot of predatory cats) had great night vision means that our amygdela reminds us that the dark is not a place to linger.

Or

We predominately choose to live largely indoors in the current world, our early brain wiring, plus societal group memory of horror films and childhood stories probably make people uneasy about being in in a (largely for them) alien environment

Pick one

Night ride on my own a fair bit and quite often stop and turn my lights off for a bit just to see how dark the woods get

I like to stand on the Chase on a dark cold, wet night, look at the soft glow of Stafford and listen to the racket coming from Rugeley

Have never had a problem with the dark although I prefer full sun and +30 degrees

Pook remember Snowdon- walking back to the digs in the pitch black and I legged it ahead. I was trying to set up an ambushpoint to get you but you buggers caught up before I could 😀

So you're saying it is a phobia Drac? I just asked a psychologist and they agreed with my definition that it's only becomes a phobia when it becomes a real problem.

NickC - I grew up watching horror from a very early age. No horrors scare me anymore.
I also spend more time than most outdoors and have quite a well developed night vision. I live in a very quiet rural location with country side to each direction and no outdoor lighting.

Don't really mind it tbh...commute in it a lot.

Nicer in the sticks than in the towns thou - less knobbers around.

My m8s a pain in it, sneaks up stealthly behind and slows me down by grabbing my courior bag.

[i]I also spend more time than most outdoors and have quite a well developed night vision.[/i]

In comparison to predators evolved to hunt in the dark you're practically blind. 😉

Read some of Halbwachs theories regarding group memory.

uponthedowns - Member
Its probably hard wired into us because lots of predators in Africa come out to play at night.

I also on occasion in the woods normally get the irrational fear of being stalked and up the pace a bit, it's dark you can't see properly.. that's all.

I just asked a psychologist and they agreed with my definition that it's only becomes a phobia when it becomes a real problem.

Well that's because you're talking to a Psychologist. Does a phobia have to be at the extent that it causes you huge anxiety and panic or can it be irrational to afraid of something without being at that level.

A phobia is an irrational fear of something. A clinical phobia is when it reaches levels you go into blind panic over it.

Butcher summed it up for me early on. I'm not scared of the dark, but it makes me cautious.

Phobia

NOUN

An extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something:

So it seems, you, I and psychologists are all correct Drac.

I still wouldn't ever describe most people who admit to being scared of the dark as having a phobia myself.

Hmmm ....

On a caravanning holiday in France one year when i was a kid - early teenage i'd say. We took a wrong turn one night and ended up down this dead end road in the pitch black in the middle of a huge southern french thunderstorm. The road was too narrow to back the car and van together, so my Dad and i unhitched the van and turned it round manually and then pulled it over to the edge of the road so we could 3 point turn the car, and then squeeze it past to rehitch and go back the way we came. No great dramas, except the road one side seemed to have a biggish drop on it, but it was so dark and the rain so heavy we couldn't really see what it was.

On arriving at the overnight stop we got the map out and retraced our steps. We'd had the back of the van swung over the edge of a dam/reservoir thing. Not a big one, but if we hadn't had it nose weighted properly, or one of the wheels had fallen off the side, it would have been in.

Probably best not to have seen it.......

Alongtime ago but vivid- we were in the middle of nowhere near the shore/cliff edge at night/pitch black in Ibiza when we came across two girls -both stood there in the pitch black fully clothed and expressionless staring at us.

You'd think 'doity girls' or druggies but it was very very weird. Thats the only time I've been unsettled. The inky darkness hides you too. Murderers dont have superhuman vision

(unless they are Ukrainian Separatists with magically supplied night vision kit)

Any wierdos and murderers now know where you all like to go in the pitch black..

be careful out there, wierdos, you might come across some late night sketchy mamils.

🙂

Not even for a minute ?

Just knew I should of replaced the "sidewalk" before pasting it in

Damn

I don't like the dark. No good reason, don't believe in spooky stuff, don't think I'm going to get murdered etc but don't like it!

When I was young I watched the Entity. I think it's that film where the Ghost pulls the woman out of bed by her feet which are sticking out the duvet.

I'm now very scared of sleeping with my feet sticking out of the duvet.

Also, when young I used to hear voices at night, and have dreams which were real premonitions and often came true a few days later with overwhelming déjà vu - hardly happens now - but I still get nervous if I can't explain noises at night.

My local woods are Eppjng Forest, allegedly the Krays and other essex gangsters dumping ground.

Vis a vis, you won't catch me out there solo, let alone without lights.

I love the dark I'm probably not clever enough to think about all the dangers it might hide 🙂

I also like to ride solo and sit in the dark at the remotest part of my local trails and watch the owls and badgers that live near by.

I was pretty nervous riding on my own at night/dawn/dusk on back roads when I was in America, in an area that has mountain lions.

Whenever I spooked herds of deer I had that nervous 'is it me spooking them or something else' thought...

Not scared of the dark, but years ago me and a mate had a really bad experience where we tried to help somebody out, it was in the countryside and very early in the morning, and we didn't expect to meet somebody there, he was a complete nutter or high on drugs (possibly both) and it nearly ended badly. It was one of the most dangerous experience i have had. It made me very cautious and in certain situations i still am today.

For that reason i sometimes feel worried out in the countryside in the dark on my own, and i really couldn't imagine going solo night riding.

[i]What can hide in a cupboard and kill you?[/i]

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Just got back from a mainly solo night ride so no

I see more people in one night in the summer than I have ever seen in all the winter nights I have ridden.

Been spooked a few times by deer, dogs, an owl once [ that was scary] and folk [ path pitch dark no lights with them neatly hit them] but never had anything bad happen.

It is not the darkness or ghosts that you should be afraid of but rather it is the living that will scare the shite out of you.

The living can cause much more pain to you physically while the darkness or ghosts are merely there minding their won business.

The living will mind your business by sticking their noses in your affairs. They are not only bunch of busy bodies but a pain in the backside. The bureaucrat ZMs are the worst ...

😯

Just back from a mixed hike/run in the wild woods in Northern Sweden. Ok so the trails were signposted, and it's not cold or anything, but it was still a little intimidating at times.

I think my state of mind is linked to my temperature. When I was moving well and the going was good, I was warm and I felt like I owned the woods. However stop for a bit to study the map or faff with something or struggle with some deep snow, start to get a bit cold and I felt pretty damn small.

molgrips - Member

Just back from a mixed hike/run in the wild woods in Northern Sweden. Ok so the trails were signposted, and it's not cold or anything, but it was still a little intimidating at times.

Interesting. Which part of Northern Sweden as I plan to visit that place if I have time this year.

Are you allowed weapon like guns in Sweden like they do in Finland? 😆 Compact Glock is your answer there if you can.

Doubt there are baddies in Northern Sweden but perhaps wild animals and I don't shoot animals.

Having watched too many episodes of xfiles and the outer limits im not a fan of dark woods... I generally have a constant fera that somethings always near....

Doubt there are baddies in Northern Sweden but perhaps wild animals and I don't shoot animals.

Sundsvall, it's not really north geographically speaking but they all call it the north cos they are all from Stockholm. Very few animals in evidence apart from the odd hare but I was more concerned about getting lost and being out all night than anything else 🙂

Pook remember Snowdon- walking back to the digs in the pitch black and I legged it ahead. I was trying to set up an ambushpoint to get you but you buggers caught up before I could

I remember Will worrying those sheep and falling over in that field when we turned our torches off. "Guuuuuuyyyyyss..... Come on...... Where are you??? Turn your torches back on.....guuuuuyyyyysssss"

Ah yes potty-mouth Will

Wow! Iron Maiden truly are awful aren't they? (I'd completely forgotten)