To the OP -
I have had a fear of the dark since I was a kid, though not quite as extreme as yours, it sounds like. When I had to turn off the lights in the basement to go upstairs, I would run as fast as I could to the top, then turn around and see if anything was going to follow me. I could always imagine some horrific thing coming out of the gloom and rushing at me, and it made me so scared, I was nearly paralyzed! As I've grown, I've forced myself to do things like walk up the stairs, not run, and to
not turn around and look, no matter how terrifying that is. I figure that if I don't acknowledge those things, they'll have to go away, and the more times I walk away from the dark without anything happening, the more it proves to me that I'm right. I also try to keep in mind that if anyone/anything
did try to get me, I'd give them one bleepity of a fight, lol.
Maybe you could try to work on your breathing when you are scared? That helps me. I focus on keeping my breathing steady and normal, and I tell myself that I am tougher than whatever is around me. I try to move and act confident, so that if I was being watched, I wouldn't look scared. Fake it til you make it.
That doesn't mean that I don't still get the daylights scared out of me once in a while, though. And it's always when I'm talking myself up about how tough I am, and then the dog noses my hand and I jump out of my skin, hahaha
Quote: This is good advice; thanks. I am slowly--sorta--getting better.
