How to be less afraid of the dark?

[Corbdee]

I skipped a lot (most posts) but what helps me is thinking “just pretend it’s light outside”. It’s a psychological fact that everything appears worse at night, even though it’s really not. Also if your chickens know when to go into the coop, I suggest an automatic coop door would be a perfect option. I like the idea a bunch of people had of a motion detector flood light. Also the music sounds like a great idea too.

 

[Corbdee]

x2

Actually that is a good point

 

[Corbdee]

And if your parents are tired of standing on the porch, you could always just ask them to leave their window open while you’re out there

 

[Corbdee]

Oh nvm

 

[Corbdee]

Sorry. I didn’t see that someone already recommended the door, and that you said no

 

[Corbdee]

But the good thing is, spring is almost here, and the days will start to get long again soon!

 

[aart]

I'm not keen on earbuds in an situation like this, just because they take one of my danger scan senses off line.

x3

 

[ackie]

I havent read back since last night but I'm a big proponent of mental health and tricks to get your brain to cooperate. If that's not your jam, feel free to skip.

First off, if you have internalized the idea that you being scared is unreasonable and are beating yourself up about it or feeling mad at yours or ashamed or anything, that's another layer of icky you have to deal with on top of the actual fear. As many people here said, being afraid of the dark IS a common reasonable thing. You arent weird or broken. Your apprehension would probably have been a sought after characteristic in evolution when people who went out in the dark DID get mauled by night predators. You would have stayed home and lived. Having leftover instincts from eons ago isnt unreasonable. Look at chickens - some breeds have a lot of predator awareness still and some have adapted to being house pets. While the predator awareness seems unreasonable if they live in a fort Knox coop, it's totally reasonable and sought after in free range birds.

So forgive yourself for being afraid. It's okay and natural.

I have a lot more to say but I gotta go for an hour aha. BRB.

 

[black_cat]

Your apprehension would probably have been a sought after characteristic in evolution when people who went out in the dark DID get mauled by night predators.

(my friend saw your post on my screen and says that the dog in your avatar is very cute) (figured i should share)
Not gonna lie, thinking 'if we still had natural selection I would live longer' does make me feel a bit better.

 

[ButtonHoarder]

I'd like to take up boxing (even before this became an issue) but I"m not comfortable going to a gym because of COVID.

I was taking maui thi kickboxing for a while, In the before. It was really fun, hard but fun. You could see if you could take online classes, or watch some youtube videos on self-defense