overcome my fear of the dark

I am 21 years old and absolutely terrified of the dark. I can remember as a kid being afraid of walking outside alone at night or walking into a dark bedroom, but I also loved scary movies and watched them like nothing. Now, Im a grown adult, and I have learned not to dare watch a scary movie or I’ll never go to sleep. I live by myself in a big city and a not so safe neighborhood. I am completely fine during the day, I don’t even think twice about where I am or where I’m going. But it’s like clock-work, Im sitting in my living room after work, as it starts to get later, the room gets a little darker and boom, instant anxiety, paranoia and fear. I am terrified to walk into my bedroom, the bathroom, anywhere! My heart starts racing, I look at every inch of the apartment and the walls, even up to the ceiling. I hear every single creek if there is one, and every single shadow or alot of times I see something out of the corner of my eyes and nothing is there! I now leave the hallway light on for some comfort. I just want this fear to go away. Im not quite sure what Im afraid of. Its a mix of the unknown, mean people, a killer, a rapist, someone I inadvertantly pissed off, or someone trying to rob me. It’s a horrible thing to live with every single night, and it’s not just an inconvenience. Several nights I have been so terrified that I stayed up the entire night and not gone to bed until the next night, or I have even stayed up until dawn when the sky lights up and then allowed myself to get an hour or so of sleep before my day started. Im glad I have other people that are going through this with me, but I just don’t understand this. I think Im a pretty normal person with this one exception. If you can help me with some advice or anything, please do. Im just ready for this to be over.

the only horror film I have ever watched in my life.

aaaannd I was so freaked out that every time I was in the dark I thought creepy little girls were gonna attack me and mutilate my face.

After moving out of my family’s dark, two story home and into an apartment I feel way better in the dark! It seems like as soon as I moved my fear just disappeared. Who knows, maybe there were evil spirits on the other house?! I still sometimes am a little frightned (like after watcheing a kind of scary movie) but I think that is the same for all of us.

Fear of the dark was a consuming struggle that I thought would never end. But one night, with my bathroom light on as usual, and I was depressed by the thought that I would never get over this fear. So I adopted a mantra – “Now or never.” I made myself turn off all of the lights and every time I wanted to freak out and turn them on again I told myself “Now or never.” That was a few months back, and I havn’t slept with the lights on since!