One thing many people probably do not know about me is that I am terrified of the dark. Ever since I can remember I have not been able to be in a dark room alone and much less go out in the dark on my own. Till this day, if my husband works over night and I stay home alone, I need to either sleep with the television on or have some sort of light coming into the room.
I blame this "phobia" on my older brother and sister. I am the youngest of three, and my brother and sister are six and seven years older than I am. When we were young, we would watch scary movies, such as the Michael Myers movies, Jason, Freddy Kruger, Children of the Corn, etc. Watching the movies would not bother me much because, at the time, my sister and I would share a room so I would feel a bit safe until she decided to get a perm done on her hair. That night, she messed with her hair until it was really big and curly and when we were falling asleep she started making noises and she turned to look at me and started choking me! She eventually let go of me and my brother came in the room laughing. After a few years of sharing a room with my sister, my parents expanded the house and I was able to get my own room. Although the renovations were not completely finished, I was able to start sleeping in my room. Big mistake! One night, I was looking in the mirror, brushing my hair and I could see the window from the mirror. All of a sudden I glanced to the window and see a shadow of a man holding something in his hand. I screamed at the top of my lungs just to find out that it was my brother trying to scare me. It worked. Both my sister and my brother tried everything to scare me, and every time they attempted to scare me, it would work.
I think the one that really did it was when I was about 10 years old, we had just finished watching "The Exorcist" and i was getting ready for bed. About 30 minutes after I laid down my bed starts shaking rapidly and I feel like I am going to go crazy. But this time, my mom walks in and sees what my brother and sister were doing. Although they got punished, it did not seem to help the situation because I was just terrified.
These are only a few things that they put me through that I have not been able to overcome. It may sound silly, especially coming from an adult, that the major fear I have is darkness. Especially because my 1 year old daughter sleeps in complete darkness and I need to have some light. But the incidents above are the reason why I am afraid of the dark. 4361