When I was a little boy... I was afraid of the dark. Not the paralyzed utter fear... but the I KNOW I'm about to stick my hands into really hot water if I ...'walk into this dark room' kind of groundless phantom fear. My sister was worse {fear of the dark would paralyze her} and because I loved... and still do love my sister I put on a brave face for her telling her...
"looks sis'.. there is nothing in the darkness other than a lack of light that can hurt you! The darkness does not change the reality of the room you know in the light, there are no monsters that suddenly appear simply because its dark!"But it was all a sham to protect her as I never liked to see her scared or frightened. I was her brother her protector - her hero... so I said one thing... but in truth... I was also scared of the dark.
When your a kid ... so many things are frightening... it was the late 70's and such things as the glowing single eyed teleporting tentacle monster from Space: 1999 Utterly terrified me. Not to mention the suspenseful horror of Ridley Scott's - Alien Movie and the proto-cthulhuian grotesqueness of Clive Barker's remake - The Thing {movies thankfully my parents were wise enough NOT to let me see}. However, the available media [starlog, fangoria etc...} made scenes from such movies available to a young very bright scifi-fan kid like me; so though I may not have actually watched the movies {at that time} the imagery only added fuel to the fire of my phantoms fears of the dark. I would spend hours in bed at night tossing and turning unable to close my eyes because of fear of what might be in the darkness and come for me with my eyes closed.
But one evening I was laying in bed wanting to sleep and tired but too scared to close my eyes; and I grew angry! Angry at the darkness for frightening me so and ... probably even more so at myself for being afraid of what reason told me were groundless phantom fears. I grew real angry and decided... I was tired of being afraid. I was only 9 or so years old... but I got out of bed left my bunk-bed where my sister slept on the bottom bunk {cause she was afraid of the height of the bunk-bed}, walked down the hallway of our 'ranch-style' home large living room and went to the center of the vast room {at least to me as a small kid}... and sat in the darkness in the center of the pitched black room {mom had these real thick velvet green drapes in the living room and the kitchen door was closed - so no light came into the room from outside with the light outs} DAREING whatever was in the dark to come for me! I was going to face it, beat it or die!
It seems so funny now thinking back on it now... I came to think of it as incredibly brave for a kid to do such a thing but it worked, I was utterly horrified but as the time passed nothing happened {of course} and the grip the phantom fear had on me was broken... I was still afraid but reason could fight it and win now! Eventually the fear lessened to the point I could recognize it when faced with the dark unknown... but push it aside feeling only a mild discomfort of being in the dark and act without fear. In life I turned to facing all things the same way as I faced that fear of the dark as a child... head on... and I do so without flinching.
I know it was a much lamented movie for many reasons.. but Cypher Rage of After Earth put it well... "Danger is quite real... but fear is all in the mind. It does not exist.. it is not real."
A better scifi movie and much better book - Dune, "Fear is the mind killer, I will let it flow over and under and through me. I will face my fears."
And in final a rather obscure scifi reference - The Chtorr series, A Season for Slaughter, {paraphrasing here}, "Fear is a mode of mind. A emotional program your mind runs but it does not control you. You choose what mode of mind you wish to run. Change the mode you set your mind to and you can respond to any situation in the best mode that serves YOUR purposes... but YOU choose that mode. It is your response. Your brain is the computer run the mode that serves you the best!"
So indeed phantom fear is hard to over come... but it is NOT impossible.
Way to go Maytag... you rock!