Confession of the week: Afraid of the dark

My confession of the week is that I am afraid of the dark. I am almost 30 years old and I am still afraid of things that go bump in the night. Granted I have seen enough scary movies to give me extra ammunition but I still feel like I should have outgrown this by now.

When I was a kid I used to get this really creepy feeling that somebody was going to get me when I went up the stairs. This usually only happened when I was the only one on the floor I was going up the stairs from. I would get this overwhelming urge to run for my life and get up those stairs before the unseen hand grabbed my leg and drug me back down. Unfortunately, I have not outgrown this. Sometimes at night when everyone is upstairs in bed and I am the last one to head up, that old creepy feeling that someone is going to get me still causes me that feeling of panic and the need to run up the stairs two at a time before that old unseen hand grabs my leg.

The funny thing about my fear of the dark is that I can't stand sleeping with lights in the room. I like enough light that if I opened my eyes I could see the crazy man about to kill me, but not so much that it is bothersome. For example, you know those little green or red lights on fire alarms, or televisions, or even air purifiers that show they are on or off. They drive me crazy. I have to put duct tape or band aids over them. My husband can't figure it out because when you close your eyes you shouldn't see them, but I KNOW they are there and it drives me crazy. I also have night lights placed in bathrooms and hallways, but they are too bright so I cover them. That way I can still see the boogeyman, but the lights are not shining through my closed eyelids.

I guess you never outgrow some things.