How one woman overcame her fear of the dark

Things are supposed to go bump in the night on Hallow'een — but what if you are afraid of the dark, and lockdown means you are forced to live alone?

"Everything I do is tainted, ruined by the oily, sticky acidity of my fear." Picture: iStock

Growing up in overcrowded homes and shared bedrooms (one perk of Catholic Ireland and large families) only to graduate to overcrowded houseshares and a rotation of omnipresent housemates (one perk of the Irish housing crisis) means I’ve somehow managed to spend my entire adult life artfully avoiding the fact that I am terrified of the dark.

Isolating in rural French countryside, in a forsaken studio with doors that don’t lock, shutters that don’t shut, and curtains that don’t close, I am truly alone with this fear for the first time as, without the gimmicks of modern living and light pollution to distract me, I am forced to battle night after night with unbroken darkness and unrelenting quiet.