No, I don’t think that blind people are afraid of the dark. Instead, I’m wondering if there is an analog to the fear of darkness in blind people. I am assuming that the fear of the dark derives from the fear of lack of sensory perception. Since the vast majority of the information we receive about the world around us comes from sight (for sighted individuals), having one’s sight compromised is to suddenly lose almost all of the information about our surroundings.
So here’s my question. Since the blind tend to make more use of their sense of hearing, can a sudden loss of hearing – due to something like wax buildup or something-- cause the same type of anxiety that sighted people normally experience in darkness?
And while I’m on the subject, if someone who is normally afraid of the dark loses their sight suddenly, will their state of blindness invoke that same fear?
Well, I just called a friend of mine, who has been completely blind since birth, and posed this query to him. It seems that there are things that are analogous to a sighted person’s fear of the dark. Fear of sound deprivation is one thing. He was talking about how, in public school, he took piano lessons; there were sound-proof booths for them to practice in. If he sat in one, not playing the piano, for several minutes, he would begin wigging out and having auditory hallucinations. Also, he has a fear of unknown heights. For instance, if he is in a two-story building where the second story is “open”, suspended above the first story (a mall is the example he used), he can hear what’s going on in the story below, but has no real comprehension of just how far below those people are, and it’s kinda freaky. The other thing he said is, if he’s out with friends in an unfamiliar place, and the friends just stand him in one place and say “Wait here. We’ll be right back”, that’s scary, because he doesn’t know where “right here” is, or what his options would be if his friends didn’t come back.
I’m not sure this belongs in General Questions. Seems more like IMHO to me, but I’ll let the mods decide that, of course. Anyway, I hope this helps.
Wow, talk about service! I knew there was a reason that people come here for answers
Well, I would imagine that this is a pretty factual question. If asked, I could distill my post down to “Does lack of auditory input invoke in the blind fear that is analogous to the fear of the dark in sighted people.”
I appreciate the info. That was actually a much more detailed response than I expected, which is always a good thing ;).
Being sighted myself, it’s difficult to imagine how certain things would be perceived differently without the benefit of vision. For instance, I never would have thought of the inability to judge vertical distances as being significant.
