Fear of being alone in a house

[seadogg]

Recently there was a programme about William Golding, who wrote "Lord of the Flies".

Apparently he was terrified of being alone in the house, fearing to find evil spirits and monsters behind every door. Does anyone know about this phobia or possibly have experience of it?

[DTCwordfan]

http://common-phobias.com/Daemono/index.htm

Daemonophobia is the name for this, seadogg.....the attached has some info

[Prudie]

Until my late 20s I was too scared to sleep in a house alone, I had to stay with friends or family if the need arose. Never thought of it as a phobia though.

[seadogg]

Thanks DT. Most enlightening. Guess in Golding's case it may not be possible to trace it to a traumatic event although he certainly had imagination in spades!

[erin-x]

I'm scared of our kitchen... I never go in it alone. It sounds really stupid but I feel like someone is watching me and get a horrible feeling in my chest. My mum says I've always been like this but have actually improved because I used to be scared of the downstairs toilet as well!

[sidkid]

This reminds me of the chap who spent thousands pounds on therapy to cure him of his fear of monsters under his bed. Then his mate popped round one day and sawed the legs off his bed....

[seadogg]

See your point Prudie. There are, no doubt, quite legitimate reasons for preferring to sleep in a house with companions.

One reason I asked this is because a neighbour lost her husband and was very concerned about living alone, not simply for practical reasons. Eventually she had an alarm which we responded to.

[Prudie]

That must have been a comfort to her seadogg, my reasons were a bit irrational, I was terrified of someone breaking in. When I first had to cope alone (after a break-up) I had to leave all the lights and the TV on. I still wouldn't want to stay anywhere remote alone.

[seadogg]

Maybe you were caught with your hand in the fridge Erin, at an early age.

Like the squashed monster scenario sidkid. Served it right lol.

[mccfluffy]

I used to have to do a running jump to ger inro bed, then tuck the duvet under me, jusr so the monsters under the bed couldn't get me. Im not so bad now but i won't let my arm or leg dangle, just in case :-)

[jno]

probably just a hangover from the days when one person needed to stay awake to watch out for sabre-toothed tigers, perhaps reinforced by any scare you might have had when young. But there are only a handful alive these days and they're all under fluff's bed.

[Brinjal]

After a nasty break in about six years ago the only way I will stay in the house alone is behind electric fence security gates full alarm system and a 7mm under my pillow

[islasmum]

I used to have to stay by myself a lot in strange houses - I used to be an Animal Aunt, taking care of peoples' animals and homes - I have a fairly vivid imagination, and there was one house in particular I would never go back to - it had a really unpleasant atmosphere, and I spent most of my time there outside with the dogs in their haybarn (they had horses as well)
and it was fairly deserted with no mobile signal around. Fortunately I only had to do one night there, and I was so glad to get back to my own lovely home, and OH. I do leave a light on at night even at home - I'm far more scared of demons etc than I am of burglars etc which I know is really silly, but my dogs would let me know if anyone broke in.