Have you heard of Nyctophobia, a severe fear of the dark? A phobia that claims to be rooted in the brain’s disfigured perception of the unknown. Treatment for such a condition includes counseling, deep breathing relaxation techniques, desensitization to the dark in small doses and medication for anxiety and depression.
This phobia is researched and treated from a Reductionist Mindset that believes the brain is a hard-wired machine, unable to adapt and wears out with age. This mindset is ultimately saying that you are at the mercy of your brain, an organ, without considering your experience. Approaching mental struggles in this manner is dangerous because it is focused on a biological cause rather than the context of the individual’s experience.
Is it really the darkness that we are afraid of or is it more a fear of what is hiding in the dark? After all, the dark is most commonly associated with danger. Danger of the unknown leaves us vulnerable and when we are vulnerable, we are prone to make stuff up and believe it is real.
Now who is to blame for believing tales made up in the dark?
If you believe your brain is at fault, let me ask you this, “Can you surgically remove your brain and read the thoughts within?”
Of course not! Your thoughts are immaterial and cannot be treated biologically. You cannot treat your thought life as you treat any other organ or function within your body.
If your thoughts cannot be treated bio-medically, what then? You go to the One who designed your mind, the immaterial part of your existence. In Him you find the roadmap that leads to truth and healing.
“Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.”
Expose The Lies
The immaterial part of you influences the material, not the other way around. What is conceived in the mind must be dealt with by exposing the lie that lives in the dark where it breeds fear, anxiety and depression. Medicating the lie does not take it away, it only suppresses it.
If you struggle with them does not mean you are diseased or damaged as the term “Mental Illness” suggests. It can mean you were led to believe you are diseased or damaged and have given in to hiding with the stigma such a diagnosis brings.
Answers are found when the light pierces through the darkness to expose the lies. Let’s start by exposing the first lie with truth. Your brain has renewable characteristics. It is adaptable, able to change and be renewed.
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Romans 12:2 NIV
