Alone in a dark bathroom...
 

I'm new around here, so I don't know if you guys have ever talked about this before, but it's something that's bothered me for years. I cannot be in a bathroom with the lights off. It doesn't matter what the reason is. If the room is not well lit, I panic. I get this creepy feeling that just drives me to get the hell outta there as fast as I can. I think it all goes back to when I was told about Bloody Mary as a kid, but I remember that even before that I'd go nuts if the lights went out for whatever reason. Any thoughts/ experiences?

Yep, sounds like it, just have to conquer your fear of it, I've got a few I aint conquered yet.. lol.. problem with me is that if I see a movie I take it to heard.. like the candy man one.. call me stupid if you wish..

I think Demons profit on this, and when they know that you're in a situation where you can be easily attacked they do so..

I think it has to do with having a mirror facing you in the dark, the curtain on the bathtub perhaps hiding something, and the usually chilly air. After I've seen a spooky movie or read a ghost story, I have to have the curtain pulled back before I can have some piece of mind.

I gotta have the light on so I don't piss on the floor

I always think theres something behind the curtians it creeps me out. Especially when its late and dark. Then i look in the mirror and scare myself.

gradual testing and acceptance

let a little light in so u are comfortable and gradually make it darker.

you can try to over come it but it will be hard

Also, when you're doing your business you often feel extremely vulnerable, it's not something that you can comfortable just stop and run from. Staring into the mirror in the dark is creepy, your face looks weird if you stare at it long enough in the light, but in the dark all kinds of weird things happen.

I've had these problems, especially the "behind the curtain one". I make myself push it back or look behind it, now they don't bother me as much. Same for "stuff in closet" when I was little.

can't you just listen for the water sound?

Well if his aim's off in the first place, it'll be much too late by the time he hears anything.

I usually get the feeling that an immense tentacle will wind through the pipes and eat my bits an pieces. This is why men pee standing up. Sitting is too vulnerable.

I can't stand mirrors in the dark. I used to just close my eyes when going to the bathroom in the dark just so I wouldn't have to look in the mirror (which spans the entire length of the bathroom). Bathroom curtains can be spooky, but I don't have a fear of it that affects me. But to add to the creep factor.... My mother's friend came home one night to change clothes/bathroom break/get something for another party or some such (story from a long time ago, details are vague) and then left. When she came back home, she found out someone had broken in before she came home and was likely still there until she left. Turned out that the person was most likely hiding in her tub. I think this was based on what the cops told her. Kooky, eh?

to take the mirror in the dark thing one step further - try holdinga candle about 5 inches away from your face, and then having the candle about a foot away from the mirror - stare into your eyes for a couple minutes - this is one of my first experiences with true horror when i was younger

what happened??


I'll never make a good scryer, that's for sure.

Was always curious if I was the only one with this fear. I can stay in a bathroom dark, as long as I dont look at the mirror. Damn scary movies.

ya but i live in the dorms and in our bathroom the pipes make loud noises with no warning. so its all nice and lit then when i flush it makes lots of noise then i open the door and the pipes make noise so i wash my hands real quick then run down the darkened hall way to my room... and hide under the covers

Hell I like dark bathrooms, I turn off the lights and just stay there. Gives me a good feeling. Like I'm at peace.

Heh, I also live in a dorm, so the bathroom lights are always on. In a way, im glad. But our second toilet explodes when you flush it, spitting water all over. Its fun not telling friends that come visit, as they walk in with a glare and wet leg =)

as far back as i can remember i have always thought that some wher out ther ther wuz someone watching me from the other side of the mirror

I work in a large office building in New York. When the blackout happened, we were about to be evacuated, so we took the opportunity to use the bathroom, as it might be our last chance for the day.

As you can imagine, the office was dark, the hallway was dark, and of course the bathroom was dark. So dark in fact, that you had to guide yourself by instinct alone (I wouldn't use touch in this situation :D). It wasn't really "horror movie scary", but just a wee bit "september 11th scary". It was an interesting experience... :D

I've heard about that Bloody Mary story and to this day I would still never take the chance of trying it out... You won't catch me standing in the dark in front of a mirror at midnight and saying her name. For the most part im ok with being in the bathroom in the dark... as long as I don't think about that story!

Day, I so did that with my friends. Man that was freaky. Being like 7 spinning and chanting bloody mary. :D

It's definitely good to know I'm not the only one freaked out by dark bathrooms! ^_^ For just about as long as I can remember i've always been creeped out by small dark enclosed areas. Horror movies don't make that much difference to me, although after reading It by stephen King I couldn't go into the bathroom without keeping one eye on the drains... :P

Munku... that's crazy that you had the courage to do that... so tell me.. did anything creepy happen?

Yah! My friend, little 7 year old girl or so, I went RAAAAAHHHH and she was real scared. So that's about it.

lol, I mean in my head I knowww that nothing can really happen... but just i could still never get myself to do it

When I was a kid, I sort of had a deal set up with the monsters. If I was in the bathroom in the darkness for more than 5 seconds, they could have me.

I knew those monsters were in my head, but I was freaked out anyway. Damn scary books.

When in a public restroom, and some lone soul is in the stall, be sure to switch the lights off on the way out. sk

:) i wait until my friends at work sit for a spell.. :) i carry a flashlight now.. .

The dark part doesn't scare me at all but the whole idea of "something behind the shower curtain" freaks me out! Yes...I'd even go so far as to peek behind it just to make sure (I think this all goes back to watching the Shining somehow!!). Now I have a see-through shower curtain! :p

dark bathrooms don't freak me out that badly... not to say that i'm going to turn the lights off intentionally to piss or anything...

there are sometimes when i get scared...mostly from my over-active imagination..

but thats rare...

At the house I lived in when I was younger, the bathroom there freaked me out, with the lights on or off... but that doesn't happen where I am now. Do you think it's it the Mirror? Behind the shower curtain?

I hate dark bathrooms...I always sleep with the TV on in my room too. Yeah I just don't like the whole darkness and aloneness feeling...It's that wierd vibe you get with just the ambiance of the night wind blowing and a lone cricket chirping, you can see shadows moving and in your mind your trying to say to yourself there's nothing there, it can't hurt me! And you know that in the back of your mind your being devoured by countless demons lurking in the shadows just waiting for you to be alone in the dark...

I remember seeing "jaws' when I was a kid... I would not use the toilet for days as we were living metres from the beach at the time. Hey, I was 7!!!

These days, my bathroom phobias are in line with that posted by 'Flesh'. Just because you think it's pointing that way, don't mean that it is! The sound of wee hitting the floor (or worse, your magazine collection!!!) is more disturbing than scary curtains!

Does that happen in any other room also?

I am the biggest scaredy cat ever....I am 24 and still afraid of the dark....if I am alone, or have seen a scary movie, I have to have a night light...but the one thing that really upsets me, is being outside in the dark...not even alone, just outside, I keep thinking there is an axe murder in the woods...I have to run to the bathroom when I go camping,and check all the stalls of course! Someone might be hiding in there.

I get paranoid when I'm awake late at night and no one else is awake and when I close the lights downstairs and start climbing the stairs to my bedroom I always get the feeling that someone is climbing behind me and I start climbing as fast as I can and I'd dare not look back!
This happens EVERY time when I'm the only one up late at night.

I appeared in the mirror. I shoulda brought a camcorder... joesmith screamed like a little girl!

I dunno, I've always worked my bodily functions into the escape plan in such situations. Anyone that jumps me while I'm taking a leak better expect a spray of piss in the face before I take off running in the other direction.

What a great thread! I no longer feel so alone in the world... other people share my fear of bathrooms. :) Actually, for me it's not so much the dark bathrooms, but going to the bathroom *at night* (even if the light's on). I don't like being on one side of any curtain, but I get most scared when I can't see the whole bathroom. So if I'm taking a shower, I get paranoid about what's going on *outside* the curtains (when I was a kid, I would force one of my parents to sit in the bathroom while I showered, or I'd even bring the cat in if they weren't available!).

And if I'm washing my face over the sink, I get scared the instant I close my eyes and have to keep them closed until all the soap is gone... meanwhile, in my head there are axe murderers, ghosts, what have you, all creeping up on me while I'm washing my face. Things got really bad when my grandmother died last November... I imagined her walking silently all over my apartment, especially when I was in the shower or washing my face. It took me a while to break myself of that fear.

I don't know where this fear of bathrooms came from, for me. I mean, I grew up watching horror flicks (thanks, Dad)... but I don't remember any particular bathroom scenes creeping me out. Maybe there's just something about the coldness of the bathroom facilities... so much chilled white porcelain, no carpet, etc. Dunno.

Scared of the dark? Check.
Scary looking? Check.
Aversion for mirrors in general? Check.
Fear of shit hiding behind curtains? Check.

Yea, dark bathrooms scare the everliving bijeezus outta me. Even reading this thread gave me chills. Still have 'em, matter-of-fact.

Try taking a shower in the dark. With your eyes closed. It's intense ;)

Aw man, those curtains!...When I was a kid living in Ohio, my basement a was a big grayish yellow room..
When you walked down the wooden steps, and looked to the left, close to the wall you'd see a curtain strectching across the whole width of the room. And I remember, behind the plastic dirty yellow curtain were some home appliances (big freezer, washing machine, etc.)..they buzzed a low, irregular hum. Extremely creepy.
I remember being locked in there once as a prank by my older sister and being terrified, because she had truned off the lights... I couldn't move, but the humming sound seemed to get louder and louder, and closer.
That fucking curtain.
Now it's fine though. I dont have many fears, in the dark.

The shower curtain has never bothered me. It never even occured to me to feel anxious about what is behind it. As for the mirror - yet that does bother me. I have only one small mirror in my bedroom and that has only bee recently. For the past few years I've not had a mirror in my bedroom at all.

What DOES freak me about the bathroom at TIMES is a fear of the toilet. I had recurring dreams when I was younger that I would try to get up in the night and that the floor would be covered with toilets that I had to walk along the rims to get to the bathroom but all these toilets were alive. The only one that wasn't was the one that was supposed to be in the bathroom. The toilets on the way were trying to eat me all along the way so I had to jump and run to avoid getting my ankles caught in their bowls and sucked down while the bowl chewed on my legs. Horrifying. So there are times when dreamworld hasn't completely separated from reality and I'll be sitting in the bathroom and the memory of those dreams will come back. At those times I can't get off the toilet fast enough. EEK.

oh man. The "bloody mary" story went around my daycare center when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. it found its way to school as well. the story was to turn the lights off in the bathroom, stare in the mirror, and say "I believe in Bloody Mary" 3 times in a row, and she would appear. I still don't have enough balls to do it. Maybe if someone was next to me. Simply because I know my imagination would probably end up distorting my face a little and I would freak out.

Wow, that's me to a T. When washing my face, I try to wash out the soap as fast as possible to have my eyes open. I'm extremely paranoid that somebody will be reflected in the mirror behind me when I open them. Going to the bathroom at night to get a drink of water (not from a toilet, sickos), I don't turn on the light and I have my eyes closed so that I don't see myself in the mirror.

A couple of months ago, I went on one of my usual "fill-a-water-bottle-with-tap-water-in-the-bathroom" trips and had my eyes open while filling it up. I felt something stuck in my teeth (weird since I brushed not too long before) and opened my mouth in front of the mirror to see what it was (smart, right?). I spilled my water all over the bathroom floor and my heart was racing for good 10 minutes after I saw my face with a gaping black hole in the middle of it.

I got goosebumps now. I also check the curtain everytime it's closed and have to have it open.

:lol:

I think its the movies fault. We probably would never have even considered stuff hiding and waiting to kill us if we never saw it on TV or movies.
I get freaked out sometimes too. Its that damn imagination. It starts going off on these freaky tangents and doesn't quit. I can just be sitting in my room reading, and I'll think I hear someone comming down the hall, which then leads my imagination to project all of these possibilities of what it might be. When I was little I tried counter imagining; I would imagine something else beating on whatever I was worried about. If I thought there was a demon, or some guy, leaning over me in my bed I would imagine another creature pulling it away and beating it soundly for a few minutes. Currently I've been trying the confrontation method; thorough investigation of the cause, and direct confrontation of the fear. Lao Tzu was right when he said "Conquering yourself makes you fearless."

My worst experience with this kind of thing wasn't in a bathroom, however.

I was at my parent's friend's house in Grass Valey, CA a year ago. They live pretty high up in a sparsely populated, somewhat remote, retirement community surrounded by forest. Anyway, I'd just had dinner a few hours ago and thought I'd go outside for a jog. Now, there's a private runway for the communities' pilots about 200 ft away, perpendicular(sp?) to the front of the house. So I, the genius that I am, started my jog at around 11:30 pm, and it was pitch black outside; much darker than it ever gets in a town, becuase of the remoteness. Guided by the few lights in front of the houses, and the sparse moonlight, I jogged down the runway going from one end to the other. After the third time back, I was about 400 yards away from the house, I stopped to catch my breath, when I heard that cliché branch snap nearby. I looked around but really couldn't see anything but the distant houses, and the silhouette of the forest's tree line against the stars. I heard some more quiet sounds, and this time it came from my left and right side about 20 ft. off. By then I was in that state where you're completely still, silent, and listening intently; it felt like my brain was throbbing. The thing that really started to get to me was that when I began to listen both sounds stopped completely. Dead silence. Man was it eerie! I didn't know whether my imagination was messing with me or what. After about 20 seconds of complete silence I heard a very brief growl DIRECTLY in front of me. Almost shit my pants! I made a B-line strait down that runway faster than I think I've ever ran in my life.