Northern lights are a phenomenon many people wait to look at the whole year. However, there are many people who cannot tolerate northern lights as they have a fear for northern lights called auroraphobia.

Aurora Borealis, or northern lights are a beautiful spectacle that many people love looking at during the clear winter lights. These northern lights resemble silent fireworks that assume variety of shapes and colors. However, this beautiful spectacle cannot be admired by everyone as there are some people who have a persistent and unwanted fear of northern lights. This condition of a fear for northern lights is called auroraphobia.

A person suffering from auroraphobia generally gets panic attacks when they see northern lights. These panic attacks give different symptoms to different people like sweating, shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat and a feeling of dread. Such people are sure to feel uncomfortable to come out on clear winter nights for fear of getting to see northern lights.

With this, you find the person becoming a loner in winter where there are some difficulties they face in their social life. They will not be able to enjoy winter as all their friends and relatives do. However, victims of auroraphobia need not worry much as auroraphobia is basically a curable condition. It can be cured using drugs or psychology.

There are many drugs found in the drug market that claim to help cure auroraphobia. However, this is not a wise option as it is very much possible that these drugs give side effects when the drugs are stopped. Moreover, the relief that these drugs provide the victim from auroraphobia is temporary and is mainly because of the chemical reaction of the drug in the body of the victim. On discontinuing the drugs, the victim is also very likely to suffer from withdrawal symptoms of the drugs.

There is a therapy where the patient is forcibly made to stand in the winter night, looking at northern lights with the intention of eradicating auroraphobia. According to the theory, repeated exposure to the thing that gives them the fear, like northern lights in this case, leads to the person gaining confidence. However, this is not true as this repeated exposure generally increases the patient's fear for northern lights, with more intense panic attacks.

The best treatment option today is to visit a phobia clinic or a psychologist where the patient is taught to eliminate the fear that starts auroraphobia. Once the trigger point of auroraphobia is eradicated, the patient is sure to be cured from auroraphobia. The usual trigger point for auroraphobia is an event that may have occurred a long time back, under northern lights.

The patient may have seen a fire, murder, rape or any negative scenes years ago during the northern lights. And this is what triggers auroraphobia. Once they see northern lights, the patient is reminded of that faithful night. And so to forget those thoughts, these patients consider it better to completely avoid northern lights; and with this, auroraphobia develops in the mind of the patient.

So auroraphobia has to be eliminated by counseling the patient that the night has to be forgotten as it is a thing of the past, and that the today and future holds more for the patient. Once this thought is imbibed in the mind of the patient, it is easy to eliminate auroraphobia.

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