Who Diagnoses Nyctophilia?

by Dr. Lorin Bradbury

Someone responded to my last article on Nyctophilia with the following question:

Question: I think I have those symptoms, because I like sitting in the dark and I find a dark room or night view really comforting to me. Also, I find that light or daylight hurts my eyes. How do I confirm or rule out having Nyctophilia?

Answer: Before I attempt to answer this question, I find it interesting that this is the third time in the past two months that questions pertaining to Nyctophilia have been sent to the Delta Discovery and forwarded to me. Two of these requests have come from outside the United States, given the phone numbers attached to the questions. It gives some indication of the range of readership of the Delta Discovery.

Let me begin by clearly stating that diagnosing and treating Nyctophilia is outside my scope of practice. I believe you could begin by visiting your medical doctor to rule out any underlying medical conditions. If there are no underlying medical conditions present, your physician could refer you to a specialist, or you could contact mental health practitioners in your area. Before you spend a lot of money going from one practitioner to another, I would ask around for someone who specializes in this condition.

Lorin L. Bradbury, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Bethel. For appointments, he can be reached at 543-3266. If you have questions that you would like Dr. Bradbury to answer in the Delta Discovery, please send them to The Delta Discovery, P.O. Box 1028, Bethel, AK 99559, or e-mail them to [email protected].

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