10 year old suddenly develops fear of dark

I have a 10 year old son who over the last year has started becoming afraid of the dark. He will not go into other rooms unless he turns on every light switch he can find and opens all the shower curtains. Sometimes he insists that we go with him. He has to have a radio on when he goes to bed and wants us to leave every light on. When he does not go to sleep right away he will not stay in his room and keeps getting up and refuses to go back unless we take him. When we ask him what he is scared of, he cannot tell us anything specific. But he is definitely stressed out. Also, he has only spent the night with friends twice in the last few years. (All the other times we had to go pick him up from sleepovers)He wants to do overnight things with groups but backs out at last minute. What can we do to help him get over this. He has been sleeping in his own room since he was a baby.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Linda,

You should make an appointment for your son with a pediatric mental health/behavioral health clinician. You son likely displays separation anxiety disorder, or the nighttime symptoms can be signs of another anxiety disorder (e.g., generalized anxiety disorder).

If the symptoms were mild, I wouldn't suggest any specialized intervention, but your son's worries prevent him from participating in what are regarded as normal experiences for his age. In other words, his functioning is sufficiently impaired by the condition to warrant expert help.

These conditions are very responsive to treatment, particularly to an approach called cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT).