how can help my daughter get rid of her thunderstorm fear?

Question

My daughter has been afraid of thunderstorms since was very young, and that's normal, but she is 16 now and she is still terrified of them. She won't even stay in a room alone for a few seconds when there is a storm. I have tried to tell her that the odds of her being hurt by a storm are practically zero, but nothing works. Any ideas on how to calm her nerves during a storm?

Answer 1

At 16 you can now tell her about the science behind a thunderstorm. Honestly, if she does some research on the internet about storms, the cause and the statistics, herself, she may be able to put some logic into it. Fear is fear and difficult to overcome, no matter what but at 16 she can try to understand why she shouldn't be afraid. Also, you know how you count between thunder to determine how many miles away a storm is, is it 1 second = 1 mile? or something like that...anyway, that could REALLY help!

Answer 2

I agree have her search the Internet and study up on electricity (yeah the same stuff that runs all the gadgets in the house) and explain to her that what makes her life so comfortable also has a natural form in lightning. Like it was said fear is just that and typically fear is irrational. Not trying to be insulting, but if she has never had a close call or been struck by lightning then what "rational" reason does she have to still be afraid of it. Education is usually the best way to combat a fear like this. Like all things in life our psychological make-up has a lot to do with how we confront our fears, she is your daughter so try to figure out what triggers this fear and use her mentality to overcome it.

Answer 3

Thats the same thing with me. I'm 15. And just last night it was raining extremely hard, thundering, and lightening. I'm not too stressed about the thundering part, but I am very very very very terrified of lightening.