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Fear of colors (chromophobia): causes, symptoms and treatment

Fear of colors (chromophobia): causes, symptoms and treatment

March 6, 2024

The world of psychopathology is a complex world, and there are many disorders that human beings can experience . Disorders of personality, mood, anxiety ... the latter are some of the most frequent reasons for psychological consultation.

Among the different types of anxiety disorders stand out phobias, which are irrational fears that cause great discomfort and can seriously affect the life of the person who suffers.

In this article we will talk about a curious but rare phobia: agoraphobia or fear of colors (chromophobia). In the following lines we explain its causes, symptoms and treatment.

  • Related article: "The 15 purest phobias that exist"

What is chromophobia

Phobias are irrational and persistent fears that are characterized by an anxious symptomatology that leads the person to experience the need to avoid the feared stimulus or escape from it. Phobias cause great discomfort, and can negatively affect the life of the person suffering from this condition.


The phobic disorders are included within the anxiety disorders, and there are different types as we explain in our article "Types of phobias: exploring the disorders of fear". These pathologies are classified as complex phobias and simple phobias. Among the first are social phobias and agoraphobia, and simple phobias are called specific phobias, in which the phobic stimulus is an object, situation or animal.

Chromophobia or fear of colors is a specific phobia that is characterized because the person who suffers it feels an irrational fear of colors . Varies from person to person, because each individual feels a great discomfort in the presence of a particular color or several of them, to the point that visualizing that color in question makes them feel an intense discomfort.


The most frequent types of chromophobia are usually xanophobia, which is irrational fear of the color yellow, or melanophobia or irrational fear of the color black. In many cases, superstitious ideas may be behind this phobia.

Causes

The phobias are developed by learning, specifically by a type of associative learning called classical conditioning, initially investigated by Ivan Pavlov and popularized by John Watson, an American psychologist. This occurs after a traumatic experience, and the person associates this painful event with a stimulus that was originally neutral , which ends up provoking the same response that caused the traumatic event. That is, extreme fear.

  • If you want to know more about this type of learning, you can read our article "Classical conditioning and its most important experiments"

Other causes of fear of colors

But phobias can originate in different ways . Another type of learning that is linked to the development of phobias is vicar conditioning. That is, the person does not need to experience the traumatic event in their own skin, but the observation of an emotionally painful situation in another person can cause an individual to develop this pathology.


Experts in phobias also argue that these disorders are common because humans are biologically prepared to feel fear, it is a highly adaptive emotional, which has served for the survival of the human species over the centuries. In this sense, fear originates by primitive associations in the primitive brain, and not by cognitive associations in the neocortex, which explains why the phobic have serious difficulties to overcome the disorder despite knowing that they suffer. Phobias do not respond to logical arguments.

Symptoms of phobias

The types of phobia vary depending on the phobic stimulus that elicits it. When we speak of arachnophobia, we are not referring to the spiders that provoke fear. In the case of aerophobia, it is the fact of flying in an airplane that causes discomfort. Now, the symptoms are common regardless of the type of phobia.

These symptoms are usually classified as cognitive, behavioral and physical. Cognitive symptoms include fear, anguish, lack of concentration or catastrophic thoughts . Regarding behavioral symptoms, avoidance and escape behaviors are frequent. Avoidance refers to not being exposed to the stimulus, which is not yet present. When we speak of escape, we refer to the fact of leaving the situation in which the stimulus is present. The physical symptoms are varied, hyperventilation, hypersudation, headache, nausea, among other symptoms.

Treatment and therapy

Although phobias are frequent disorders, the prognosis in recovery is very positive. There are many investigations that have been conducted to find out what is the best treatment in these cases.

According to scientific data, cognitive behavioral therapy seems to be the most effective. This form of therapy aims to modify those habits, behaviors and thoughts that lead a person to suffer a mental disorder. For this, different techniques are used, and for the treatment of phobias, two of the most common are relaxation techniques and exposure techniques.

However, the technique par excellence is the systematic desensitization, which combines the previous two and consists in exposing the patient to the feared stimulus in a gradual manner. The patient also learns different coping strategies that help him not to avoid or escape from the feared stimulus.

In addition to cognitive behavioral therapy, there are other types of therapy that have proven effective in the treatment of phobias. The best known are cognitive therapy based on Mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy.

You can know more in our articles:

  • Cognitive Therapy based on Mindfulness: what is it?
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): principles and characteristics

Bibliographic references:

  • E. B., Foa; Blau, J. S., Prout, M., & Latimer, P. (1977). Is horror a necessary component of flooding (implosion) ?. Behavior Research and Therapy (15).
  • Nardone, Giorgio. (1997). Fear, panic, phobias: brief therapy Barcelona: Empresa Editorial Herder S.A.

What is CHROMOPHOBIA? What does CHROMOPHOBIA mean? CHROMOPHOBIA meaning & explanation (March 2024).


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