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

We explain the characteristics, symptoms and causes of this rare phobia.

The world of psychopathology is a complex world, and there are many disorders that can be experienced by humans.. Personality disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders... the latter are among the most frequent reasons for psychological consultation.

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

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.

What is chromophobia

Phobias are irrational and persistent fears 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.

Phobic disorders are included within anxiety disorders, and there are different types as we explained in our article "Types of phobias: exploring fear disorders". These pathologies are classified as complex phobias and simple phobias. Within the former we find 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 characterized by an irrational fear of colors.. It varies from person to person, as each individual feels great discomfort in the presence of a particular color or several of them, to the point where visualizing that color in question makes them feel intense discomfort.

The most common types of chromophobia are xanthophobia, which is an 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

Phobias develop 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.The person associates this painful event with a stimulus that was originally neutral, which ends up provoking the same response that provoked 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 color fear

But phobias can be caused in different ways. Another type of learning that is linked to the development of phobias is vicarious conditioning. That is, the person does not need to experience the traumatic event on his or her 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 human beings are biologically prepared to feel fear, as it is a highly adaptive emotional one, which has served for the survival of the human species throughout the centuries. In this sense, fear originates from primitive associations in the primitive brain, and not from cognitive associations in the neocortex, which explains why phobics have serious difficulties in overcoming the disorder despite knowing that they suffer from it. Phobias do not respond to logical arguments.

Symptoms of phobias

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

These symptoms are usually classified into cognitive, behavioral and physical. Cognitive symptoms include fear, anxiety, lack of concentration or catastrophic thoughts.. As for behavioral symptoms, avoidance and escape behaviors are frequent. Avoidance refers to not exposing oneself 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. Physical symptoms are varied, hyperventilation, hypersweating, headache, nausea, among other symptoms.

Treatment and therapy

Although phobias are common disorders, the prognosis for recovery is very positive. Many researches have been carried out to find out which 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 at modifying those habits, behaviors and thoughts that lead a person to suffer from that lead a person to suffer from a mental disorder. For this purpose, 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 systematic desensitization, which combines the two previous ones and consists of exposing the patient to the feared stimulus gradually. The patient also learns different coping strategies that help him/her not to avoid or escape from the feared stimulus.

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

You can learn more in our articles:

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

Bibliographical references:

• E. B., Foa; Blau, J. S., Prout, M., & Latimer, P. (1977). Is horror a necessary component of flooding (implosion)?. Behaviour Research and Therapy (15).
• Nardone, Giorgio. (1997). Miedo, pánico, fobias: la terapia breve Barcelona: Empresa Editorial Herder S.A.