CHROMOFOBIA (also known as chromatophobia) (from People with the fear of colors tend to suffer Greek chroma, “color” and phobos, “fear”) from many debilitating symptoms. Often, they is the fear of colors.The worst place to be in are unable to hold down jobs or even have CHROMOFOBIA for chromophobes is Las Vegas because of steady relationships. As a result, life can CHROMOFOBIA their brightly colored lights. become miserable for them. Going outdoors Famous actor, director, musician and can become a difficult task for them, for the fear writer Billy Bob Thornton suffers from of encountering the hated colors. chromophobia, or the fear of bright colours. Symptoms and treatment Causes and effects The symptoms of effects of fear of color vary This phobia is caused by post traumatic stress from individual to individual depending on CHROMOFOBIA disorder experiences involving colors in the the level of the fear. Typical symptoms are as CHROMOFOBIA past. An event in the childhood might lead to follows: permanent emotional scars associated with * Extreme anxiety or panic attack certain colors or shades which the phobic simply * Shortness of breath- rapid and shallow breaths cannot outgrow. Events like child abuse, rape, * Profuse sweating death, accidents or violence, could all be related * Irregular heartbeat to a particular color causing the phobic to panic * Nausea or become anxious in its presence. * Dry mouth CHROMOFOBIA Another cause of the fear of colors stems from * Inability to speak or formulate coherent cultural roots. Certain cultures have significant sentences CHROMOFOBIA meanings for specific colors which can have a * Shaking, shivering, trembling CHROMOFOBIA negative connotation for the phobic. The west, for example, treats certain colors as foreign, Effective methods of treating chromophobia are superficial or corrupting. systematic desensitization, exposure therapy, Another, less common cause is hypersensitivity cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychotherapy, to particular colors.Sufferers of chromophobia counseling, and hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic may limit daily activities, leaving their lives more programming, and psychotherapy which are all CHROMOFOBIA difficult. They may want their surroundings to be proven to help overcome many different kinds of CHROMOFOBIACHROMOFOBIA free of colors as much as they can. phobias. Color therapy can also be used, ever CHROMOFOBIA independently or along with another method. In most cases, the deep fear or hatred Drugs may also be prescribed to relieve anxiety; for certain colors can stem from classical however these tend to have side effects which conditioning. There are some colors which are can be pretty debilitating. just disagreeable. Old and moldy cheese for example has a pale sickly color associated with Hypnosis – This treatment for Chromatophobia CHROMOFOBIA germs and disease, which may be associated in must be done under the guidance of a trained CHROMOFOBIA a negative manner. specialist. Using this therapy, the phobic has Heredity, brain chemistry, certain deficiencies, his/her mind opened to new suggestions. With CHROMOFOBIA existing phobias can also cause Chromatophobia. positive suggestions, the therapist instructs the phobic’s mind to attach different feeling to the Some sufferers may be afraid of only certain object of fear- in this case color or odors. shades of colors- for example, red. Many are known to fear this color (specifically known as NLP – Neuro Linguistic Programming is the CHROMOFOBIA Erythrophobia in scientific parlance) as it is study of how the mind creates reality. It involves CHROMOFOBIA symbolic of blood, death or violence. In other changing words and perceptions associated cases, the phobic might fear all bright colors with the fear of colors. The analyst listens to CHROMOFOBIA in general. For such individuals, day to day life the words and phrases used by the phobic to can be difficult as the sight and presence of describe the colors s/he fears. Then the therapist the specific colors can induce anxiety or panic attempts to remove those mental thoughts and attack. associations that cause panic attacks when the CHROMOFOBIA phobic sees the colors that s/he fears. Alll the different color phobias * Erythrophobia – fear of red CHROMOFOBIA * Cyanophobia – fear of blue * Prasinophobia – fear of green CHROMOFOBIA * Xanthophobia – fear of yellow CHROMOFOBIA * Porphyrophobia – fear of purple * Kastanophobia – fear of brown * Rhodophobia – fear of pink * Chrysophobia – fear of orange * Persicophobia – fear of peach CHROMOFOBIA * Glaucophobia – fear of gray * Leukophobia – fear of white CHROMOFOBIACHROMOFOBIA * Melanophobia – fear of black CHROMOFOBIACHROMOFOBIACHROMOFOBIACHROMOFOBIA CHROMOFOBIACHROMOFOBIACHROMOFOBIA Cyanophobia – fear of blue (from Greek kyanos, “dark blue”) is fear of the color blue. Cyanophobic sufferers may panic often because it is difficult for sufferers to avoid encountering things that are blue with their eyes since blue is commonly seen in reality, e.g. water, sky. To avoid panic, sufferers may want to wear red- or orange-tinted glasses. Cyanophobic sufferers would not own anything blue, like jeans. Extreme sufferers may panic so violently that it would draw blood. Erythrophobia – fear of red (from Greek erythros, “red”) (also known as erytophobia or ereuthophobia) is fear of the color red. This color phobia is common because red is the symbolic color of danger, bad, or embarrassment. It is also the fear of blushing, due to embarrassment. Suffers of erythrophobia may also suffer from hemophobia since red is the color of blood. They would avoid using red pen, crayon, marker, paint or even would avoid a red car or red clothes. They may also avoid eating red-colored foods, like cherries, strawberries, tomatoes, and ketchup. While driving, sufferers may fear the stop signs or red light. Xanthophobia – fear of yellow (from Greek xanthos, “yellow”) is fear of the color yellow. In China the color yellow was feared, specifically receiving the yellow scarf, which was an imperial order to commit suicide. The common cause of this phobia is traumatic experiences involving the color yellow, like getting stung by a bee or even getting hit by a yellow car or school bus. In consequence, yellow reminds xanthophobes about pain and in the unconscious level reminds them about the loss of life. When xanthophobes encounter something yellow (like daffodils, gold, and Yellow Pages), they may immediately close their eyes or panic in anxiety, depending on the severity. For severe sufferers, even seeing or hearing the word yellow can cause fright. Sufferers would not eat cheese, mustard, lemonade, bananas, egg yolk, and anything that is yellow. They may also close their eyes and hold their breaths when urinating. Prasinophobia – fear of green (from the Greek word prasinos, meaning “green”, and phobos, “fear”), referred exclusively as chlorophobia (from the Greek word chloros, meaning “yellow-green”), is fear of the color green. This fear is often associated with the fear of vegetation (germinatophobia). The fear may come about due to traumatic experiences involving the color green or vegetation, like getting cut by a poison ivy or dealing with unwanted plants like algae in the swimming pool, weeds or vines. Prasinophobic sufferers would avoid seeing or encountering grass, trees, and other things that are green. They would avoid eating green- colored foods like peas, pickles, asparagus, broccoli, and lettuce. Very severe sufferers of prasinophobia may force someone to kill all the vegetation around their lawn by killing grass using weedkiller, chopping down trees, and pulling up bushes. Prasinophobics would want to stay home at all times. Sufferers would not celebrate St. Patrick’s Day as well as not having green-colored items like green clothing. They would not have Christmas trees, wreaths, and other green-colored decorations up during the holiday season. Prasinophobia is often treated using exposure therapy, which involves patients to repeatedly look at the color green under the guidance of a therapist until s/he don’t get scared by it. This therapy starts with a tiny green dot then slowly working the way up until much of the scenery is filled in green such as the room with green walls. Prasinophobia can further be treated using behavioral therapy which removes the fear from one’s mind. Kastanophobia – fear of brown (from Greek kastanos, meaning brown) is fear of the color brown. This is a common color fear as some of the representations of brown includes disgusts. This fear has a variety of triggers, like getting injured by black people, being attacked by a brown-furred animal, or even by simply seeing and/or smelling their own feces. Because brown is an abundant color, sufferers would be difficult to avoid seeing brown, but sufferers may not panic when seeing pleasant things like wood but would panic when excreting feces or walking on mud. Mild sufferers would simply avoid consuming brown-colored cuisines like coffee, chocolate, meat, beans, etc. Porphyrophobia – fear of purple (from Greek porphyros, “purple”) is fear of the color purple. Like all other phobias, including all of color phobias, the original cause of porphyrophobia traces back to a traumatic experience involving the color purple in the past. Even though purple is the symbolic color of royalty, people can suffer from purple phobia quite readily due to a traumatic encounter that is not a very common color around. For example, sweet potatoes, getting hit by a rare purple car, resulting in