All about chromatophobia

Color perception is an important ability to obtain information about the world around us. Thanks to our ability to distinguish colors, we can identify many objects and their special characteristics, and also usually each person has his own favorite and disliked colors and shades. But there are people who painfully perceive a certain color or several colors. They cause them to panic irrational fear, which is called chromatophobia.

Chromatophobia - this is the strongest irrational fear on the verge of aversion to color. In most cases, an inadequate attitude is observed towards a certain color - a person is afraid only of red, black or yellow. Less often fear is caused by a combination of colors or a wide range of palettes.

The uncontrollable fear of each specific color is called in its own way, for example, the fear of red is phodophobia, and the fear of blue is cyanophobia, the fear of yellow is xantophobia, and the fear of green is prasinophobia. Pathological fear of white is called leukophobia, orange - chrysophobia, black - melanophobia.

Almost always, a chromatophobe is afraid of bright colors.

All separate types of chromatophobia are closely associated with traumatic events, which were "associated" with a certain color spectrum by the subconscious of a person. It is noteworthy that some species of animals, as well as color-blind people, can suffer from chromatophobia.

This phobia, although not so common, can significantly complicate life.To avoid the likelihood of suddenly encountering a frightening color, a person can limit his social circle, go out, refuse to go to work just because an unpleasant color in the office or company uniform does not allow the person to concentrate and carry out their professional tasks.

People with chromatophobia try to avoid large cities with an abundance of signs and screens, with motley and multi-colored crowds, and transport. There is evidence that Benjamin Franklin did not like yellow objects, and Billy Bob Thornton suffers from chromatophobia in several shades of the palette at once.

Intolerance to a certain tone or shade usually develops after childhood psychotraumas... Such traumas for an impressionable, suspicious child with a vulnerable psyche and great imagination can be the death of a loved one, separation from parents, abuse, violence, accidents. For example, at a funeral on the occasion of the death of a loved one, a child sees an abundance of black, and this color can be deposited in the subconscious, as closely associated with death, loss, loss.

A child who has been abused may not remember the face of the abuser and abuser, but he can perfectly remember the color of his clothes. And this shade can be frightening, unpleasant, causing real panic for life.

Sometimes the cause of chromatophobia lies in the cultural traditions of the people. In every culture, shades and tones are given their own meaning. In India, China and Japan, it is the white color that is most often feared, because there it symbolizes misfortune, death. Red color often causes hostile attitude among Europeans, as it is associated with impurity, sin, blood, aggression.

Blue, which for many peoples symbolizes the sky and the divine principle, for the Iranian is the color of mourning and sorrow. Black, which for most people is anxious in itself, is revered in India, there it is considered the color of health and harmony.

So, green for one is associated with young spring greens, and for another - with unpleasant and dangerous mold, yellow for some is the color of wealth, luck, sun and warmth, good mood, and for some it is the color of pus, unhealthy yellowness of the skin of a dying person person. That's why everything is pretty individual... How many chromatophobes, there are so many reasons-reasons for their fear.

Chromatophobe is constantly tense - a collision with an unpleasant shade can happen at any time. There are never any shades in his clothes that even remotely resemble a frightening tone, in his house there are no objects painted in such a color. Chromatophobes tend to think carefully about their actions, the places that they should visit, the routes they will have to get to these places. If there are frightening objects along the way, the chromatophobe can make a big detour, take a detour with several changes, so as not to encounter something that causes anxiety and horror.

If it suddenly happens that a collision could not be avoided, a person suffering from this phobia has an adrenaline rush into the blood. Under the action of this hormone, the pupils dilate, there is a desire to run and hide from danger, while the person understands the absurdity of his condition, is afraid that others will notice it, and this second added fear only intensifies the manifestations. The heartbeat becomes more frequent, breathing is shallow, shallow. The skin turns pale, sweat is released profusely, the body temperature decreases slightly.

The mouth dries up, tremors of the limbs may appear. In severe cases, a person loses balance, loses consciousness.

Calls to pull yourself together and by an effort of will to defeat fear in the case of chromatophobia can be not only meaningless, but also harmful. Fruitless attempts to do this only cause a decrease in self-esteem. It is impossible to cope with a phobic mental disorder on your own. You can drive fear even deeper, then it will manifest itself with double force and "overgrow" with additional mental disorders.

To get rid of irrational fear, the doctor can use one of the many methods of psychotherapy or several methods. cumulatively - cognitive-behavioral therapy, rational therapy, gestalt therapy, hypnotherapy, NLP. Sometimes there is a need for additional prescription of medications. Antidepressants can be used to significantly improve mood.

They try to prescribe tranquilizers only in rare cases, when panic attacks are frequent, strong, associated with inappropriate behavior... It will be useful relaxation training, including deep muscle, this is helped to achieve yoga, meditation, mastering techniques of breathing exercises.

During the entire course of treatment (and it usually lasts several months), the patient is required to comply with all the doctor's recommendations, work with him in one team: strong stress, anxiety, alcohol and drugs should be excluded. It is important to enlist the support of loved ones and relatives, friends, everyone whom the patient trusts.

It is desirable that with the beginning of therapy in walks around the city and visiting art galleries (as a method of immersion in a variety of colors), it is the loved ones who accompany the person, insuring him in case of a possible panic attack. On the whole, the forecasts are very favorable. In 9 out of 10 patients by the method of psychotherapy it is possible to achieve a stable long-term remission.

For interesting facts about colors and chromatophobia, see the video below.