Chromophobia

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Chromophobia (from the Greek word chroma, meaning "color", and phobos, "fear"), also known as chromatophobia, is the fear of colors.

Billy Bob Thornton is the famous person who suffered from chromophobia and the worst place to be in for chromophobes is Las Vegas.

Causes and effects

This phobia is caused by traumatic experiences involving colors in the past. Another, less common cause is hypersensitivity to particular colors.

Sufferers of chromophobia may limit daily activities, leaving their lives more difficult. They may want their surroundings to be free of colors as much as they can. Chromophobic people who are color-blind have limited employment, and are not allowed to be a pilot or other jobs where red and green keys are used.

Symptoms and treatment

Chromophobic people may suffer from irregular heartbeat, chest discomfort, breathlessness, or tremors. They may experience heightened symptoms when a person also suffers from death anxiety.

Effective methods of treating chromophobia are systematic desensitization, exposure therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychotherapy, counseling, and hypnotherapy. Color therapy can also be used, ever independently or along with another method.

Color phobias

• Erythrophobia – fear of red
• Cyanophobia – fear of blue
• Xanthophobia – fear of yellow
• Prasinophobia – fear of green
• Chrysophobia – fear of orange
• Porphyrophobia – fear of purple
• Rhodophobia – fear of pink
• Kastanophobia – fear of brown
• Persicophobia – fear of peach
• Glaucophobia – fear of grey
• Melanophobia – fear of black
• Leukophobia – fear of white
• Maronphobia - fear of maroon
• Naftikoblephobia - fear of navy blue
• Periwinklecaeruleumphobia - fear of periwinkle
• Porfyravafiphobia - fear of magenta