People with chromophobia often tend to isolate themselves, trying to avoid environments with too much color. According to research, this condition is often triggered by past events, some mental illness or medical conditions.

Color phobia causes many people to feel fear, anxiety, and stress when faced with too many colors.
What is Chromophobia?
Chromophobia – This is a Greek word made up of two words: Chromos (color) and Phobos (fear / aversion). This is a fairly common syndrome occurring all over the world. People who suffer from this phenomenon will often feel afraid and want to stay away from colors, tending to isolate themselves in environments with as little color as possible.
There are people who are afraid of many different colors, but there are also people who are afraid of only one particular color, such as red, yellow, and white. According to statistics, many people are afraid of the color red (also known as Erythrophobia) because it symbolizes death, blood and violence. In a few other cases, they can be all light colors in general.
For those who suffer from chromophobia, they will have many difficulties and troubles in life because the vision and presence of color patches will make them feel stressed, anxious or even panicking. chaos. These people will tend to have symptoms of myasthenia gravis.
Due to their own fears, it seems that they cannot complete and maintain their work well, and they cannot even build a strong relationship well. That is why life is difficult for them.
For people with this syndrome, they feel extremely miserable when they have to step out into the outside world and see the beautiful colors of life. They are extremely obsessed with colors and even feel disgusted with it.
Some of the names commonly used when referring to a specific fear of colors include:
- Leukophobia – fear of the color white
- Melanophobia – fear of the color black
- Rhodophobia – fear of the color pink
- Kastanophobia – fear of brown color
- Prasinophobia – fear of green
- Chrysophobia – fear of orange
- Cyanophobia – fear of the color green
- Xanthophobia – fear of the color yellow
Signs that you are suffering from fear of colors
Depending on each case, each color and level of fear, each person will have different expressions. However, most people with this syndrome have typical symptoms such as:
- Feeling anxious, scared, panicky, insecure.
- Breathe fast, breathe fast.
- Sweat a lot
- Intermittent fast beat.
- Dry mouth.
- Vomiting
- Trembling, shivering
- Difficulty in speaking, expressing one’s will, difficulty in speaking into meaningful sentences.

People who are afraid of colors always feel confused, insecure, and panic before the colors cause fear.
Experts also shared that the percentage of people with color phobia suffering from the fear of being left alone (Agoraphobia) is quite high. They may show symptoms of depression because of loneliness, lack of relationships, inability to talk or socialize well.
Chromophobia’s self-limitation will make them helpless at work, always refusing to go out. Or if they are forced to live in the community, they will also be limited in their self-expression.
Why are so many people afraid of color?
When it comes to the causes of chromophobia, post-traumatic stress disorder is probably the most talked about disease. According to research by experts, past events, especially when they were young, can cause long-lasting trauma to many people, making them feel scared and stressed. straight every time you see color.
Events such as rape, physical and emotional abuse, accidents, violence, witnessing murder are all factors that can be linked to the fear of color. People who have experienced trauma will be severely traumatized and that fear will haunt them for the rest of their lives, making them anxious and insecure when colors appear.
Another possible cause of Chromophobia is cultural origin. Each culture will have symbolic colors that carry their own meanings and this can turn out to be negative for those who are afraid of colors. To take an example in the West, there will be some colors that are seen as artificial, alien or rotten.
In addition, in some cases, conditioned reflexes can be the reason for the formation of fear and aversion to colors. This is also easy to see in life because there are certain colors that make many people feel extremely uncomfortable. For example, the pale color of stale, moldy cheese is associated with disease and bacteria, which is viewed by many as a negative.
In addition, genetics is also one of the factors that can contribute to color phobia. Internal brain chemistry, lack of substance or some existing phobia can also become the cause of Chromophobia.
How to overcome the fear of colors
The patient himself is fully aware of his fear. Therefore, when you identify the color you are obsessed with, you need to find a way to overcome and reassure yourself. Or if you can’t stop your anxiety when you see colors, you should consider seeing a doctor, specialist for advice and treatment instructions with professional measures to be able to this situation well.

The best way to overcome the fear of color is to face it and find a way to prevent it.
Here are a few methods that can help you overcome chromophobia:
1. Chat with fear
Communication is one of the essential activities and skills for every human being. If you want to survive you need to know how to communicate in many different forms. The ability to communicate is also a method that can help people face and overcome difficulties and challenges in life.
Confronting your own fears is similar. To do this, you definitely need the help of those close to you. Some ways to help you overcome color phobia yourself through communication such as:
- First, you need to keep yourself ready to share and express your fears. Don’t be shy or embarrassed by your fear. You should understand that you are not the only one suffering from this syndrome and if you really try you can completely eliminate the obsession with color.
- You should also choose a support person that you really trust and can comfortably talk to and share with them about your worries and concerns.
- When communicating, you need to be clear and detailed about your fears.
- You can share about events that have happened in the past that make you become obsessed and scared to the present.
- Try to recall the first time you felt fear in the face of color. It also helps you identify the cause of your chromatophobia and is important in figuring out how to deal with your fear.
2. Limit evoking fear
Color is one of the indispensable elements in life and it is present everywhere. Therefore, controlling fear is one of the most essential and important skills for those who are suffering from this syndrome.
It is very difficult to force a person to immediately stop his fear. Therefore, the best way is to limit your activities and go to places with too many colors that make you afraid and stressed. If you come across a place with a lot of scary colors, try to get out of it and change the activity you are doing.
For example, if you accidentally see colors that make you feel uncomfortable while reading a book in a certain country bar, quickly grab that book and leave the current location. Once you step out, don’t think about anything but focus on each step, then you can stretch or do a few warm-up movements, run in place to focus your energy again, help calm the mind.
3. Stop fear
In addition to limiting thoughts about fear, patients also need to learn and master skills to help prevent fear from taking over. It is the same obsessive colors that will cause you to form negative emotions, easily causing inappropriate reactions. Therefore, you need to know how to prevent and fight back by expressing positive thoughts, remembering happy memories. When you adjust your thoughts, you are also overcoming your fears and helping your body relax.
It’s best to choose for yourself a memory that makes you feel happiest and most joyful so that when stressful situations arise you can use it to relax. Try to control your emotions and deal with your fears, because this is the only way you can overcome the stress and anxiety about color.
The main purpose of this relaxation technique is to help slow down the brain’s response to fear, thereby improving the logical response. At this time, the brain will gradually become more aware of the danger of colors and when it determines that colors are not harmful, the fear will gradually subside.
In addition, to prevent fear, you can also practice deep breathing exercises, count numbers, do some yoga, meditate to distract attention and negative thoughts about colors. When you no longer focus on stressors, you will gradually become more stable psychologically.
4. Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is known to be one of the most effective and safe ways to relax. When applying this therapy, the mind will be relaxed, relaxed and reduce stress and tension through activities such as massage, aromatherapy bath, use of sauna, etc.
Or you can arrange items with a pleasant scent next to your bedroom, work place or around the places where you often live. Can be essential oils, scented candles, dried flowers, quick-smelling, camphor to help the surrounding air be more relaxed and fresh. This is one of the best ways to increase your resistance to fear or at least it helps you feel relaxed and reduce anxiety to some extent.
5. Hypnosis
To apply hypnotherapy to people with chromophobia, the patient must perform under the supervision of a specialist to ensure safety. When hypnotized, the patient’s mind will gradually be expanded with a lot of new and interesting things.
The therapist will give the patient positive messages to help the brain receive good emotions that are different from the host of fear and anxiety – that is, color. Thanks to that, fears are gradually better controlled, anxiety and stress when facing colors will also be significantly reduced.
Color phobia causes many inconveniences to patients’ daily activities. Therefore, as soon as you discover signs of fear, you need to see a specialist for a thorough examination and treatment, helping you quickly overcome your fear.