For many people it is unthinkable, but chromatophobia or the fear of colors exists. This is the case of Melanophobia, a disorder in which the color black acquires prominence and the character of extreme danger. It is true that we are dealing with a color that is culturally associated with the unfortunate, but it does not seem enough to develop a phobia. Or if? We tell you everything about Melanophobia or fear of the color black in our dictionary.
What is Melanophobia?
Melanophobia is the fear of the color black. Sometimes by extension this term is used to refer to racist behavior, but in most cases it is a phobic disorder in which fear arises from a certain color: black. The complications and limitations that arise in the lives of people who suffer from this phobia are evident.
Being afraid of the color means fleeing or avoiding this color, something that is not always achieved. How do you avoid black? You can avoid it in your own home, you can always wear bright colors, but when you go outside, outside the walls of your own world, encountering the color black is completely inevitable.
What symptoms does Melanophobia have?
It is an irrational and excessive fear that begins with nervousness. That anticipatory anxiety of knowing that you are going to have to face a supposed danger and that causes you the usual symptoms such as dizziness, shortness of breath, tachycardia, vomiting. And they can lead to the dreaded panic attack when the situation becomes uncontrollable.
Because there is more. It is one thing for the person who suffers from Melanophobia to not be able to avoid feeling panic in the face of the color black and quite another thing is that he is not aware that his fear of him is irrational. Why do you have that fear? The feeling that something bad is happening in your mind, and especially the feeling of inadequacy, cause self to appear.
Causes and consequences of Melanophobia
The symptoms are typical of any phobic. However, the consequences of Melanophobia go further, since the limitations are many. People with a fear of the color black are involved in a cycle of emotional problems, social isolation and work disabilities that can turn their lives into hell.
The question that comes next is, how can someone develop this fear of the color black? If we find the origin of most phobias in a traumatic experience, it is difficult for us to imagine a situation in which this is possible with the color black. Although everything can be in the world of phobias.
We can more easily place the origin of Melanophobia in an anxiety disorder that creates unfounded fears in the face of the most surprising situations or stimuli. And neither can we ignore the cultural factor in this disorder, since black is associated in many cultures with death, the sinister or fear itself.
How to overcome Melanophobia?
Any phobia can be overcome, but it is not convenient to try it by our own means. Especially if we are talking about a gradual exposure to that stimulus. Overcoming a phobia goes through a psychological treatment that will take time, it cannot be done overnight or just with medication.
Thus, the psychologist will opt for the most appropriate treatment, which in most cases of phobias is cognitive. It works well, so well that it manages to modify both the distorted thinking that makes you see black as a danger and the avoidance behavior that fear leads you to.