Do you like the color purple? You may be a person in love with purple, violet or purple, that you usually dress in that color, that your accessories always have a touch of purple or that purple is the protagonist of the decoration of your house. Or you may not be able to see this color even in paint and it is not that you do not like it, it is that it causes you fear and anguish. That is when you can ask yourself that perhaps you suffer from porphyrophobia or fear of the color purple that we tell you about in our dictionary of phobias .
What is porphyrophobia
Porphyrophobia is the fear of purple, violet, or purple. One of the favorite colors for many people becomes in this case a stimulus for a phobia. It is true that it is not a very frequent disorder, but we have already seen in our dictionary of phobias other cases of chromatophobia in the case of people who fear yellow or green.
That porphyrophobia is not very frequent does not mean that we do not have to deal with it , since it is a very limiting phobia. This avoidance reaction that occurs in any phobic disorder is difficult to carry out in the case of fear of purple. How do you avoid that person wearing a purple coat on the subway? What if your office has purple painted walls?
Symptoms of porphyrophobia
When the stimulus of the phobia cannot be avoided, all the symptoms of anxiety appear , those that we already know very well and that begin with a feeling that something is going to go wrong, very wrong. Then he goes on to nervousness by starting to feel a series of physical reactions ranging from dizziness to panic attack to palpitations.
In the end it is inevitable to feel different from others. Why can’t I see the color purple? Why do I consider it a dangerous color? What can happen to me if I see the color purple? The lack of answers does not prevent the person from suffering self-esteem problems and ending with a self-imposed social isolation so as not to have to be in the situation that causes fear.
Causes of porphyrophobia
In most cases, porphyrophobia, like xanthophobia and other disorders belonging to chromatophobia, end up causing agoraphobia . The outside world is full of colors, including purple that the person with porphyrophobia considers so dangerous. It will be better to stay home and not expose yourself to danger.
And what has happened for a person to consider that a color can do him some harm? In most cases it is a previous anxiety disorder that has generated the most diverse phobias . And many other times what has developed the phobia is a traumatic experience in which the color purple has been related to an episode of great emotional charge.
Treatment of porphyrophobia
All phobias can be overcome, but don’t try to overcome your phobia on your own. Psychological help is essential both to overcome porphyrophobia and to avoid the appearance of new disorders in the future, so put yourself in the hands of professionals.
The cognitive behavioral therapy is the most effective in treating any phobia, because it works from that initial thought that considers the color distorted a danger. From there, avoidance behavior and fear itself can be modified.
In color phobias , gradual exposure therapy is also very useful , always guided by a professional. First you imagine the color purple and visualize situations in which nothing bad happens to you, it is just a color. And then, little by little, you put yourself in real situations in which you find that color.