Chromatophobia: what is it, causes, symptoms and treatment

Money and its management is essential in our society. We work to earn money and we spend it on basic aspects such as buying food, paying rent or paying for electricity, on the one hand; or in more playful aspects such as going out to dinner at a restaurant, going to the movies or hiring a vacation. We all handle, to a greater or lesser extent, money every day.

Despite being something so everyday, there are very modest people who find it difficult to talk about money and / or their financial matters or even people who feel insecure when the rest know their data economic. There are even people who, related to money, suffer from "cromethophobia" Do you know what it is? Continue reading this Psychology-Online article in which we will see you what is chromethophobia, its causes, symptoms and treatment.

Index

1. What is cromethophobia
2. Causes of cromethophobia or fear of money
3. Symptoms of chromethophobia
4. Treatment of cromethophobia or fear of money

Chromethophobia is the name it receives phobia and / or aversion to money. It is a phobia that has not received attention in the scientific literature and, therefore, about which we do not have enough information to offer scientifically supported data. Why hasn't this problem received attention? Possibly because it is not a very common problem.

Another problem regarding chromethophobia is found in its own definition. What exactly does this fear consist of? In searches on the web we can find crometophobia referred to two aspects, fundamentally, which are:

• Fear of losing money and run out of it, that is, fear of not having money.
• Fear of having money, especially physical money.

We can find other references of cromethophobia such as fear of carrying out money transactions, but in any case would refer to either obtaining it or losing it, so it could fit into the meanings previous.

Is chromethophobia a disorder?

Although chromethophobia is also called the "disease of not wanting to spend money," is it really a disorder? The DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association) and ICD-11 (World Health Organization) diagnostic classifications of mental disorders include a group of disorders called specific phobias. For cromethophobia, money phobia or "money disease" to be considered a disorder of this group, it must meet a series of criteria.

Probably, we can find people worried about their financial problems or worried about carrying money with them (thinking that they may be victims of a robbery). It is also probably more difficult to find people who meet the criteria to be diagnosed with specific phobia.

However, in this article we are going to treat crometophobia from the definition and criteria for specific phobia of the DSM-5 classification of mental disorders. Keep in mind, as we have pointed out, that there is no specific literature for this type of problem.

Various theories have been proposed to explain the development and maintenance of specific phobias. Among them we find biological theories (focused on the genetic acquisition and / or the evolutionary acquisition of phobias) and those that are exposed below, of a more psychological nature.

First we can acquire fear through observation of said fear in close people, like our parents, which is called vicarious conditioning.

It is also possible that there are irrational thoughts or beliefs that are influencing the acquisition and / or maintenance of our fear.

On the other hand, conditioning theories state that fear is acquired as a consequence of the association between money and an aversive stimulus. For example, if we have been robbed previously and have taken money from us, it has happened to someone close or even kidnappings that people with high purchasing power have suffered can make us associate the possession of money with consequences negative.

Once fear is acquired, we will avoid situations that lead us to it (such as carrying money with us), which will relieve anxiety symptoms and will reinforce our avoidance behavior.

Finally, it should be noted that biopsychosocial theories that integrate knowledge from the biological, psychological and social areas have also been postulated.

Following in the same line and based on what was collected by Sosa, C.D. and Capafóns, J.I. (2014)^[1], we review below the symptoms of specific phobias, collected in three groups of symptoms:

• At a physiological level, the person experiences symptoms such as tachycardia, increased blood pressure, sweating, or nausea due to anticipation (anticipating that we are going to run out of money) or the presentation of the phobic stimulus (carrying money with you).
• At a cognitive level, we will find negative beliefs and / or irrational ideas regarding the presence of the feared stimulus or their own coping capacity (for example: if I have a lot of money with me, people will notice it and they will surely steal from me).
• At the behavioral level, the person will avoid phobic stimulus or they will resist it with discomfort (for example, they will avoid carrying money or delegate responsibility to someone else).

How to overcome the fear of not having money? Treatment for specific phobia is based on cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacological therapy with anxiolytics as a complement.

Regarding cognitive-behavioral therapy, to treat money phobia, the following are used:

• The exposure technique: the patient is exposed to the stimulus. If, for example, your fear is of going out with cash on top of you, we will have to expose the patient to this situation in a prolonged way in such a way that the symptoms of it go decreasing. In the following article, we explain in detail the exposure technique.
• Relaxation techniques. These are essential to start the exposure technique. Below you will find a video with a guided relaxation so you can start practicing.
• Cognitive techniques that will address the irrational beliefs and ideas that may appear in the case.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Chromatophobia: what is it, causes, symptoms and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

1. Sosa, C.D. and Capafóns, J.I. (2014) Specific phobia. In Caballo, V.E., Salazar, I.C. And Carrobles, J.A. (2014) Manual of Psychopathology and Psychological Disorders. Madrid. Pyramid.

• American Psychiatric Association (2014). DSM-5. Reference guide to the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5-Breviary. Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana.
• World Health Organization (WHO) (2018) International Classification of Diseases, 11th revision. Recovered from https://icd.who.int/es