Chromatophobia: symptoms, causes and treatment

It is said that money does not bring happiness, but it brings us closer. It is clear that it is better to have it than to have absolutely nothing.

However, there are people who can become truly afraid of everything related to powerful money. Either because they see it as something that brings evil or because they are afraid of misusing it, there are people who have a phobia of money.

This peculiar and strange psychological alteration has been given the name of cromethophobia, phobia that we will explore here looking at its possible causes, symptoms and treatment.

• Related article: "Types of Phobias: Exploring Fear Disorders"

What is cromethophobia?

The crometofobia (from the Greek "chrimata"; money and "phobos", fear), also called crematophobia, is the name by which the aversion, fear, or phobia of money is known. This peculiar and strange phobia has not received much attention in the scientific literature, on all because it does not seem to be too common, added to the fact that it does not enjoy much support scientific. Still, if real, this psychological condition would be within the group of specific phobias.

One of the reasons why it is difficult to study and talk about it is directly related to how it is defined. Although the central element in this phobia is money, there are several ways in which crometophobia can be described. However, in these definitions there is one of the following two ideas, which are contradictory:

• Pathological fear of losing money and running out of it.
• Pathological fear of having money, especially cash.

Chromethophobia can also be defined as the fear of carrying out any type of transaction with money, an idea that may overlap with the two that we have just seen. That is, it can include the fear of buying or spending money, seen as losing it, as well as the fear of receiving it by selling an object by taking it out of an ATM, implying having to carry it with them.

Chromethophobia it should not be confused with another phobia in which money is also involved but in a different way: misophobia. This specific phobia is the fear and anxiety that some people experience when touching coins or bills that they have touched unknown, since they could be a source of germs and contagion and that, in turn, is considered a modality of the germiphobia.

Is chromethophobia a disorder?

Although chromethophobia is also known as the "disease of not wanting to spend money", defining it as a real mental disorder is complicated. Both the DSM-5 and the ICD-11 include in their diagnostic classifications the group of specific phobias, which require that they be fulfilled. some diagnostic criteria to be recognized as such, criteria that crometophobia must meet to be considered a phobia real.

The problem is that the very idea of ​​cromethophobia is very varied, so much so that it is difficult to specify what we can understand as this phobia and what not. We could consider as chromethophobic those people who have a pathological concern about economics, being afraid of losing money but, also, we can consider as chrometaphobics those who fear carrying money with them and being the victims of some robbery or that the money corrupt. That is why, added to the fact that there do not seem to be many things about this peculiar phobia, affirming that it is a real specific phobia is difficult.

Causes

But although it is difficult to affirm that cromethophobia is a real disorder, we can talk about its possible causes by relating it to how specific phobias are formed.

Along its history, Specific phobias have been explained in multiple ways, in addition to exposing various theories to understand their development and maintenance. Among these theories we find the biological ones, focused on the genetic or evolutionary acquisition of certain types of phobias, the which are not adequate to explain the appearance of cromethophobia since being afraid of money does not seem to be related evolutionary.

For this reason we will focus on psychological theories to talk about crometophobia. Among them we find vicarious conditioning, that is, acquiring a phobia through observing that fear in people close to us, especially family and friends. For example, if we see that our father is afraid of touching money or that he prefers not to carry it with him, we may acquire that fear and it becomes a money phobia.

Another explanation behind the development and maintenance of phobias is that there are certain irrational thoughts or beliefs, which may be influencing the acquisition of fear of money. Our own experiences, emotions and feelings towards money, together with negative experiences related to it, can cause us to attribute a malicious component to it. For example, if in our childhood it was frequent that our parents fought over him and got divorced, we may attribute to money the power to break up marriages.

Conditioning theories state that fear, in this case chromethophobia, can be acquired as a consequence of associating money with an aversive stimulus. For example, if we have recently been robbed, we may associate having money with negative consequences and we are always afraid that it will happen to us again. We may also know the case of a famous person who was kidnapped to ask for a large ransom, which is why we may be afraid of having too much money in the savings account.

All of the above results in carrying out avoidance behaviors or fleeing from any situation in which money is involved. In case we have to touch money or manage it, we will begin to feel a lot of anxiety, which is why we will try to avoid conversations about savings or we will delegate the management of our finances to others, such as family members or the partner. As we avoid situations where money is involved, thus alleviating our anxious symptoms, the more we will reinforce our avoidance behavior.

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Symptoms

As in most specific phobias, in cromethophobia we can find three main groups of symptoms.

On the one hand we would have the physiological. The patient with fear of money experiences physical symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, sweating, nausea, dizziness or increased blood pressure when having to face situations where you have to manage money, or at the idea of lose it. These symptoms would also manifest when anticipating that you are going to have to handle money or that you could have problems associated with it.

Then we would have the cognitive symptoms. In this case, we find a whole set of negative beliefs and irrational ideas around money, both in the presence of it as a phobic stimulus and in relation to thinking about it. For example, a person with cromethophobia may have superstitious ideas such as "if I have too much money, people will find out and they will try to rob me."

We finally found behavioral symptoms, mostly avoidant. The subject with this phobia will actively avoid being near the phobic stimulus or, in case he cannot avoid it, he will be forced to resist it with great discomfort.

He can also carry out behaviors such as denying his financial reality, avoiding any conversation related to money, or delegating any financial management to his partner or a friend. This problem can become such that the affected person may even have problems making any day-to-day payment.

How is cromethophobia treated?

Chromethophobia can be treated in multiple ways, but the main therapeutic options would be two: cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and pharmacological therapy based on anxiolytics. Both therapies are complementary, the cognitive-behavioral one being especially useful since this phobia, as we have seen previously, would have an important cognitive component. Within the TCC we would have the following three main tools:

1. Exposure technique

As its own indicates, the exposure technique consists of exposing the patient to the stimulus or phobic situation.

In the case of a crometophobic who, for example, is afraid to go out with a lot of money on top, thinking that he is going to be robbed, therapy may consist of in making him leave with a certain amount of metal on him, exposing him to this situation for a long time and reducing his anxiety through habituation.

2. Relaxation techniques

One of the best ways to manage anxiety, both associated with phobias and any other psychological problem, are relaxation techniques. In them the patient is taught to control her breathing, try to blank the mind, or imagine the phobic stimulus in various ways, staging in his head possible behaviors that he can perform when faced with this stimulus and imagining what he should do to overcome the situation successfully.

3. Cognitive techniques

In the cognitive component of cognitive-behavioral therapy we find managing irrational beliefs and ideas.

As we have previously commented, among the symptoms of patients with specific phobias are their irrational beliefs about the stimulus or phobic situation. In the case of those affected by cromethophobia, we would have to address ideas such as the one mentioned above that if it takes a lot of money on the street they will surely rob him or, for example, that if he has too much money he will not know how to manage it and he will end it losing.