Xanthophobia (Fear of the Color Yellow): What You Need to Know (2024)

Xanthophobia is the fear of the color yellow. “Xanth” is a prefix derived from the Greek word for yellow, and phobias are persistent, extreme fears. Xanthophobia is a kind of chromophobia, or color phobia.

It’s not clear how common color phobias like xanthophobia are, but are generally considered rare. Color phobias are a kind of specific phobia. Specific phobias are when you have ongoing, intense fears about particular objects, concepts, activities, situations, or people.

Some of the most common phobias include fear of dogs, darkness, water, flying, tunnels, blood, and heights. Researchers estimate that about 5%-10% of the U.S. population lives with a specific phobia.

Here, we’ll take a closer look at xanthophobia, including causes and symptoms, along with expert advice on how to treat this condition.

What Causes People to Fear Colors?

Experts aren’t completely sure what causes a person to develop a specific phobia like xanthophobia. But it’s likely that a combination of genetics, family experiences, developmental factors, and environmental factors causes a person to develop a phobia.

Trauma Involving a Specific Color

Often, a traumatic event involving a specific color causes you to develop a phobia of it, says Judith Joseph, MD, psychiatrist and Chairwomen of The Women in Medicine Initiative for Columbia University. “For example, if you were assaulted in a room with light blue paint, light blue may trigger you,” Dr. Joseph describes. “If you were hit by a car that is yellow, like an NYC taxi cab, that may trigger fear or fight or flight because you have a trauma response to this.”

Stefania Dannacher, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at Free from OCD LLC, says that people who experience obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or other anxiety disorders have an increased propensity to develop xanthophobia.

“If an individual has a slight aversion to a certain color and subsequently avoids that color, the fear will grow,” she describes. “This leads to more avoidance which leads to more fear.” Avoidance is more comfortable for people, but it maintains and fuels anxiety, Dr. Dannacher says, perpetuating a vicious cycle of avoidance and fear.

Signs of Xanthophobia

Although research has found that it’s common for humans to have strong emotional reactions to colors, when you avoid a specific color at all costs, and experience intense fear when thinking about that color, you likely have developed a color phobia.

Phobias like xanthophobia are usually diagnosed when you’ve experienced a persistent, specific fear for six months or more and the fear, anxiety, or avoidance causes significant distress or impairment in your life.

Does Someone With Xanthophobia Fear the Sun?

Many of us associate the color yellow with the sun and sunshine in general, and you may be wondering if people with xanthophobia tend to have a fear of the sun.

How to Treat Xanthophobia

Living with a phobia like xanthophobia can be challenging and distressing. You might be ashamed of how you feel and may not want to share your extreme fears with others. You might be unhappy with how the phobia is restricting your life. And you may not know how to move past the phobia.

First, you should remember that you aren’t alone, and there is nothing you did wrong to feel this way. Phobias are relatively common. Importantly, there are effective treatments out there for managing them. These may include therapy, lifestyle changes, and medication.

In some cases, “these treatments are aimed at grounding the person so that they do not have a severe trauma response,” Dr. Joseph explains.

Let’s take a look at some treatment options for xanthophobia.

Lifestyle Tips

Managing to cope with your stress and learning coping techniques is important for people who live with anxiety.

The American Psychological Association (APA) recommends that people with anxiety avoid or reduce caffeine, as it can make anxiety symptoms worse. The APA also recommends speaking to your physician about any medications you’re taking and whether they may be worsening your anxiety.

Therapy

Therapy is the most widely recommended method for managing phobias. Specifically, exposure therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy are often used to treat phobias.

In exposure therapy, you are gradually exposed to the thing you fear, in a controlled, therapeutic environment. “Avoidance is what maintains and fuels anxiety and it is important to stop this cycle as early as possible,” Dr. Dannacher says.

Through exposure, two main things happen, she says. First, you’ll learn that the color you fear is safe. Secondly, you will habituate the anxiety so that the anxiety will decrease over time, and with repeated prolonged exposure, Dr. Dannacher explains.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for specific phobias involves becoming more aware of certain automatic distorted thoughts, feelings and behaviors you have surrounding your phobia.

Then, you work with your therapist on techniques for what to do when you notice those thoughts and feelings arise. Eventually, you will begin to become desensitized to the thing you fear and begin to feel that it’s safe.

Medication

Sometimes medication, along with therapy, can be helpful in treating phobias. Here’s what to know, according to Dr. Joseph:

• Medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and benzodiazepines target the physiological anxiety that comes with phobias, and may be helpful in treating them
• Medication like propranolol, clonidine, and prazosin which target the fight-or-flight response experienced during anxiety, may also be helpful