Melanophobia – Fear of the Color Black
Some people symbolize black color as 
an omen for evil or bad luck. When such an aversion turns into an overwhelming, persistent fear, it develops into melanophobia or fear of the color black.
Melanophobia causes can include a number of triggers. It can result from traumatic events, bad experiences or memories of the past.
These may surface in the form of symptoms when a phobic is presented with black color. Some people with melanophobia associate black with ill-fate or doom.
Melanophobia treatment, in the form of professional help, becomes necessary when the phobia turns severe and starts interfering with daily activities of those affected.
Know Melanophobia Causes
Often, as in other phobias, a traumatic past experience or event can act as a trigger for those affected. It can be a learned phobia where the affected person feels similar fear of other persons and takes it as one of his own.
Black color can become associated with happenings in the past that can linger on in one’s psychological makeup and which may be difficult to get rid of.
Children are most often found to be afraid of the dark and this is a natural fear which is a part of growing up.
Melanophobia causes one to frequently scan their home and environment to make sure that it is free from the color they fear so much.
Identify Melanophobia Symptoms
People with melanophobia will react negatively and display their fear either through panic attacks or other similar reactions when they see the black color.
Here are some of the melanophobia symptoms:
- Sweating
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Fast heartbeat
- Panic attack
- Feelings of dread
Those with an overwhelming fear may frequently feel nauseating and become dizzy. Their fear may further be characterized by melanophobia symptoms such as extreme anxiety and panic when in vicinity of the dark color.
A melanophobe will take measures to make sure that their surrounding environment such as at home or workplace has no black color visible to them.
Melanophobia Treatment
Melanophobia is treated much in the same way as other such phobias. Self help can suffice if the fear is mild. But services of a professional therapist may be required in case the phobia is so severe that it affects a phobic’s normal functioning.
Cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure therapy and psychotherapy are some of the treatment options available. In all modes of treatment, the main focus is to teach and enable a phobic to effectively manage and control the fear of the feared object.
Therapy by and large allows a person to deal with their anxieties in a controlled manner. A therapist will try to identify the cause of fear so as to device an effective method for melanophobia treatment.
In many cases, knowing the root cause of the phobia can bring an amount of comfort and also help release some of the reigning tension.
The patient may also be prescribed medications, during the course of therapy, in case high levels of anxiety are present.
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