What is Porphyrophobia? (An Overview)

In this blog we will discuss the symptoms, causes and treatment of Porphyrophobia. 

An intense fear of the colour purple is called Porphyrophobia.

It is a type of specific phobia which comes under the category of anxiety disorders in the DSM-V. Someone suffering from it will experience extreme anxiety when exposed to the colour purple.  

Not just the exposure, but a mere thought of seeing it can instigate terror. If the anxiety worsens, one can also have full-blown panic attacks. 

Purple is a colour which depicts royalty, extravagance, spirituality and passion.

Throughout history, purple used to be the color of the robes kings wore. It also represents femininity. 

Red and blue were mixed to make this colour, which is not so common in nature. Gemstones like Amethyst are purple in colour too.  

Normally, people like the colour purple because of the nobility and romantic touch it has.

However, someone suffering from Porphyrophobia will find purple to be daunting and stressful.

They can’t interpret their feelings or rationalise them, therefore feel more anxious and helpsess. 

Because of their inability to justify their fear, one tends to avoid the color purple in order to minimize anxiety.

They will make painstaking efforts in an attempt to get rid of any place/situation they might encounter purple.

This avoidance is repetitive which can change these recurrent actions into compulsions. 

Someone suffering from Porphyrophobia can also develop OCD. 

According to the DSM-V, the anxiety and acts of avoidance one develops in Porphyrophobia affects their social and occupational functioning. 

For example, one will avoid wearing clothes which have purple in them (even if it’s their uniform for school).

They will hesitate when meeting/seeing someone else wear the colour they fear.

Their family members will need to be extremely vigilant and conscious of buying things (objects or food items) that don’t have the colour purple in them. 

One will refuse to go outside their house/leave their own room because they are unsure if they will be able to completely avoid purple on the way to their destination. 

Because avoiding purple can be almost impossible, as it is to be found everywhere.One can isolate himself completely in their rooms.

These actions can lead one to suffer from other mental disorders such as depression. 

Porphyrophobia is an irrational fear of the colour purple. The name derives from the Greek word ‘porphyro’ meaning purple and ‘phobos’ meaning fear.

This type of specific phobia is a branch of Chromatophobia (fear of colours). 

Symptoms of Porphyrophobia 

Like in the case of all other specific phobias, Porphyrophobia too has anxiety as its focal symptom.

Individuals suffering from an irrational fear of the colour purple suffer from extreme anxiety which, as mentioned earlier, can result in one having panic attacks. 

When one undergoes extreme anxiety, the body experiences other physiological symptoms as well. Such as increased heart rate or palpitations. 

When the sufferer thinks about encountering purple colour, he goes into flight or fight mode because of an adrenaline rush.

In this state, the body’s physiological responses help one make decisions when in fear causing situations.

They either decide to escape the situation (flight)-faint or suffer from panic attacks or stay and combat their fear (fight)-by taking counterproductive actions.

Sufferers of Porphyrophobia experience symptoms in different ways. One might have more severe symptoms than the other, based on their past experiences and intensity of the phobia.

Though, as the DSM-5 suggests, one must experience anxiety lasting for at least 6-months.  

Symptoms one experiences in Porphyrophobia are: 

• Excessive anxiety upon encountering the colour purple
• Excessive anxiety when thinking about purple colour 
• Inability to manage anxiety 
• Full-blown panic attacks 
• Avoiding the colour purple
• Increased heart beat 
• Breathlessness 
• Muscle tension 
• Nausea 
• Feelings of dizziness/fainting 
• Feeling depressed 
• Fear of an impending doom 
• Excessive sweating 
• Tremors 
• Hot/cold flashes 
• Butterflies in the stomach 
• Drying up of the mouth 
• Disorientation 
• Migraine 

For one to be diagnosed with Porphyrophobia, a person should experience at least 3-5 of these symptoms (including anxiety). 

Causes of Porphyrophobia 

Like every other specific phobia, Porphyrophobia is a result of either genetics or a past traumatic experience. 

Someone who has a family history of anxiety disorders or specific phobias has a higher chance of developing Porphyrophobia than someone who doesn’t.

This is because they are genetically predisposed to develop it.  

Genes and neurotransmitters also play a significant role in this genetic predisposition. 

This genetic tendency to develop a mental disorder/specific phobia can also be referred to as a Diathesis-stress relationship.

According to this, one with a genetic predisposition will not develop symptoms of Porphyrophobia until and unless there is some trigger event, instigating anxiety or fear related to purple colour. 

A trigger event that instigates anxiety and physiological symptoms related to Porphyrophobia can be, for example, someone as a child was told to fear the colour purple by his mischievous elder siblings.

One fears purple because of some traumatic event associated with it like seeing your loved ones getting killed by someone who had purple in his attire. 

Purple is a colour of mourning in Brazilian and Thai cultures, one gets terrified when exposed to it.

Maybe because they associate it with one’s death. This is why, someone with a fear of death can also have Porphyrophobia. 

One can be fearful of purple because they associate it with authority and if they fear authority as well. 

Therefore, Porphyrophobia is caused by both genetics and environmental factors. 

Treatment of Porphyrophobia 

Porphyrophobia, like all other specific phobias, has no exclusive type of treatment that is specifically designed to treat it.

Like all the other specific phobias, Porphyrophobia is treated by a number of different therapies including, Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (CBT) and or medications that lower downs the anxiety or other physical symptoms. 

• Exposure Therapy 

It is one of the most frequently used ways of treating patients with Porphyrophobia (or any other kind of specific phobia).

In this therapy, the patient is exposed to the source of his fear over a certain span of time.

To begin with the therapy, the therapist exposes the patient to the least triggering stimuli, a picture of the colour purple, for example. 

As the therapy progresses and the patient is able to control his anxious feelings, imagery can be used to take the treatment a step further.

In this part of the treatment the patient is asked to visualize/imagine a situation in which he is wearing something with the colour purple.

During this process of imagery, one actually feels being in that particular situation or place, experiencing various senses.

 Once the person successfully, without feeling anxious clears this step of the therapy, he is then exposed to a real that has purple in it, for example told to wear a purple shirt. 

While the patient is being exposed to different intensities of stimuli during the various stages of therapy, the therapist simultaneously teaches them coping exercises.

These include, breathing techniques or muscle relaxation methods to lower their anxiety, when in an actual fear/anxiety causing situation.

This teaches them how to remain calm when exposed to the fear stimuli.

Before actually starting the exposure therapy, the therapist needs to figure out the intensity of the patient’s fear, as to deduce whether they will be able to undergo this treatment, without any physical or psychological harm caused to them during the exposure processes. 

However, these steps desensitize one to their fear of purple by exposing them to that stimuli repeatedly, until they learn to undergo the situation without anxiety/panic attacks.

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) 

It is one of the most frequently used treatments for patients with almost all kinds of mental disorders.

Porphyrophobia is defined as the irrational fear of the colour purple. Thus, the therapist helps the patient in replacing these irrational thoughts with more rational ones. 

The patients are helped out in analyzing and justifying the way they feel about their fear stimuli.

Therapists assist them in uncovering the reasons behind their fear and later they provide them with alternate, pleasant thoughts. 

The patient is told to maintain a thought diary (with ABCD column) which provides them a replacement for every irrational thought they have, when thinking about a particular situation.

The ABCD stands for: 

i. A (antecedents) a situation or triggering event.

ii. B (belief) the thought that comes to one’s mind when in that triggering situation.

iii. C (consequences) the symptoms/feelings caused by that event/thought 

iv. D (dispute) alternate, rational thoughts provided by the therapist in an attempt to        dispute/challenge those irrational beliefs.

This last section of the thought diary is what really plays a role in helping the person feel good/less anxious.  

• EMDR 

This another form of treatment used with patients suffering from specific phobia or anxiety disorders.  It is used with patients who know the cause of their phobia. 

First, the therapist collects the patients’ history of different fears. They then identify the real cause of the particular fear/phobia the patient has. 

They then discuss any new/latest event that triggered their anxiety and fear in the past few weeks.

People coming with specific phobias are told to imagine their distress causing stimuli. 

The therapist then works with the individual in order for them to overcome their fear. In the case of Porphyrophobia, the patient will be advised on how to overcome his fear of the color purple.

They do this by creating a positive imagery for the patients’ feared stimuli.

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) 

This is another effective therapy used to treat Porphyrophobia. It is more commonly used with people suffering from personality disorders, but is also useful with patients suffering from this type of specific phobia.

Coping skills are taught in the DBT group which lasts for about 6-months and can have a number of people (depending on how many join the group). 

            i.Half-smiling is the first module of DBT. It is a technique that is used with patients who are distressed because of their irrational thoughts.

The technique is known as ‘Half-smiling’ because the person is first advised to think about the stimuli that fears or upsets them, and while doing so they are told to lift the corners of their mouths by subtly smiling.

Smiling is not that will help one get rid of these unpleasant thoughts, it is the person’s ability to constrain itself from thinking about those thoughts while half smiling.

          ii.Mindfulness, the second module, is another technique used in DBT groups which helps the individual in getting rid of those negative thoughts.

Individuals are told to focus on the present and be attentive to what is going on around them at the moment.

This helps in breaking the link between their mind and any negative thought that might come to them then. 

For example, a person is told to focus on his breath or on the sound of the wind around them, making use of their auditory sense. 

         iii.The third technique or module of the DBT is distress tolerance skills. This module teaches people to calm themselves down in healthy ways when they are distressed or emotionally overwhelmed.

Individuals are allowed to make wise, rational decisions and take immediate action, rather than being captured by emotionally destructive thoughts that might make the situation worse.

Reality acceptance skills are also learnt under this model so that people fully accept reality and later make plans on how to address the problem.

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) 

MBSR is a meditation therapy, used to manage stress or anxiety. It is an 8-week program which includes group sessions.

Mindfulness meditation and Hatha yoga are practiced in these sessions. Lectures and group discussions are also done to talk about mental health and increase interactivity.

In mindfulness meditation the person is told to, for example, focus on the sensations felt while breathing or the rhythm of the chest rising and falling during the process.

This distracts the person’s attention from something stressful to something which is neutral and soothing. 

For quick and effective treatment, patients are also given a set of home works, for example 45 minutes of yoga and meditation sessions for 6 days a week and to record their results/feelings in a book or diary for 15 minutes a day.

• Drug Therapy 

Drugs are used to reduce the physical symptoms caused by Porphyrophobia.

Drugs are very quick in effectiveness, as they start showing progress in the patients’ health at least 2 weeks after the medicine is taken. 

This type of biological treatment is usually more effective if the cause of the phobia is only genetic.

However, these drugs/medicines are not to be taken without a doctor’s prescription or consultation. 

Two types of drugs are used in the treatment of this phobia:

1. Antidepressant Drugs

These drugs, as the name suggests don’t only treat depression but are also very effective in treating phobias.

Medicines like Paxil reduce the anxious feelings of a person and makes him feel calm. They need to be taken on a daily basis but not without a doctor’s advice.

2. Anti-anxiety Drugs

Medicines like Klonopin are anti-anxiety drugs.

They are most commonly used with patients who experience panic attacks and also lowers their anxiety by binding to receptor cells of the brain that cause these unpleasant symptoms.

Whether the cause of Porphyrophobia, or any other type of specific phobia is genetics, environmental or both, the best and the most effective way of treating them is by using a combination of both biological treatments (drugs) with cognitive treatment (for example CBT/exposure therapy).

Titles to read 

• Comprehensive Stress Management

by Jerrold Greenberg

• The Stress Management Workbook: De-stress in 10 Minutes or Less

by Ruth C. White PhD MPH MSW

• Overcoming Panic, Anxiety, & Phobias: New Strategies to Free Yourself from Worry and Fear

by Shirley Babior

• Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear

by Irena Milosevic and Randi McCabe

Frequently Asked Questions 

Examples of other interesting phobias

Enetophobia

Hobophobia

Kolpophobia

Kopophobia

Kosmikophobia

Negrophobia

Zelophobia

Citations 

• https://psychtimes.com/porphyrophobia-fear-of-the-color-purple/
• https://common-phobias.com/Porphyro/phobia.htm
• https://fearof.org/porphyrophobia/
• www.bourncreative.com
• https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/color-symbolism-and-meanings-around-the-world