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Other Phobias

Chrometophobia – The Fear of Money

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Decoding Chrometophobia: The Fear of Money

Do you shudder at the thought of spending money? Or perhaps handling cash gives you the jitters. You probably feel anxious or suffer from the fear of mismanaging money all the time.

Maybe you try to keep away from money as much as you can. If any of this sounds familiar, you could be suffering from chrometophobia. But what is chrometophobia? Chrometophobia is the phobia of money or of spending money. As unusual as it may seem, this is a real phobia that causes some people to act in self-destructive ways.

Everything You Need to Know about Chrometophobia

Money is so sought in today’s society that it’s difficult for people to grasp the concept of chrometophobia. Money phobia? Ridiculous. Everyone loves money. But think back to a time when you met someone who was so reluctant to spend money that you labeled them a miser. Or, someone who was given money but refused to collect it with their bare hands. They might have been suffering from chrometophobia, a fear of money or a fear of spending money.

What Does Chrometophobia Feel Like?

Chrometophobia goes beyond the fear of spending money or fear of money itself. So what makes people with this phobia different? Well, some with chrometophobia would rather not spend their money on essential products even though they have the cash on hand. They fear running out of money, and choose to do without the things they need. Others are scared to earn money because they fear the responsibility and the negative effects it may have on their lives.

So, to sum it up, some avoid money as much as possible, while others have an overwhelming compulsion to hoard their money. Chrometophobia enables self-destructive behaviors around one of the world’s most valued commodities: cash. It’s a real and overwhelming phobia to deal with.

Chrometophobia Causes

There are many causes of chrometophobia, but the major cause of chrometophobia is experience. If you grew up in a family where money was tight, then you may be more susceptible to suffering from chrometophobia. If you had traumatic experiences related to money, that may be the cause of developing this phobia.

Some may have been bullied in the past as a result of their financial condition. Chrometophobia is caused by past events like this, especially traumatic ones. Chrometophobia affects those who have had negative experiences directly linked to money. Like a businessman or investor, who went bankrupt or was duped. This could lead them to be extremely meticulous and anxious about regressing to that stage in their life.

Another reason for having this phobia may be a result of the stigma around money matters and financial conditions. Money is a very important asset today and overspending has become a major concern. We all have bills to pay and may sometimes worry about collapsing under financial pressure. This could cause a person to develop negative emotions around money.

Chrometophobia Symptoms

Everyone deals with stress over money. Pending rents, student loans, college tuition—there’s an endless list of money problems that trouble us. That’s when symptoms of chrometophobia are most likely to pop up. Listed below are a list of some of the symptoms you might experience is you suffer from a fear of money.

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Constantly counting money
  • Refusal to engage in activities such as dinners and outings
  • Reluctance to collect or touch money
  • Difficulty holding a job or earning money
  • Reluctance to buy necessities such as toiletries, tampons, etc.
  • Anxiety when around expensive objects
  • Avoiding the payment of important bills like rent, electricity, etc.
  • Inability to sleep
  • Anger, irritability & mood swings
  • Withdrawing in social situations
  • Fear of losing control over finances

Physical Symptoms

  • Dizziness
  • Sweating
  • Heart palpitations
  • Muscle tension
  • Headaches
  • Nausea or diarrhea
  • Dry mouth
  • Shortness of breath

Do you feel like you check at least half of these boxes? If that is the case, you might have chrometophobia.

Chrometophobia Treatment: How to Deal with It

Living with chrometophobia can be a nightmare. That’s why, if you feel you might be suffering from it, start working on managing your phobia today.

Self-Help: What Can You Do to Help Yourself?

To overcome chrometophobia, speak with a partner or a trusted family member about your concerns regarding money. Opening up to a loved one is an effective way to deal with a phobia, especially before you choose to seek professional help. However, these open conversations should be therapeutic rather than advisory. Since it’s hard for someone to understand your phobia, their advice may come from a place of ignorance and have the potential to harm you. So, it’s helpful to talk to someone who will lend an ear to your fears rather than give professional advice.

Yoga is one of the most economical ways to treat any phobia. It encourages self-discipline, which may aid in reducing anxiety about spending and working. It has the potential to reduce stress and improve quality of life. It aids in sleep for those whose fears and thoughts give them sleepless nights. There are a variety of yoga practices that concentrate on breathing and relaxation techniques. For those with chrometophobia who struggle with headaches and migraines, there are yoga poses that can help ease that problem as well.

Professional Help for the Fear of Money: The Options Available

There are several professional recommended treatments for chrometophobia. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective methods of dealing with phobias. It’s a therapeutic and goal-oriented approach aimed at enhancing one’s mental well-being. Anxiety patients are frequently treated with this therapy. CBT helps in determining the source of the fear and alleviating its symptoms.

The most common advice for those plagued by their phobia is “face your fears.”  Well, this is exactly what exposure therapy is about. This type of treatment is administered by a mental health professional. You’ll be encouraged to confront your phobia. For example, you might be asked to spend reasonable amounts of money on necessities or touch dollar bills. The basis of such therapy is by exposing you to your fear stimulus, your reaction will lessen over time.

Learning to Cope with Chrometophobia

The truth is that no therapy can completely guarantee curing you of your phobia. But, in order to lead a normal life, you need to start working on your fear. This doesn’t imply harming yourself. You can begin to make improvements that decrease the intensity of your fear.

Wrapping It Up

Chrometophobia is primarily defined as a fear of money, but it also involves a fear of spending money. The truth is that financial concerns are reasonable. They promote self-discipline which helps keep a roof over your head.

When it becomes a phobia, though, things get complicated. Anxiety has the ability to affect our spirits. But hold your horses—there’s some good news. There are numerous treatments available to assist you in overcoming it. If you feel you need help, seek it today.

Stories Submitted by Our Readers

Fear of Money

My little girl has this fear. If there is money, coins, or bills beside her she won’t sit still until you move the money out of sight. She refuses to touch it! She can see us spending money but just won’t touch it. I wonder where this fear began.

Katie

I am a college student with this fear. It may not be full-blown, but I cannot stand touching coins or paper. The smell that it leaves on your hands makes me feel like I am going to throw up. I thought I was going crazy until I read the article on fear of money. I will just use plastic.

Tracy

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Your Fear Goes Up and Down

Are you someone who would rather climb the stairs than take the elevator? You call it squeezing in a workout after being sedentary the whole morning. Or perhaps you claim it's a faster route. These are both typical, normal, and acceptable reasons. But what if you need to be in the conference room on the eleventh floor in five minutes, and you're wearing your business suit and wingtips? Would you still prefer to take the stairs? If your answer is yes, then maybe it's time to take a closer look at your reasons for avoiding elevators. Elevators stir all sorts of emotions in passengers. From the discomfort of closeness to strangers to the sensations in our gut, elevators can be a source of the heebie-jeebies for many, but for some, they can also be a source of terror. Let's dig a little deeper into the latter, and see what this terror is all about and what can be done to manage it. To begin with, does being inside an elevator give you chills or the sweats? Or does it trigger an unpleasant memory? Perhaps you remember movies you've watched where something terrible happens inside an elevator. From Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, Final Destination 2, or the king of all elevator horror films, 2010’s Devil, the elevator becomes witness to something sinister and horrible. And you want nothing to do with any of it. You know that you're not claustrophobic. You can deal with heights just fine, too. And you know that you're not going to be trapped inside. All of these contribute to a fear of elevators—but they don't apply to you. Yet being inside one does something to you. It's hard to explain.

What is the Fear of Elevators Called?

What you have is a fear of elevators, which is called elevatophobia. It is most commonly triggered by an experience of getting stuck inside either due to a power outage or technical maintenance. Hearing about other people's experiences or watching a movie about similar circumstances can prompt a fear of elevators getting stuck with you inside. Usually, claustrophobics and agoraphobics may also develop elevatophobia because the triggers and objects of these fears are related. Claustrophobia is the fear of closed and cramped spaces, while agoraphobia is the fear of being trapped without any means of escape. Put the two together, and the elevator becomes the perfect combination of both phobias. The space is limited and closed, with only one means of entry and exit. You can add another point of access if you consider climbing the cables like they do in the movies, but that certainly isn't ideal.

Symptoms of Elevatophobia

If for some reason an elevator stops due to an outage or some technical difficulty, passengers with elevatophobia may go into full panic mode. Even if the maintenance team advises that it will just be a matter of minutes, by then, the person's mind has become irrational with the fear of the elevator falling, being stuck for hours, or other unpleasant thoughts. You would expect a person to exhibit the following physical symptoms: Additionally, you would be filled with that overwhelming anxiety where you feel that you have zero control over the situation. You start fearing the unknown and are filled with negative thoughts about death and imminent doom. You become irrational and unresponsive.

Possible Complications of Elevatophobia

When the panic sets in, the possibility of emergencies related to pre-existing conditions may make themselves known. This might include serious health crises like heart attacks or asthma attacks. When this happens, fear becomes a medical emergency. Elevator rides do not last long; it's just a matter of minutes or even less. But the fact that a person can escalate from panic to a near fatal medical situation classifies the fear of elevators as a 'hard phobia.'

Trying Some Self-Help Methods

Your fear of elevators can likely interfere with your social and work life and relationships. Not everyone understands that elevatophobia, like most phobias, can be crippling. But don't be disheartened. Depending on the level of your fear and level of control, you can gradually face and manage your phobia. Here are some recommendations you can try:
  1. Make a List of Everything that Entails Riding in an Elevator This is a systematic approach to getting over your anxiety. By following a step-by-step process, you can identify where the fear kicks in at its strongest. You can write a list of steps like pressing the topmost button and waiting to arrive on that floor, watching as the door closes and opens, being alone inside the elevator, or having delays with the doors opening. Now try doing the opposite. For example, face away from the door or occupy yourself with your phone so that you are distracted.
  2. Create Your Fear Ladder Although the name says fear of elevators, it is not the whole process that scares you. There are just phases and parts of the elevator riding experience that cause you to panic. So go back to the list you initially created and label the fear level you feel. You can do it numerically, too, like ten being 'really scary,' six, 'manageable scary,' and one, 'not scary at all.' You can put the corresponding fear levels so you can focus more time and effort into activities that are more scary to you.
  3. Face Your Fear By now, you have identified what scares you the most. You can try repetitive action to minimize your fear and increase your sense of ‘normalcy’. Remember that the longer you expose yourself to your fear, the better you get at handling your emotions. If you are feeling overwhelmed, stop. Pushing yourself too fast and too soon can backfire. Modify your pace and go slower instead.
  4. Talk About Your Fear People by nature, unfortunately, are not quick to offer understanding and support. You need to tell them what's wrong before they can empathize. Talk to someone who you trust and ask for their support, especially in the initial phase of overcoming your fear. If you are too afraid to ride the elevator alone, you can ask them to go with you, and before you realize it, you are on your floor, and there was no indication of panic.
  5. Learn To Be Patient Be patient with yourself and your predicament. This is, after all, your fight against fear. It might take hundreds of elevator ride practices before the fear gets under control. Even then, there might be some hesitations and episodes of nervousness. These are acceptable and expected, so cut yourself some slack and congratulate yourself for every progress.

Seeking Professional Help

Along with self-help, you can always enlist a medical professional's aid to support you with your elevatophobia. Talking to someone who has experience with similar cases can be comforting, because you know that you are not alone, and this situation can get better. Talk to your doctor about the severity of your fears and the symptoms that you experience. Explain how you deal with it in an attempt to control it. An exam and a health history are made to ensure that there are no unrelated or underlying problems that your symptoms might mask. Usually, phobias like this are approached with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Your doctor will talk about these options with you, and it's entirely up to you, with your doctor's recommendation, what you want to pursue. For psychotherapy, the most common type is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which aims to help you find different ways of behaving, thinking, and reacting when about to step inside an elevator or when already inside it. With medications, there are beta blockers and benzodiazepines, but note that these can have side effects. Whatever these side effects are, you should promptly share it with your doctor.

Simple Tips to Overcome Elevatophobia

Elevators are not perfect, but their likelihood to malfunction, fall, or get stuck is very low. If you are not fully confident with this information, you can help overcome your elevatophobia by learning common elevator safety tips and basic elevator operations. These should help curb your mild fear until you become more self-assured. In addition to that, here are some of the things that you can do to gradually overcome your fear of elevators—both in getting on and riding one.

Conclusion

Yes, elevatophobia can be a challenge in today's world, but don't allow the elevator to win. Don't let it stop you from taking a job on the top floor or attending a social gathering on the rooftop. Sure, you can take the stairs if you insist and arrive winded and sweaty, with the party about to wrap up. But is this the quality of life you seek? Elevators are designed to make life easier. There are guaranteed ways to help you overcome elevatophobia. Take the first step and seek help. Soon, you’ll see yourself breezing through the floors with those arduous stair climbs little more than a memory.
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