Color Anxiety - Please help

[relax200]

I have strong anxiety when I have to make a decision related to colors.  Initially it was paint color but now I found a color I like, I will always use it.

More recently it is a tablecloth.  I have used an old tablecloth in bad condition far longer than I needed to because I could not change color.  Every time I change color, I either hold my breath looking at it or hold my breath thinking about it.  I also blame it for raising my blood pressure whether or not it does.

The old tablecloth is now in bad condition and I have tried changing to a few different ones and each time, I am having a similar reaction.  I'd hope that after awhile I won't even think about it but is there a way to not be affected outside of trying to get the exact same color as the old one.

Thanks

[kconnors]

Hi,

That's interesting your issue with your tablecloth . . . mine used to be with a pen that if I did not have to write an exam would send me into anxiety . . . I think that we form attachments and perhaps, at least for me, it was an irrational equation of success with the pen rather than with me . . . my friend told me it was like the "blankie" that her daughter had . . . a sense of familiarity, I guess . . . in any case, I eventually got away from my good luck pen by first keeping it but putting it away for longer and longer periods of time; taking it to an exam, but not using it until I lost it one day and I could not find a replacement . . . you know, thinking about this now, I am not even sure that I really lost it or if somehow I just put it away some place never to be found because I did not need it . . .

Perhaps you could try the same technique . . . find a tablecloth that is similar in colour but not quite as a first step and put your old table cloth away . . . eventually go further out of the colour spectrum . . .for example, if your favourite colour is dark blue, start lightening up until the blue is very pale . . . .it may take a long time to do so but you may be like I was and eventually broaden your colour . . . if it is any help to you, a close colleague of mine could not wear anything other than black . . . no reason other than she told me that she just got overly confused in trying to match colours so black was the safest to coordinate . . . she got over it when one day another colleague asked her how long she had been in mourning assuming that someone in her family had passed away :)

In any case, let us know how you are doing . . . take care, KC