Frigophobia

Frigophobia is a phobia concerning the pathological fear of hypothermia, being excessively concerned about becoming cold. The source describes it as a psychiatric condition that appears mainly in Chinese culture, where sufferers compulsively bundle up in heavy clothes and blankets whatever the surrounding air temperature. It has been linked to other psychological disorders such as hypochondriasis and obsessive-compulsive disorder. A 1975 study among ethnic Chinese people in Taiwan noted that frigophobia may be culturally linked to koro, in which male sufferers feel that the penis is retracting into the body because of an insufficiency of the male element, yang. Male frigophobia sufferers, by contrast, correlate coldness with an over-abundance of the female element, yin. The entry is a culture-bound condition and should be read as a record of how clinicians and researchers have described it, not as medical advice.