Arithmophobia

The restaurant bill arrives and everyone starts working out who owes what. Your chest gets tight. You hand over your card and say “just split it evenly,” even though you only had a salad, because doing the sum in front of people feels impossible.

Arithmophobia is an intense fear of numbers. Some people fear all numbers. Others fear only certain ones, such as 4, 13, or 666. It’s also called numerophobia. Cleveland Clinic: Arithmophobia

It isn’t listed as a diagnosis in the DSM-5, the manual many clinicians use, but some people treat it as a specific phobia. Cleveland Clinic: Arithmophobia That’s why we class it as a common informal term. A strong, lasting fear of something specific that is out of proportion to the real danger can fit the description of a specific phobia. APA Dictionary of Psychology

Two kinds of number fear

The word gets used for two fairly different experiences.

The first is fear of particular numbers. This one usually comes from superstition or religion. Cleveland Clinic gives three common examples: 4, which sounds like the word for death in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese; 13, tied to the 13th guest at the Last Supper and other stories; and 666, the “number of the beast” in the Book of Revelation. Cleveland Clinic: Arithmophobia We have separate pages on tetraphobia, triskaidekaphobia, and hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

The second is fear of numbers in general: counting, sums, prices, bills, and math of any kind. That version overlaps a lot with math anxiety, which researchers have studied for decades. The idea of “number anxiety” goes back to a 1957 paper by Dreger and Aiken. Frontiers in Psychology: Dowker et al., 2016

What is math anxiety?

A widely used 1972 definition calls math anxiety “a feeling of tension and anxiety that interferes with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems” in everyday life and at school. Frontiers in Psychology: Dowker et al., 2016

It isn’t rare. A 2016 review of 60 years of research gathered several estimates. One early estimate said about 11% of university students had math anxiety strong enough to need counseling. Another put about 17% of the population at high levels. Frontiers in Psychology: Dowker et al., 2016 The numbers vary because there’s no agreed cutoff for “high.”

People have complained about math for a long time. The same review notes that the rhyme “Multiplication is vexation … and practice drives me mad” goes back at least to the 1500s. Frontiers in Psychology: Dowker et al., 2016

Math anxiety and arithmophobia aren’t the same thing. Many people with math anxiety feel tense during tests or money tasks but get on with life. The phobia label fits better when the fear is severe, lasts, and makes you avoid numbers in ways that cost you.

What can it feel like?

Here’s a made-up example. Imagine a woman who works in a shop. She’s fine until her manager asks her to take a turn on the till. Just picturing the change drawer makes her stomach drop. She starts calling in sick on till days. At home she lets bills pile up unopened because looking at the totals brings on a wave of panic.

Cleveland Clinic lists the main symptom as extreme anxiety around numbers, along with physical signs such as chills, dizziness, sweating, a racing heart, nausea, shortness of breath, and shaking. Cleveland Clinic: Arithmophobia

The dread often hits before any math happens. A 2012 brain imaging study found that for people with high math anxiety, just waiting for a math task raised activity in brain areas linked to threat and pain. While they were actually doing the math, that link wasn’t seen. The authors put it simply: it’s not that math itself hurts; the anticipation of math is what’s painful. PLOS ONE: Lyons and Beilock, 2012 If you know the feeling of a stomach ache before a test, this is the same idea. Our guide to anticipatory anxiety covers it in more depth.

Fear or phobia?

Disliking math is common. Feeling a little nervous before a test is normal. Clinicians look for a pattern like this:

• the fear has lasted six months or more
• you go out of your way to avoid looking at or thinking about numbers
• you feel instant dread when a task involves numbers
• the panic is far bigger than any real threat
• it disrupts your daily routine

Those come from Cleveland Clinic’s description of how a provider might assess it. Cleveland Clinic: Arithmophobia Our fear versus phobia guide explains the difference further.

Why might it start?

Often there’s no single clear cause. Possible factors include a family history of anxiety, other conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder, and bad experiences with numbers, such as being scolded or bullied for doing badly in math class. Cleveland Clinic: Arithmophobia

For math anxiety, researchers have also looked at early trouble with math skills and at social factors, such as having teachers who are anxious about math themselves. Those can feed each other and form a loop. Frontiers in Psychology: Dowker et al., 2016 Girls and women tend to rate themselves lower in math and report more math anxiety, even in countries where boys and girls perform about the same. Frontiers in Psychology: Dowker et al., 2016

How it can affect your life

Numbers are everywhere: prices, time, phone numbers, recipes, pay slips. That makes avoidance costly. Math anxiety can push people away from math classes and the jobs that need them. PLOS ONE: Lyons and Beilock, 2012 Cleveland Clinic notes that someone afraid of all numbers may have fewer work options and may struggle to pay bills or keep a budget. Cleveland Clinic: Arithmophobia

Anxiety can also make the math itself harder. The 2016 review describes how worry uses up working memory, the mental space you need to hold numbers in your head while you work. Frontiers in Psychology: Dowker et al., 2016 So the fear can produce the very mistakes it predicts.

What can help?

Exposure therapy is often the first treatment. You might start by imagining a task with numbers and slowly work up to doing it for real, with a therapist setting the pace. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps you spot thoughts that aren’t true or helpful. Some people also try hypnotherapy. Medicine may help if there’s an anxiety disorder underneath, but it isn’t a cure for the fear itself. Cleveland Clinic: Arithmophobia The NHS lists CBT among the main talking therapies for phobias. NHS: Phobias

Research on math anxiety adds one more tool. In studies by Beilock and colleagues, people who spent about 10 minutes writing about their worries before a test did better than those who didn’t, and the benefit showed up in people with high anxiety. A later study found the same kind of help for people with high math anxiety on hard math tasks. Frontiers in Psychology: Dowker et al., 2016 The idea is that writing the worry down frees up mental space. It’s an easy thing to try before a test or a money task.

Small steps you can take now

• Write down your worries for a few minutes before a task with numbers.
• Use a calculator or a budgeting app without guilt. Tools are allowed.
• Pick one small, low-stakes number task a day, such as checking a receipt.
• Practice slow breathing when you feel the dread start. Cleveland Clinic: Arithmophobia

These won’t fix a severe phobia alone, but they can make the next step a bit easier.

If someone you love fears numbers

Don’t tease them about being “bad at math,” and don’t take over every number task for them, since that can keep the fear going. Offer to sit with them while they open a bill or work out a tip. If the fear is costing them work or money, encourage them to see a doctor. Our guide on supporting someone with a phobia has more ideas.

When to get help

Talk to a doctor or therapist if fear of numbers is affecting your job, your money, or your schooling, or if it brings on panic. Saying “numbers make me panic and I avoid them” is a fine place to start. Our guide to talking to a doctor about a phobia can help you prepare.