Perhaps the famous lines by E. M Cioran in his 1964 book ‘The Fall into Time” perfectly summarizes all that a Chronophobic individual goes through. Chronophobia is defined as the persistent and often irrational fear of the future or the fear of passing time. Since time can be considered as a “specific object”, Chronophobia falls under the category of specific phobias. The word Chronophobia is derived from Greek ‘chronos’ meaning time and phobos meaning fear.
Clutch at the moments, as I may…
They elude my grasp…
Each is my enemy…
It rejects me…
Signifying a refusal to become involved…
The question of time has always baffled mankind: many writers, philosophers, scientists, and social critics have tried to research its elusive nature. In case of persistent Chronophobia, the sufferer develops an extreme fear of passing time in that; s/he suddenly feels that the present moment is going to be in the past soon and this thought can terrify him/her. The phobic obsesses over time; s/he is extremely anxious so much so that it affects his/her day-to-day functioning. The phobia mainly affects prison inmates, elderly people or individuals who may already be suffering from various anxiety disorders.
Causes of Chronophobia
The causes of the fear of the future phobia greatly vary from person to person. Most experts believe that a highly stressful or traumatic event can suddenly bring on the phobia.
- Chronophobia, as mentioned above, can come on suddenly – sometimes, even a simple benign comment like “Time moves so fast” can trigger this phobia in a person already suffering from certain anxiety disorders.
- Depression is a major trigger of this phobia. A person might turn 40 and suddenly feel empty: this is the time when the kids usually leave the nest, and one starts feeling empty, useless or feels s/he is not contributing in any way.
- Loss of employment, death of a loved one, divorce or separation can also sometimes trigger Chronophobia.
- With passing time come the afflictions of old age as well as the inevitability of death.
- Women undergoing menopause are more prone to the fear of the future phobia.
- The phobia is also related to adrenal insufficiency, hormonal imbalance, surgery, certain medical conditions like thyroid, heart diseases etc.
- Prison inmates serving for long periods of time are also known to suffer from Chronophobia as they often lose the sense of time and reality. This condition is termed as prison neurosis and it is often accompanied by claustrophobia (owing to the confined space of prison cells.)
- Sometimes, even a traumatic event in one’s childhood can trigger this phobia.
- Chronophobia may also be hereditary or genetic.
Symptoms of Chronophobia
Chronophobia affects different people differently. A young man suffering from this phobia, for example, might suddenly drop out of college where most people his age are busy preparing for their future. Usually, chronophobes undergo various physical and emotional symptoms which include:
- Feeling totally detached from reality
- Having a full blown panic attack at the thought of passing time: breathlessness, heart palpitations and dizziness, fainting, sweating excessively and, in general, feeling completely out of control.
- Feeling lost-not knowing what to do –often embarrassing oneself in front of others.
- Feeling like running away, crying, shaking, or trembling.
- Having overwhelming thoughts of death and dying
- Being unable to express oneself clearly
Treating fear of the future and time
Many self help techniques and specialized treatments are available to help ease the severe anxiety that accompanies Chronophobia. Hypnotherapy is one such therapy which has given positive results and has even been approved by American Medical Association for treating various mental disorders.
Another form of psychotherapy, NLP or Neuro-linguistic programming is a proven therapy for overcoming the fear of the future phobia. An expert practitioner can help the phobic “fix” his/her preconceived notions about time and the future.
Other mind-body techniques to overcome this phobia are Yoga, Meditation, Pranayama (the ancient Hindu practice of deep breathing) and Tai Chi etc. Prisoners who have participated in the Art Of Living/Vipassna courses of guided meditation are known to have greatly benefited from such programs.
Keeping a pet or two is also known to be very therapeutic. Phobics are also urged to lead an active lifestyle as far as possible as this can help boost endorphins or “feel good hormones”. Activities like social work, gardening, teaching, volunteering for social causes, etc can also help one feel ‘more worthwhile’ and get one’s mind off the fear of the future phobia.
christoper says
I don’t know what will happen in the future.
Roman says
You are not alone, man.
HAJAR says
I thought I was the only one, honestly this fear got me since last year and I really do not know how to fight this. That feeling would kill me. Every time I start thinking of the future or even doing nothing I feel suffocated and my mind literally stops working. The fear of the future brings about insecurity and disappointments. I really don’t know what to do. I am still searching for a solution.
Pranay says
Try the solution mentioned above.
Sam says
My fear of the future started when the Amazon forest started to burn. I’m working on this, and I guess I feel helpless. Sometimes I get scared of the world ending, and people tell me I shouldn’t fear what I can’t control. The thing is, the fact that I can’t control it, that scares the shit out of me. Live day by day I guess.
Wolf says
Sam, the last part of your comment is why I ended up on this website. I have a fear of the unexpected which I believe is just as this “fact that I can’t control it, that scares the shit out of me” and it cuts across every aspect of my life. If anyone can throw more light on this I’d certainly be grateful.
Pranay says
As we can’t control time, in the same way we cannot control or overpower everything. This is how God made all of us. This is real fact, admit it. And go with the flow of life and experience every new birthday, sunshine, and moonlight.
Sharda says
Suddenly everything makes so much sense, I’ve been fearing the future for years now. The economy is so messed up, I have 60 different detailed plans written out for my future. Yet the most appealing is dying before high-school graduation.
Isla Marshall says
I thought I was the only one for a while but now I know I’m not alone. I’m only 14 and scared that everyone is going to die suddenly and that I don’t know what will happen. I feel like I’ve wasted parts of my life and that I’m going to waste more of my life. It is just terrifying that I’m growing up and so are my siblings. I just can’t help thinking that in x amount of time x will happen and I’m terrified I won’t make it.
Celeste says
I thought I was the only one too, I also feel the same as you and it’s just eh.
menna yasser says
i am chronophobic and i am only 14 to be honest the fact that 14 years passed in less than a second makes me so scared as the other 14 will pass as fast as those and i would not succeed in anything. whoever is my age or close i would like to just talk with them about it
scoutvd says
Me too but I’m younger than 13. It sucks so much. I’m also scared of so many other things. I think I might suffer from moderate anxiety as well. Yay.
Sydney says
I’m really glad to see I’m not the only one out there like this. I recently found out about this phobia and started to do some research. The further I went the more I realized that this sounded a lot like me. I’m in 11th grade and it’s hit me the hardest this year. I only have a year and a half until I’m going to college and expected to be responsible and to be an adult and it scares the holy heck out of me. Not to mention that the work load is ridiculous and I never feel like have enough time to get it all done. I don’t know how long I’ve had this, I always thought about the concepts of time a lot as a kid and something about it always kind of scared me. I think I first started to develop it in 8th grade when my best friend cut me out of her life completely. Ever since it’s terrified me to loose the ones I care about and I knew that time was something that could do that. I’m just really happy I’m not alone and there are people out there who understand.
Luna says
I know you commented this over a year ago. I dont think you’ll see my reply. I’m in the same position you were in now. Im in 11th grade with this horrible fear too. Ive feared time passing since i was about 4. I always imagined the deaths of loved ones and people not always being with me. I was in therapy but then i stopped and this year its getting worse. There’s no happy ending to my rant just glad im not alone. I hope things get better for you. Rootin for ya
Mister T says
Wow, I’m 21 and having this fear. I can see the roots starting at about age 18 and the symptoms are starting to occur more recently. Happy to see I’m not alone. It’s not an irrational fear so I assume there are many out there. Do your best to stay positive and turn the fear into a motivation to do good. Good luck to anyone going through this
B. A. says
Luna, I read some comments, but yours has made me burst into tears. It felt like I was reading a letter from me (when I was your age, had I known better what it was all about and before bearing the worst chapter) to myself, now 30.
I don’t know if you’ll read this, but how did you find out that you were probably dealing with chronophobia?
“I was in therapy but then i stopped and this year its getting worse.” Why did you stop and if you’re getting worse and acknowledging it, isn’t returning to therapy a positive option? I know therapy saved me and offered me the opportunity to gather tools to change habits – firstly by preventing that endless spiral chain of thoughts.
I hope you are doing better. And I hope you give a chance to all the help and options you have, for you and if that glue, maybe for those you love and love you and care for you, all the best.
Blasted says
I hate time. It’s just a crap measurement for duration. My awareness of dread, since my phobia developed had sharply increased, and at the end, like an “oven timer”; it stops. It’s aggravating to know me, as a person,and everything others are on a timer(mainly the “philosophical” stuff)), and such that, it has molded a “tradition of timelines” that people are “recommended” to live by: Getting married, having kids, buying a house, and so on, or face shame and scrutiny, why is this? Why is one subjected to such torments and trials only to be stopped by time? Then somebody, like me is overwhelmed, and still, time marches on and you must adhere to it, or face a form of “bad luck”. Everything we do is timed, whether we see it on the score board or the phone, one by one, we watch things around us be dismantled/destroyed, deaths, people move away, deterioration, of everything around a person and not a one can reverse, or stop the ride. Disease has a duration fitted with time, of course. You either wait through agony, or die from disease. Then the sick, cruel joke comes into play: How long can you last? It wont matter, because after you die, the people you thought would keep your name eternal, is stifled by a large meteor, to burn every parchment to ashes, or by war perhaps; does it matter?
Time is a big waste, and I say we ditch that stupid counter, but then, nothing would be getting here on time, except the inevitable death, that awaits every living being; right on time. You can’t respect time because it isn’t real, it is an illusion to distract us, we just can’t deal with it, and it certainly doesn’t heal you, but only for a moment of time.
I look at “time” as an opportunity for luck, and it plays a very large role in it, indeed. Im just not a very lucky person, I guess.
The universe needs to be sent back to oblivion, already. Prophecies and the word “fate” derives from time. And guess what else? I can’t very well stay here, on the PC; I gotta get up; it’s Time. Time is such a demanding PoS….
I am who I am. says
I’m 27, I’ll be 28 in less than a month. I graduated college 2011, it was supposed to be the happiest time of my life, a new start, to a bright future. Life had other plans. I wasted my time, worrying, being afraid, and fighting others who supported me but did not understand or trust me. I worked lousy part time jobs, i still do, i cant say i saved money. I cant say i got anything amazing out of it. All i can say is this. I made mistakes. Being human is making mistakes, worry about the future, and survival and especially success is also human. But too much of it crashes you, too much destroys one, and you end up failing without even trying. My father and mother i depended on too much. My father now has bladder tumors. He’s 65 and I’m scared shitless. I don’t want to lose him. I’m not ready to go alone- but as Jen once said in the movie the Dark Crystal- “Alright alone then” and later he met a companion and they went together. We live in our little bubbles, we blind ourselves with media, politics, religion, technology, age but i think that its all an illusion we make. Were never alone. From the mother who birthes us, to the gravekeeper who gently sends us off and in between all the strangers we meet. I can not say my fear of the future is gone. I can’t predict the future either, but just reading these comments. Just knowing others feel similar gives me courage to comfort and courage to be brave. We live in a cruel and beautiful world. That doesn’t always play fair, but as long as we all keep trying, keep open, forgiving, kind, and live simply one day at a time. Then i think we’ll be okay. Everything will be alright. Hope is easy to lose, but hold onto it and for me, sometimes i find comfort in the natural world, that will soothe me the most. Wind in my hair, the sound of water, and leaves, the softness of grass, firm solid earth, or playful, warm sand. Animals share this world with us and maybe they don’t talk not because they can’t but because they have an intimate knowledge we don’t. Dogs dream in their sleep as any owner knows, and cats have high senses. When all else fails nature is a good healer, and soothing. Stop and smell the roses. All the moments i have with my parents are precious, i cant go back in time. So I’m forgiving them and I’m forgiving me too. Alot of my fear of the future came from regret, guilt hate and self hesitation, doubt and distraction. Not all of these flaws can i escape but i can forgive myself and thus i think, and i hope, i pray i can move forward, chin up. I chose the road less traveled. I stopped along the way. I got stuck in briar patch, but i’ve clawed myself out of the worst of it, and i found a new path or maybe im in the woods making one? All in all the one joy in not knowing the future is this: Many bad things could/ and will happen its true, BUT who knows what good and wonderful things will too! Life is full of meetings and partings, ups and downs and it endlessly cycles all around. Take pleasure in the little things like a cup of tea or how pretty rain is on a glass window, try to be happy and just breathe everyone. Breathe. :-)
CJ says
Thank you.
Stephen says
Hey there, I just read your comment. I would have been just turning 22 when you wrote it. Now 27. I struggled with this a lot at 22, and it seems to have made a strong comeback this past year, especially. Can I ask, how are you doing now in your 30’s? I get these irrational fears of where I’ll be and how I’ll feel in a few years. Are there any strategies that helped you? Thanks, and I hope you are well!
amateurbrush says
I have/had something like this. It is as follows:
I fear I will be “sucked into the future too quickly” and so I will have the rug pulled from under me, or fall of a cliff (to put it figuratively).
Although it is irrational, it causes me to become withdrawn and extremely negative and antisocial. What I’m doing is sort of trying to ‘ground’ myself but it doesn’t work. I feel as if I get up and go out and be more proactive that I will be ‘sucked into the future’ and lose control and agency…..if this makes any sense?
Does anyone else suffer from this?
Nick says
You’re not the only one, I fear this too I’ve thought of the same thing. You’re not alone, I did too.
Jennie says
It is so relieving to see so many people with this same feeling. My chronophobia has mostly gone away by now, but every so often it comes back to haunt me. Back when I was in middle school, my brother and mom were talking about religion. All my life, I never really thought about it, as I was too busy with other thoughts. By the end of their talk, she mentioned that, “there are some people who don’t believe in anything at all,” and then it struck me. I had seen so many documentaries about evolution and the big bang and whatnot, that it all finally made sense to me. I started putting the pieces together, and started thinking about the bible. Things like “Noah’s Ark” and Jesus turning water into wine. “someone could have easily just made this up!” I thought to myself. And then I began to wonder about death. The thought of there being nothing after death just… scared me so much. Losing everything and not being able to feel anything about it. Friends and family. Big life goals and memories. I stayed in my room for the remainder of the day thinking about this. Every once in a while, I would realize something big, and my chest would hurt more and more, and I had the feeling of butterflies in my stomach. Things like, “I could die at any moment” or, “this will happen to my loved ones as well.” It plagued me for months. I only wanted to stay in my room. It was the most comfortable place I could think of. My room got messier and messier, though, and my mom refused to let me leave my room at all until it was clean. I just sat there, though. I didn’t care about it. I cried silently to myself so that they wouldn’t hear me (I don’t like crying in front of others). I managed to find my phone through all the junk, though. I would listen to the same song over and over again. It was relaxing, at first, but the song eventually grew old for me. I moved on to a new song. “It’s gonna get old eventually” I thought to myself. “Before you know it, the song is gonna be over.” I have never told my family about this, as I don’t want them to ever feel what I went through. I was all alone, living in fear and sadness. I had thoughts of suicide. Death was just what I feared, but the sick, overwhelming thoughts of time were even worse. I was so sick of thinking about it. I just wanted it all to finally be over with. But I realized all the pain that my suicide would bring to my loved ones. They wouldn’t know why I did it. They might even blame themselves! And I couldn’t put my feelings on a suicide note. I could barely put them into words. And so I sat there again, in my dark, cluttered room. My grades were worse than they already were, I had no friends. No one to relate to. My mom eventually caught me with my phone and took it up. My last means of entertainment. The pain in my chest, the beating of my heart, the butterflies in my stomach were all even worse. I didn’t know what to do. I was in so much pain, I didn’t know how to put it into words, and I couldn’t find a way to calm myself down. I fell to my knees, crying as hard as I possibly could, and prayed. “Jesus help me,” I whisper-yelled, “I don’t want to live in this hell anymore! Just give me a sign! Any sign! Please I am begging you!” My face was running with tears and snot, but I didn’t care. “Just give me one sign.. and I will worship you every day- I will go to church every single day, I don’t even care! Any chance I get I will worship you just give me a sign!” I looked up at the ceiling for a good ten minutes or so. Nothing came. I fell to the ground, sobbing. A few months later, I found a way to cope with these feelings on my own. My school kicked me out for missing so much work, and they labelled it as “defiance”. My mom had been looking for schools to put me in. I didn’t fit the criteria for any of them. She was so tired, moving around from school to school all day, but there was one more that she hadn’t been to. It was a modest little christian private school. She told me about how she spoke to some of the teachers, and, surprisingly, they accepted me. They didn’t have many students there already, so they were thrilled when my mom told them about me. They didn’t care about my grades or anything. They just needed students. I was nervous when I first arrived. I didn’t know the first thing about Christianity. I didn’t even know about the word “sin”. But they took me in, and I immediately found people who shared my interests. They showed me more love than a non-familial group of people has ever shown to me. I was so happy to no longer feel alone, I could have cried. I hadn’t felt so comfortable and accepted since I was little. It was a Wednesday, and, coincidentally, that was “Worship Day”. Every Wednesday, they would push aside some classes, set up the stage at the auditorium, get the high schoolers/middle schoolers together, and just sing. I listened to the words. They had so much meaning. I never realized that people actually felt love for their Lord. I always thought people worshiped out of fear. It was inspiring, but I didn’t convert. I attended that school for two years. Over the course of that time, I became a Christian, and I essentially forgot all about my chronophobia. It was quite a journey.
Oyinlade says
My boyfriend is leaving college soon. I have this fear that I am never going to see him again and maybe he is going to find another person you know. I am so scared.
Greezy Mayne says
Can I use this picture for my band? Oh yea I also suffer from Chronophobia but honestly don’t we all at least the ones who are aware of the conscious
Hawklance says
Live with the unknown, do what you want when you want. Life will not bend to your plans, you must bend. Be like water and flow. Make decisions, big or small, and live with the consequences.
JazzyRae says
I know I worry about everything, and am very paranoid about how nothing can be really trusted, so I’m in a way afraid of a lot of things to a minimal amount, but this is something I struggle with especially. I’m 16 and it’s not about what I’m going to do with my life (not entirely). I’m more worried about time going by so fast, which it has, the next thing I know I’m all alone in the real world out there in the cold. I’m always panicked about being late and look at my watch/the time way too often, and I never leave home without my watch. Recently something big happened and I became more paranoid then before. I feel like I can’t trust anybody in this world except three best friends I have. What I’m afraid about is that in just a year, that will go by way to fast, we’ll all graduate and move forward. I’m terrified that our friendship will break by then. I’m terrified of a future without them. A future where I can’t trust anyone. For someone with minimal drama in their life I have too many issues… I’m happy now, but I know without my friends reality becomes a world of darkness and I see nothing, trust nothing. I’m scared of slipping into that darkness. Is that irrational?
Sydney says
I know that this is a little late but no. It’s almost exactly what I’m going through as well. I lost my best friend who cut me out of their life a while back and ever since I’ve been terrified of loosing those I cared about. I have new friends now who have promised me that they won’t let our friend group fall apart no matter where we go. I believe but at the same time I’m also so scared about it happening with the future. You’re not alone.
Jax says
I definitely have this phobia. I’m 14 years old and I have extreme anxiety when it comes to me thinking about my future. It happens mainly when I think of what career I will have. I have no idea what kind of career that I want and I also get scared that in the future things will be a lot different, like things won’t need people anymore. I just all around hate thinking about the future, I can’t even make plans for next week without feeling anxiety. Someone please respond if you have a similar feeling.
ArisFriendJazz says
I’m 16, but I’d like to mention that my friend Ari is also having the exact same feelings as you. You’re not alone. She’s 17 and has felt like this for as long as I’ve known her for sure, since she was your age almost.
ben harvey says
i’m 15 and I suffer from this . Reading through old school year books really triggers it for me
Shelby says
For me, my fear of the future began in the middle of my college years. At that time (around 2007-2009) I started having moderate to severe lower back pain and it started interrupting my attendance at school and eventually I just stopped going and decided to transfer to a school where I could do most of my work online. In 2008 I had a spinal fusion to help relieve the pain of some herniated discs, but they only fused one of two levels so I never got any relief. A couple years after that, I was approved for a neurostimulator implant to help disrupt pain signals and it helped a little, but now it doesn’t even turn on. Anyhow I barely finished my degree completion by February 2011 through DeVry (biggest mistake of my life and now I owe more than $45,000 in loans with ZERO means of paying it back), got married to my long-time boyfriend that May (and separated 5 months later), got a new boyfriend in November 2011 and dated him for 3.5 years, and here I am almost 5 years later and still unsure of what my future holds because the pain restricts a lot of my life. I can’t do things like I used to and I’m only 30! I feel terribly embarrassed when I’m with my friends and I have to sit down without them because I just can’t stand or walk all day without pain. It’s awful to feel like an 80 or 90 year-old in your 30’s! Most of my days are spent in bed because that is where I am most comfortable. I do get up and clean here and there, but I still can’t do as much work around the house as I’d like to get done in a day. I feel like my home is just a comfortable form of a prison and time just goes by so fast and then I just feel like I failed at life because I haven’t done anything that contributes to the world. I feel like the most massive failure there ever was. Then pile on top all the money I owe for school loans, medical emergencies, and other problems and it just makes life not worth living. I constantly feel the max amount of stress a person can handle without going completely insane or committing suicide and it is just the worst feeling in the world feeling like this 24/7. I’m so lost and keep falling further down the rabbit hole each day.
Jonathan says
I completely agree with this person. The things she are stating are 100% true! I was an home student and accepted in to multiple schools and went on to college where anxiety, depression also forced me to stop going to class and drop out in between my second semester. In high school i felt i had my life planned out now im afraid to even do the slightest things because fear of judgement and whether or not i’ll be accepted. I would love to go back to school but i feel that once I go back the same issues will come back. Not to mention already financially in debt from student loans and a very unstable support system for someone attempting to better himself.
alexia says
I’m 15 years old and I think that I might have this phobia. I’m really worried about my future, not succeeding in life, not being able to do what I want to do with my life. Sometimes I find myself thinking about that and I get extremely nervous. But I can’t talk about this seriously with my family, they just say that I’m being stupid and that I shouldn’t worry, but I can’t help it! It frustrates me a lot.
JazzyRae says
You’re not alone Alexia. I completely understand that.
Adam Son says
I’m 15 i sometimes got moderate anxiety attacks when thinking how time fly’s by and moments leave me just like that. I used to get sad when hugging my little brother because i knew these moments never last. He wont be little forever. Reading threads like these are helpful i sleep much easier at night these past few days
Omlet says
I hope you are doing good. I just turned 15 and I want to be able to buy my own things and have my own place, but I will have to grow up in order to do that.
Jeffrey says
This once happened to me, but now i’m free from it. Now, you should know thinking about the future brings alot of fears esp when one feels left out. In my own case i couldn’t stop thinking about the future, though i wanted it to stop but i just couldn’t. But later on i found a solution. I decided to never stop working hard, surround myself with serious minded people, always positive minded, and be with God.. And now, i’m loving my life, though i haven’t achieved anyting. And i haven’t stopped thinking about the future neither, but this time around it doesn’t bring fears, it brings joy, because i’m positive minded. I only think of great and wonderful things for myself.
Mena says
I actually just graduated from high school and I am completely scared of what the future holds for me. I know I’m way too young to be scared but I can’t help it. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my future. I see all my past classmates packing up and going to Universities with their entire futures planned out and I have no plan whatsoever. Hopefully the future isn’t as bad as I have it mapped out to be in my head.
Winifred says
I am a student, almost graduating, and I have some kind of fear of my future. I haven’t achieved as much as I planned, and I fear I may never reach my goal. It’s beginning to affect me, I don’t know what to do.
Aryan Jose says
You just get on your work and prove your hard work. Also blank up your mind from stressful thoughts. Make yourself busy too. Go on performing your daily tasks cheerfully.
Rakesh Mittal says
I feel depressed at my job and I have a fear for the future, what can I do now?