CHRONOPHOBIA (fear of the passage of time): what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment

  • Jan 21, 2022
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Chronophobia: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment

The fact that the years pass for all people is a well-known motto. As time goes by, the human being ages and certain activities can no longer be carried out in the same way as before. Time is an impossible factor to stop and its passage has varied effects depending on each person.

On the one hand, there are people who give a certain value to the passage of time, since they achieve greater maturation with respect to certain events that they go through in their lives. In these cases, the passage of time can represent an opportunity. However, there are other people who have a great fear of the passage of time. This generates a series of consequences, both physical and mental, that affect their social relationships and their daily activities.

Given this, it is transcendental to know accurate data that allows us to act efficiently in the face of this problem. If you want to know more about this, in this Psychology-Online article, we will provide you with information about the Chronophobia (fear of the passage of time): what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment.

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Index

  1. What is chronophobia
  2. Symptoms of Chronophobia
  3. Causes of chronophobia
  4. Treatment of chronophobia

What is chronophobia.

When we refer to the term chronophobia, we are referring to an anxiety disorder characterized by a irrational fear and exacerbated over time. This disorder is classified within the group of specific phobias determined by the DSM-V[1]. According to this manual, specific phobias such as chronophobia must meet the following qualities in order to be diagnosed:

  • Fear and/or anxiety in the face of a specific situation related to time.
  • Avoidance of the specific situation.
  • Disproportionate fear and/or anxiety to the real danger that time represents.
  • The duration is six months or more.
  • deteriorating relationships social, work and family.

Symptoms of chronophobia.

Chronophobia has a series of demonstrationsboth physical and psychological, that must be taken into account for your diagnosis. Next, we will present the most relevant symptoms of chronophobia:

  • Headaches. Discover the relationship between anxiety and headache and how to calm them down.
  • dizziness
  • Tremors.
  • Palpitations.
  • Breathing difficulties.
  • Thoughts related to death.
  • Fears about life.
  • Sickness.
  • vomiting.
  • Shortness of breath.

It should be noted that the presence of any of these symptoms does not necessarily imply that a person suffers from chronophobia. Given this, it is important that the diagnosis be carried out by a professional of health that evaluates the characteristics of the patient and supervises the clinical evolution of the same.

Chronophobia: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment - Symptoms of chronophobia

Causes of chronophobia.

When we are facing a person diagnosed with chronophobia, it is transcendental to be able to locate the possible causes that give rise to this clinical picture, since this will allow deciding the most appropriate treatment for each person. In this way, below, we will describe the most frequent causes of chronophobia:

factors environmental

Throughout life, people go through experiences that leave certain memories that last over time. Given this, it is possible that a person who suffers from this fear has lived in the past some situation in which the passage of time brings negative consequences, both for the body and for the mind.

This can be reflected in the imitation of behavioral traits of significant people in the environment who have instilled this fear.

Genetic factors

There are certain sectors of the cerebral cortex linked to the processing of information from the environment in which there is a predominance of fear. Although there is not enough evidence to support this, it is possible that people who suffer from chronophobia have certain alterations in neural functioning and in hormones such as cortisol and aldosterone. If these hormones have very high levels, this can be detrimental to health. Therefore, in this article, we tell you how to lower cortisol.

Treatment of chronophobia.

If you are wondering how to treat chronophobia, despite the difficulties that it entails for daily life, in currently there are treatments available that have proven to be effective in addressing this problematic. In the following items, we will see how to overcome chronophobia.

psychological therapy

The goal of therapy is to help the patient to solve certain problems that represent inconveniences in daily life.

  • short-term therapies: they focus on solving problems in a limited period of sessions in which strategies are incorporated that allow the person to face situations of stress or anxiety. In this sense, the cognitive behavioral therapy appears as the most prominent approach, since it works on the emotions, thoughts and behaviors of the person.
  • long-term therapies: trying to locate the source of a person's problems. This results in the patient being able to think or act differently in situations of anxiety.

psychiatric medication

In cases where chronophobia is severe, administration of certain psychoactive drugs it may be an alternative that produces modifications in the neuronal connections that are linked to emotions such as fear. However, the supply of medication must be supervised by a health professional working in conjunction with a psychologist.

Chronophobia: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment - Treatment of chronophobia

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Chronophobia: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

References

  1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Arlington: Pan American Medical Publisher.

Bibliography

  • Lee, P. (2020). Chronophobia. On time in the art of the 60s. Murcia: Center for Documentation and Advanced Studies of Contemporary Art.
  • Malishev, M. (2011). Between chronomania and chronophobia. Science Ergo Sum, 18 (1), 109-110.

Chronophobia: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment

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