Last Updated on April 13, 2023 by Mike Robinson
Chronophobia is a specific phobia in which a person develops a long-term fear. People who suffer from this condition have an uncontrollable, excessive, and irrational fear of time.
Since the phobic fear that people experience makes them highly anxious, it qualifies as an anxiety disorder. Similar to other types of phobias, chronophobia puts a person in constant contact with their feared element, which can have very serious and disabling effects on them.
The concept of time passing is an abstract one. Therefore, a person with chronophobia may experience anxiety at any time, regardless of the circumstances, as time is always moving. However, it is typical for the anxious and phobic symptoms of chronophobia to be amplified at particular times when the passage of time is more apparent.
For example, making comments such as “how fast time passes” to a person with chronophobia can result in an imminent anxiety response.
Common Characteristics
Chronophobia is a form of anxiety. It refers to a type of specific phobia that is unusual. In other specific phobias, like spider phobia or a fear of heights, the thing that causes the fear is a clear object or situation. In chronophobia, however, the thing that causes the fear is less clear.
People with chronophobia are afraid of abstract ideas like how time goes by. People with chronophobia are very afraid of how quickly minutes, hours, days, months, and years go by. Because of their phobic fear, people with chronophobia usually develop a state of anxiety that stays with them pretty much all the time.
The person with chronophobia doesn’t like how time goes by, and this makes them feel bad. Because of this, people with chronophobia often have thoughts about this event. Also, people with chronophobia often have stronger anxiety responses to things or situations that make the passing of time more or less clear.
These things can be different in each case, but it is generally thought that anything that has to do with time can make a person with chronophobia feel very anxious.
Common Symptoms
Most of the time, people with chronophobia are anxious. This happens because the person is afraid of the subject of time, which is very difficult to avoid. Different things can cause a person with this disorder to feel anxious. Because the idea of “passage of time” is vague, it is said that signs of anxiety can happen at any time.
In fact, the typical anxiety feelings of the disorder can be brought on by anything that makes the person think about “the passing of time.” Most of the time, physical symptoms are the most obvious sign.
The phobic fear causes the brain’s autonomic nervous system to work harder, which changes the way the body works in a number of ways. In this way, it’s common for someone with this disorder to have symptoms like:
- increase in the cardiac rate
- increase in the respiratory rate.
- Sensations of suffocation
- Muscle tension.
- Body sweating
- Pupillary dilation
- Dry mouth.
- Body tremors
- Dizziness, nausea, or vomiting
Likewise, the symptoms of this disorder are characterized by generating a series of irrational and negative thoughts about the passage of time. These thoughts are fed back along with the physical symptoms to generate and increase the person’s state of anxiety.
Also read: Apiphobia: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments
Diagnosis
At present, chronophobia has well-established diagnostic criteria that allow determining the presence or absence of the disorder. The criteria that define chronophobia are:
- fear or intense anxiety caused by the idea of “passage of time” (a phobic element).
- The phobic element almost always causes fear or immediate anxiety.
- The phobic element is actively avoided or resisted with fear or intense anxiety.
- Fear or anxiety is disproportionate to the real danger posed by the phobic element and the sociocultural context.
- Fear, anxiety, or avoidance is persistent and typically lasts six or more months.
- Fear, anxiety, or avoidance cause clinically significant discomfort or deterioration in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
- The disturbance is not better explained by the symptoms of another mental disorder.
Causes of Chronophobia
At present, there is no specific data about the etiology of chronophobia. However, it is argued that its causes could be similar to those of other specific phobias.
In this sense, phobias can develop in response to a situation or external stimuli. The specific cause may be difficult to identify, but in general, the experience of negative events related to the passage of time is the most powerful factor in the development of chronophobia.
On the other hand, certain authors suggest that, in the case of chronophobia, genetic factors and certain anxious personality traits could also play an important role in the development of mental disorders.
Treatment Options
Since chronophobia is a specific phobia linked to an anxiety disorder, it is usually treated the same way as any other specific phobia. In this way, the treatment can include both medication (in the worst cases) and therapy (in most cases).
Most of the time, cognitive behavior therapy is the type of psychotherapy that is used to treat chronophobia. To get over the phobic fear of pathology, you must correct your thoughts and ideas about how time goes by.
