Chronophobia

Anxiety disorders are divided into different categories based on their features. One of the categories is phobia. Phobia is defined as a persistent, excessive, and irrational fear of anything that may be an animal, a person, an object, a situation, etc. A specific phobia has a particular name related to or denoting the trigger of the anxious person. Chronophobia is one of them. It refers to an irrational fear of time or, specifically, the passing of time. People who experience chronophobia feel intensely afraid when they think about the passage of time. It may be in the form of them being concerned about their mortality or their ageing. It can be demonstrated as obsessively watching the clock or crossing off days on the calendar.

People at risk of chronophobia

Some people are more prone to have chronophobia than others. The high-risk factors are:

• Age or health conditions: People in old age and people with serious chronic medical conditions may face excessive worry at the end of life. This can cause extreme anxiety for them.

• Imprisonment: Some healthcare professionals have talked about ‘prison neurosis’ in people who have been in prison for a long time. Inmates might feel like the passage of time is slow or too fast. Some may also develop claustrophobia.

• Traumatic experiences: Following a natural disaster or a near-death experience, some may develop a condition called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Many people developed chronophobia after the Covid-19 lockdown. They felt as if they had no control over time and developed anxiety disorders.

• History of mental illness: People suffering from anxiety disorders are more at risk of developing phobias than others. Even people suffering from depression and substance abuse tend to develop irrational fears over time.

Symptoms

General chronophobia symptoms are similar to other anxiety disorders. Some of them are:

• Overwhelming fear

• Anxiety and panic

• Normal functioning is impaired due to the fear

• Heart palpitations

• Sweating

• Breathing difficulty

• Dizziness and nausea

• Gastric discomfort

Triggers of chronophobia

People who have chronophobia might be triggered when exposed to the fear itself or sometimes even from thinking about the phobia. In some specific situations when the passage of time is highlighted, anxiety and fear can intensify, like:

• College graduation

• Anniversary of wedding

• Birthdays at milestone

• Holidays

Diagnosis

In the case of suspected chronophobia, a healthcare professional takes a complete and comprehensive history related to the time-related anxiety and assesses whether it has an impact on daily life and to what extent. It also includes the history of trauma of the patient and the methods they adopt to avoid thinking about the past, the future or the passage of time.

To be diagnosed with a specific phobia, the diagnostic criteria DSM-5 have to be followed. It lists the following characteristics:

• The duration of fear is more than or equal to six months persistently.

• Any thought or reminder of time or past or future acts as an immediate trigger and causes marked anxiety.

• The feeling of fear is excessive and irrational. It interferes with daily life and social functioning.

The healthcare professional also confirms the history of PTSD, if present, as it is often an associated condition with this disorder. PTSD is also a generalised anxiety disorder developed after a terrifying or traumatic event in life.

 The diagnosis thus is a complete evaluation of all the above factors. The treatment is suggested by the healthcare professional accordingly.

Treatment

Treatment for chronophobia includes the following procedures:

• Psychotherapy: Counselling or talk therapy is the treatment of choice for the anxiety and panic related to chronophobia. A therapist conducts sessions where they help get a grasp of the fears, work with them and overcome them.

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: This is more of a stimulate-and-act therapy. This reroutes the patient’s thoughts related to the chronophobia in another way. The therapy also helps one gain control over the feelings they have in the presence of the trigger and their response to it.

• Hypnotherapy: This therapy helps one reconstruct their concerns and manage the fear. The patient’s mind remains calm, and the healthcare professional trains the patient to relax and offers various strategies that help with the phobia.

• Mindfulness: Meditation and yoga have proved to be effective ways to control anxiety. They also include breathing exercises to have more control over the mind and help relax the mind.

• Drug therapy: There is no specific drug therapy for chronophobia, but one can get symptomatic treatment to control anxiety and help with panic attacks. Associated conditions like depression and other mood disorders might also need drug therapy sometimes. Some healthcare professionals use drugs like benzodiazepines and antidepressants to provide relief to the patient.

• Plan the future: When one sets realistic goals to achieve in the future, they face the passage of time head-on, and it helps them overcome their anxiety and fear. Planning a fun activity, using vision boards, journals etc. brings positivity to the task and associates it with hope.

• Support groups: Many peer support groups are available, both offline and online, where one can meet people facing similar situations. This helps make them feel less lonely and provide support to each other. They also have a support system in place whenever required.

Complications

Specific phobias such as chronophobia may lead to other health conditions such as mood disorders, substance abuse, etc. Although treatment is not always required for phobias, it might help patients control the symptoms and lead a normal life.

Without treatment, chronophobia may cause serious interference in everyday life, like relationship problems. People fail to function normally and be a part of their society. It can also worsen other health issues and eventually cause the patient to become depressed, anxious, and isolated.

Conclusion

Chronophobia is a type of generalised anxiety disorder in which the person gets excessively scared by the thought of time or the passage of time. Any small thought or situation can trigger a panic attack or anxiety. The problem arises when the person is unable to lead a normal life and finds themselves obsessively thinking about time, and their actions reflect this fear. For example, they watch the clock persistently, refuse to talk about the past or the future, regularly mark off the calendar dates, etc. Proper treatment is required to gain control over the emotions and their response to the trigger and gain function both mentally and in society.