# DEALING WITH FEAR OF THE FUTURE



## markluis (Jan 22, 2015)

The fear of the future /the fear of time is known as Chronophobia. Fear is a primitive emotion that has evolved as part of a survival instinct. It is an emotion that is triggered by the threat of danger, pain or harm. Chronophobia falls under the category of specific phobia because time is a specific object that one can fear. Chronophobia is especially common in prison inmates and the elderly, but it can manifest in any person who has an extreme amounts of stress and anxiety in their life. Chronophobia is described as "an experience of unease and anxiety about time, a feeling that events are moving too fast and are thus hard to make sense of".

The basic symptoms are panic, anxiety, and a fear of being in closed in some more serious cases, individuals can experience shaking, shortness of breath, excessive sweating, and irregular heartbeats. In the most serious cases individuals can exhibit symptoms of sickening states of mind, inability to articulate words, tunnel vision, and overwhelmingly haunting thoughts.

It is not uncommon for prison inmates to count-down the days until their release. The elderly also exhibit more of a risk because they feel that death is closer than it had ever been before in their life. The threat of death can cause an overwhelming sensation of chronophobia.

*The fear of the future* can never really be prevented because it is normally caused by a traumatic experience that is not within one's power to stop. Some ways to relieve the stress that chronophobia can cause are to prevent anxiety or situations that could cause anxiety, to avoid getting stressed out about time, to be on time, and to participate in an activity that requires meditation, such as yoga or other forms of mild martial arts.

The most factors that causes fear of the future:




Suffering from terminal or long-term illness



living without money or source of income



not holding a job/losing their present job in the future



losing a loved one


Fear of the future can be avoided by some essential things:




Firstly, in order to discard yourself from phobia you should try to understand your own potentials and eliminate your phobia ,



You should create the future you desire in your mind through the process of visualization,



Plan for your future achievements. Your effort should make your dreams turn into reality,&



Believe in yourself and try to be successful in life.


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## Guest (Jan 30, 2015)

I love this post, many of us with DP/DR fear future events because of our Obsessive thoughts that run rampant in our minds. Certainly fear of the unknown is the most common among people with anxiety and I feel that it's been my worst fear my whole life. Thank you for this post, hopefully it helps some of our members ground themselves when they have this fear!


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## Hopeful85 (Jul 8, 2018)

Needed this. Thank you


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## Chip1021 (Mar 24, 2018)

Hmm...don't mean to be a downer on a very good and uplifting thread, but "fear of the future" has always been a source of anxiety for me, even since I was a kid.

Unfortunately, I did all these things growing up, and it didn't prevent me from being a basically non-functional adult. Still trying to figure out where exactly I went wrong (assuming I did anything wrong in the first place). It just seems that everyone who just enjoyed themselves and had fun growing up, not really thinking or planning much about their future are doing jusexperiences fine, whereas people like me, who did these things all the time, are struggling. (If you are sensing a little bitterness, well, guilty). So part of me thinks that maybe I'm in this situation because I did these things, and because "the future" turned out to be nothing like I had visualized?

This is not a "this will never work" response. It's a genuine one looking for help because I feel this is part of my issue and kind of hoped it would be more of a prevalent topic on this site. Hopefully we can get a good conversation going.


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## Hopeful85 (Jul 8, 2018)

For me I think I fear the future because before all this I never had any reason to worry or think anything bad could happen to me? I just lived life. You kinda just get on with it unless maybe something happened to start your worries. For me time has been flying by while I have gotten worse feeling like I’m not even living. I think the fear of death and that our time is limited also plays a big part in this fear.


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## Chip1021 (Mar 24, 2018)

I don't know, I don't think I ever really just "lived". Everything was always a struggle. I figured for awhile growing up that everybody felt that way (or at least, that's what I had been told).


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