Chronophobic?

[Rickles]

I can think of specific times in my life where I have been suffering from symptoms of OCD. I've never been diagnosed due the fact that I have a bad relationship with my parents, and the fact that i am quite shy about it. I've never talked to a doctor about it.  I Haven't lately been majorly effected by serious problems from OCD lately and that's part of my reason to not seek help, but I'm pretty sure it's their, whether I've learned to cope with it, or it is in remission.  But i am experiencing life problems that may or not be related to OCD, I could have something Completely different and i might just be confused.

One thing that seems to effect my life is an obsession with time Which i think may be linked to my possible ocd. Chromophobia means fear of time but i can't find any research on it.

I always feel the need to live for the moment that I am in. Squeezing every last second out of the day, putting off whats important to either the last minute, or until it never gets done.  It's not the rock and roll style live for the moment. It's not, i could die any time so i should enjoy now. It's just this endless ignoration of important matters and the need to do anything but.  I could literally open my text books and stare into space for 15 minutes before waking up in frustration and closing them back up.  I stay up until unhealthy hours in the night, I skip meals, Some days i don't even shower.  I feel lost with out a wrist watch on. My watch's wrist band broke once and it was a terrible few days... I felt a feeling of being lost because i could not determine how much time to spend to what ever i had going on at that minute.  This has led to a seriously unhealthy habit of procrastination that is controlling my life. As i write this i have a bunch of homework to do.

Can anyone else relate to this, does anyone have any answers? Am i kidding myself? Am i a slacker who needs a better then ordinary excuse?  Could this be caused from OCD? Should i seek help beyond an internet forum?

[Rickles]

Actually, I have found out that I do not have OCD.   It seems like some times I have obsessive compulsive behavior, but then again we all do sometimes.

I actually think I have ADD.  The symptoms make way more sense.  OCD doesn't fit my situation.  ADD and procrastination are hand in hand.  I don't know why I though I had OCD.  Maybe because Mike Portnoy, one of my idols constantly talks about it.   After researching ADD, I found a ton more symptoms that made sense.  OCD doesn't fit me at all.

[hatsgarden]

I know where you're coming from. I find I always have to know the time, always have to take photos everywhere I go, I don't do homework until the last minute, I can't watch a programme for longer than an hour, TVs bore me as I find them time consuming, adverts in between shows irritate the hell out of me, I can't wait around for things such as in doctor surgeries, I find it hard to get to sleep at night because I think it's a waste of time and I don't see the point in school as it's so time consuming.
The over week in Religous Studies we had to write a letter to our sixty year old self and plan what we wanted to do in our life, let's just say I freaked out and couldn't do it!
I also think I have OCD where I have to turn switches off that aren't connected to anything or are connected to something that isn't being used, I tend to get told off by teachers because I randomly get up in the middle of class and go over and turn it off. I've also hit someone that knew I had this OCD and kept turning switches on on purpose so you can see how obsessed I am.
I haven't told anyone that I think I have Chronophobic but people know I have the OCD I'm planning on doing it but keep putting it off, I would advise you to tell your parents so you can seek medical help and I'm going to tell mine as soon as I've finished writing this!

[Cameron444]

Maybe you feel compelled to be completely ready, or as prepared for something as possible before you do it so you can have it done in an organized, acceptable, maybe even perfect way. Thinking about the anticipation of having to start could psyche you out and have you procrastinate things for fear of not being ready, which in hand goes with the fear of not doing well with whatever things you try. If this were the case I would try to ease in to accepting things that you're unprepared for, things that you might not do all that great with because of it. It may take a lot of will and energy to do so, but don't give up because eventually the experience will help you get better.

[Cameron444]

Hello, I stumbled across your post when researching about a case of my own quite similar to this...

I am a 17 year old boy from Massachusetts named Cameron, I've lived with OCD for as long as I can remember and it's effected me over the years in many different ways including chronophobia, and I don't know if how I dealt with it will work for you or even if we really are feeling the same symptoms entirely. But I am here to try and help...

Self awareness has been the biggest key for overcoming my issues and with that I ask myself question after question relating to whats wrong, digging deeper until I've reached the heart of it. So ask yourself a few questions about this...

- How pressured are you to be on time for daily errands? For example a strict job in which to be on time for.

- Could you have been traumatized from past experiences involving time? As a child in school were you afraid of not finishing tests on time, feeling bad about yourself for not being as fast as the others around you?

- Do you fear the concept of time itself as a whole or just measures of it? The hours confined into a day on a clock or a week on a calendar and so forth?

The issue with myself regarding my chronophobia deals with all time, ever present surrounding moments passing by and where they'll lead, why and how they're here. The more I thought of it I realized I was consumed by a fear of not time itself, but the security of it always being there or not. Everyone comes across the question of if the time we have here will be enough for us to find meaning in our lives, if all we can expect is all that's given on this world. People turn to their faiths in afterlives and religions when confronted by these thoughts because they're scary. But for someone with OCD like myself, it can be crippling beyond imagination, always thinking that no matter what you'll do will eventually be devoured by the future and left behind. Your priorities become scrambled and you can lose sight of what you hold dearest. What I've found so far is that when looking this fear straight in the face, there are only a few ways to cope with it...

- Accept that life is like a waterfall and enjoy it before you reach the end...

- Take interest in a spiritual side of yourself until you feel confident that everything will work out on it's own, that you can rest easy knowing the universe, fate, god, whatever is keeping you safe from things like this...

- Remind yourself that you're only human, and can't possibly know whats beyond the horizon. Have faith in your smallness compared to all existence and how blinding it probably is when trying to grasp questions that are these massive. (Ignorance is bliss)

Think of an ant claiming to have the world outside their hill figured out. You're that ant.


I'm sorry if none of this helped or even related to how you were feeling, but I thought you might find it interesting. Plus I couldn't find anyone else who posted a topic about what I just explained...

~_^