Here’s a poignant excerpt from our article on the fear of time by James Clark Ross:
'I was a young boy when Armageddon (1998) was released. After watching it, I underwent my first existential crisis: the thought of an asteroid colliding with Earth sent me into a brooding state of panic. I thereafter became deeply unsettled and full of dread as I experienced emotions I couldn't comprehend. Although I had seen insects and plants die and I was superficially aware that everything must come to an end, I hadn't yet come to appreciate the finite nature of my own existence. Instead of ignoring the problem, I obsessed over asteroid strikes, dreamt about mass extinction, and thought about oceans evaporating as Earth was engulfed by the Sun, which inevitably expanded into a red giant. From bouts of anxiety I would cry as I prematurely felt the gravity of a life which will always know nothing beyond itself. While none of the aforementioned Earth-decimating events would occur for billions of years, I distinctly felt threatened now because the Universe would go on without me, without mercy. Even today my thinking is punctuated by thoughts about life's impermanence and lack of intrinsic meaning, both of which are driven by perpetual change in the Universe. But I fight to sustain meaning in my life anyway. And, despite writing this article, I try to find ways to not think about time's passing.'
Have you ever had bouts of chronophobia?
