How Time-Blindness Affects Mental Health

If you've never heard of the term "time-blindness," you aren't alone. I've been researching and writing about mental health for nearly 10 years, and I only heard the term last year, even though it is a major problem for a lot of people, especially those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Typically on this blog, I talk about how I am recovering from depression and anxiety, but I have strongly identified with the symptoms of ADHD for a few years now, ever since I started reading resources on what ADHD looks like in girls and adults. Once this pandemic is over, I plan on being professionally evaluated to see if I actually have ADHD or if my ADHD symptoms are connected to something else. Regardless of a diagnosis, I definitely experience time-blindness, and it makes life in general difficult, but it can also create big problems for my mental health.

What Is Time-Blindness?

The easiest way to explain time-blindness is to compare it to colorblindness. Like people who are colorblind, those of us who are time-blind simply do not perceive the passing of time. If you are not time-blind, then this might sound impossible, but I assure you it is just as real as colorblindness.

For me, time-blindness means that sometimes I will look at the clock at 11 a.m. and then check it again an hour later, only to find that only 10 minutes have passed. Or sometimes I will start a task at 3 p.m. and by the time I think to check the clock again, it's nearly 7 p.m. I simply do not notice time passing and because of that, I don't always think to check the clock, which makes it even harder for me to have a clear sense of time.

As you can imagine, this presents a challenge for many normal daily activities like cooking, cleaning, and working. But it can also have a serious impact on my mental health.

How Time-Blindness Affects Mental Health

I'm not sure if this is the case for everyone who experiences time-blindness, but I've found that my time-blindness gets much worse when I'm depressed. Recently, I experienced one of the worst (but thankfully brief) depressive episodes I've had in a while; and for several days, it felt like time was smoke, swirling around me, impossible to hold onto. Sometimes time would fly by at impossible speeds, but other times it would drag so slowly, I wanted to sleep just to make time pass faster. So my depression clearly impacts my time-blindness, but it also works the other way around.

When I'm depressed, the best way for me to take care of myself is with a gentle combination of rest and activity. Too much rest and I get overwhelmed by how much I'm going to have to catch up on once I finally feel better, but too much activity and I get so exhausted that I just start crying. But it's hard to balance rest and activity when I can't tell how much time is passing. When I'm depressed, I tend to rest far too long, leaving too little time to get things done that will make me feel better.

3 Tips for Coping with Time-Blindness

Like colorblindness, time-blindness can't be cured. I will probably never perceive time accurately, but that doesn't mean I am powerless. There are several ways to cope with time-blindness. 

1. Wear an analog watch or a smartwatch. Analog watches present time in a more visual way than a digital watch which may help some people with ADHD perceive time passing more accurately. Smartwatches can also be a helpful tool to keep you from being late, especially if you set your clock face to show your next upcoming event.
2. Set alarms at regular intervals. Some people find it helpful to set an alarm to go off every 20 minutes or so to remind you of how much time is passing. Others might find these constant alarms distracting, in which case, the final tip may be more helpful.
3. Keep a lot of different clocks in your eyesight when possible. People who experience time-blindness typically check the clock less often than those without time-blindness because we just don't feel time passing, so it doesn't occur to us to check the clock. You can overcome this need to check by making sure that clocks are all around you. Make the clock on your phone prominent and hang several clocks in your living room, bedroom, or wherever you spend most of your time.

Do you deal with time-blindness? How have you learned to cope with it? Does it interfere with your mental health? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear from others who experience this mental health obstacle.