20 replies to this topic

[Inland]

Alpha-Omega, I know you think it sounds interesting but it's really disturbing to me. I have no idea why this is happening but amounts of time that should be longer seem like they are taking shorter to happen. It wasn't like this as recently as early June. I don't know if it's the depression, months(s) of focusing on it that are making it worse, having a bad combination of drugs, or not taking them/withdrawal that is doing this to me.

This wasn't happening before as recently as late May. I'm worried I'm doing permanent damage to myself. I don't see how this can happen in as short a period time as four months.

I was so sharp before.

It's especially pronounced in the morning. Does anybody else feel any difference in their time perception in the morning?

I'm worried that I have the time perception of an aged man and that there's no recovery from this.

Edited by Inland, 29 September 2011 - 10:30 AM.

[Inland]

It feels like the past 50 minutes just went by in about half the time it should have.

[Inland]

Feels like an hour just went by in 30-40 minutes.

[Inland]

Past hour in like 30-35 minutes.

[Ampa-omega]

i have similar experiences, i think most of us do. it can be disturbing to fall behind the world around you, do you feel like events in the world are abnormally outpacing you?

i'm not sure how serious your situation is but if its very serious perhaps you need to go see a doctor, these types of things usually might get explained by being over imaginative or perhaps not getting enough rest (maybe even brain damage) i suggest maybe you should read up on personal time perception if you haven't already. maybe your cognition is slowing from whatever unspecified reasons, or perhaps the area in the brain that manages time is functioning abnormally, just some thoughts.

also did you take anything,any substance prior to having these episodes of time quickening? does it only occur when you are stressed, were you hyperventilating?

Edited by Ampa-omega, 29 September 2011 - 12:44 PM.

[Inland]

i have similar experiences, i think most of us do. it can be disturbing to fall behind the world around you, do you feel like events in the world are abnormally outpacing you?

Yes, especially so as the day furthers along. I've avoided watching television, clocks and other external stimuli because I end up wondering if they're going faster than the last time I've seen or heard them or if they are new,

i'm not sure how serious your situation is but if its very serious perhaps you need to go see a doctor, these types of things usually might get explained by being over imaginative

I wish that it's that. I really do. I'm worried that by obsession over something for more than one-two months I've actually made it worse (or the only person this has ever happened to).

or perhaps not getting enough rest (maybe even brain damage) i suggest maybe you should read up on personal time perception if you haven't already.

Believe me, it's become a perception. I've spent countless hours on google. There's so much information, a lot of it contradictory.

maybe your cognition is slowing from whatever unspecified reasons, or perhaps the area in the brain that manages time is functioning abnormally, just some thoughts.

This is what scares me worst.

also did you take anything,any substance prior to having these episodes of time quickening? does it only occur when you are stressed, were you hyperventilating?

I've never drank or smoked in my life.

I'm worried that I've entered a cycle where I stress over this, time speeds up, and as a result I'm stressed, and time speeds up.

I was fine as recently as June. I put myself into major depression and ended up being put on three antidepressants, of which I especially put two. I don't know why I was put on all three. From what I've read, the Paxil is enough for most people. I went through painful withdrawal while self-tapering over roughly a month.

I'm ashamed to say that I live a fairly shutin life where my only associations are my family. Everybody looks at me wierd as if I'm imagining this. I wish I could go back to June.

Edited by Inland, 29 September 2011 - 02:18 PM.

[Inland]

I have two theories 1. that everything has sped up. 2. that deep cognitive mode I would go into when I study or read or daydream is now damaged where no whenever I enter it time goes faster than it should. I was able to listen to the TV while doing something on my computer before but I'm not sure I can do that now.

[Inland]

It might be that a lack of an ability to concentrate on things is contributing to this. I really don't know. I don't know how it came to this. I just wish it would stop.

Edited by Inland, 29 September 2011 - 03:22 PM.

[Inland]

Worse yet, people say time drags during depression. If that's the case is it going to fly by if I get well.

[manic_racetam]

Whether time is rushing past or inching along just remember that the only important thing is your quality of life. If you could choose 30 minutes of an enriching film or 1 hour of getting your teeth drilled at the dentist, which would you rather experience. More time perception doesn't necessarily mean a better time.

I'm sure you've already realized that but it sounds like you can't stop thinking about it anyway. It's also hard to know because it sounds like you spent most of your life not thinking about how long events were taking to pass. So now, when you measure every event in your life in regards to time perception they seem like they're going too quickly. But what are you gauging that on? Subjective experience can be a bitch, but in the end that's what it boils down to... Subjective experience.

It's difficult because there doesn't seem to be an accurate method of measurement for what you're experiencing. There doesn't seem to be any medicine to treat what is bothering you. And it sounds like everyone thinks you're making it up and doesn't understand. This is a situation you need to be careful with because it could easily turn into a more serious condition than simply worrying about passing time. My suggestion is that you change your perspective a bit on what makes time important to you.

I'm glad to hear that you've stopped watching clocks all day, honestly that may have been what was making time speed up in the first place. The longer you do something and the better you get at it, the faster time seems to go while you're doing it. I used to work in the projection booth of a movie theater. Threading the spools of movies through the machine is a bit complicated and used to take me 10-15minutes.

By the end of my time there I could thread a movie projector in less than 2 minutes. One side effect of working up there though was that the time would speed by faster than I've ever experienced. Literally, an 8 hour shift would feel like 3 hours or less sometimes. It kind of freaked me out when I first experienced that time dilation. I even calculated how many years you'd miss working up there for a lifetime. The other projectionists said they experienced the same thing.

Since then I've developed a theory of why time sped up and it's just my theory but here it is. I figure that if you do the same thing over and over your brain is very familiar with task and automatically stops paying attention to all the details along the way. Your motor abilities become so well conditioned in that task that your perception can take a backseat to it. So doing repetitive tasks or taking part in the same repetitive activities, your actual attention or focus isn't being used much because your brain can fill in all the gaps with what it already knows.

Your experience seems fluid because your brain is so awesome, but what you're actually experiencing is a mixture of focus on your environment and your own memories that fill in the gaps. When your memories are used to seamlessly fill in the gaps time seems to speed up because your perception of the environment around you is only actually being used half the time.

The brain is always trying to predict what's going to happen next, this makes it much easier to react to something while it's happening rather then after it already happened. Spending all this time thinking about time has trained your brain to be really good at speeding it up. I wouldn't worry about any permanent damage at this point but I'd definitely start now at changing your focus to improving the quality of life instead of worrying about the quantity of time perception.

In the end all you have is memories anyway. Why not focus on having the best memories instead of the longest memories of your perception of time. That's what I would try to do. Sounds like you already have a psychiatrist but maybe you could look for a good therapist who would be willing to work on this issue with you. Personally I love going to therapy, it's nice to have someone to coach you and give you their undivided attention for an hour.

You might want to try some guided meditation too, you can download some really good ones from torrent sites. A great one that I've enjoyed is Mark Grant's "Calm and Confident - Overcome stress and anxiety with EMDR". Anything to get your mind off this subject of time passing. Mental obsessions are a bitch, the best of luck to you.

[Ampa-omega]

"I'm worried that I've entered a cycle where I stress over this, time speeds up, and as a result I'm stressed, and time speeds up."


Seems to be what is causing it In my opinion, taking away all clocks doesn't help. there are regions in the brain that can change time perception under feelings of stress and intense attention,

You should listen to some white noise and forget about the clocks and time. But you can Check up on time periodically, get a timer and test your own time perception, set it for 1 hour and when that time rings, compare it to your own perception.

[Inland]

Well, one thing I've been doing is recording myself singing songs I haven't heard in a while and then checking the actual song. This probably isn't the best because it assumes that I am musically attuned. Even musicians themselves don't play back their own music at the same pace (actually slower) I've heard. The other day I was listening to the opening theme song of a TV show and I could swear that it was going faster. Yes, it's my fault for staying in this place and languishing like this but it wasn't happening until I started getting depression and I'm only 27.

Edited by Inland, 29 September 2011 - 07:07 PM.

[Inland]

Thank you both for your replies. Well, manic_racetam since you took the time to write that for me, I felt I should give back a little more.

I graduated from college five years ago. I figured I would prep for an exam while staying at home and did this over two years taking the same prep course over four times. I never did the required work I'm ashamed to say. I then spent a year helping family work on a house. Since then I've been doing nothing. This late-March and April I began having these existentialist thoughts and began to fear death intensely. I went and decided that I needed to start getting going with my life and I enrolled in that same course again. One of those days, I looked up somebody who I knew in high school (it's really silly as I haven't seen them in nine years and am never going to see them again). I must sound so weak-minded but I ended up going into major depression from that instance. The psychiatrist game me what I thought was a really sedating cocktail and since then I have gotten off it in a self-taper that had terrible withrdrawal. I have since added this craziness to my list of troubles. I'm really lost in life and have no idea what to do.

Guys, this is part of the contratidctory information I was talking about. http://quittingadder...-faster-slower/ The article I link to below has information about how amphetamines cause people to think that only a second is one minute.

http://www.yazakpro....timehistory.htm

This scares me: "Mr Matell explains: "If you ask an older person to mentally time an hour, they will all overestimate it. To them, an hour feels like 40 minutes because their clock is running slower. That's why they think time passes so quickly."

Sad as it sounds, I can't help but read about these people and envy them. http://www.yazakpro....timehistory.htm "The clock may also be involved in unusual cases where life appears to operate in slow motion. Accident victims often report this - damage to the relevant brain area, causing a rush of dopamine, may be to blame."

Edited by Inland, 29 September 2011 - 09:40 PM.

[Inland]

Hi there, I went out today and spent about an two hours and a half at the mall (in keeping with a suggestion by one of you guys which was pretty much along the lines of get out of the house). I did the whole mindfulness thing while I was there. I'd say it was pretty theraputic. I noticed after I had a soda that I was on the cusp of being my old self while I was there. Before i had it, I was a little disconcerted by how everybody seemed to be walking and talking a little too fast for so many people (well, it didn't help that I was taking my time taking it all in instead of when I was younger; on a side note, throughout middle school through college I was coffee and soda head) compared to when I was younger (preteen, teen( where I would rush past everybody (it makes me kind of wonder if I had ADHD). After the coke, there was a bit of normalcy where the people who should have been sloths were going rightly slowly and I was moving past them. It kinds of leads in to what I suspect about dopamine depletion (perhaps in the basal ganglia).

Now, obviously I can't always be caffeined up all time (or can I; I read about attenuation). There's the crash from it (is that why time seems to go fast for some; does it?) so I can't help but wonder if there is some theraputic way of going about all of this. Obviously, there's exercise (I'm really thinking of getting a gym membership).

Interestingly, while I was doing the whole taking it all in and being on soda, I felt a sort of feeling like the frame of a glasses in my head (with no center) but higher with it going from my above my brow to near my ears (more of a strained feeling than glasses). http://rewritetomorr...asalGanglia.gif I can't help but notice that it corresponds to where the basal ganglia is located.

If you guys don't mind me asking you what do you think about dopamine supplementation and how would one avoid attentuation. I know about exercise.

As I said before there has to be a theraputic way of going about all of this. I can't be the only person in the world thinking about it this way or thought about these things, can I?

I notice there wasn't a problem of having conversations with people especially while under the caffeine so I can't help but wonder if there's something to bring back the trancelike way I could study and read without too much time passing by.

Also, manic_racetam and Alpha-omega, I want to thank you guys again for sharing your thoughts. I must come across as such nut or worth a laugh but believe me this is a fellow human being reaching out for help. I just want to make sure my brain is the mental age its supposed to be at least.

Edited by Inland, 30 September 2011 - 10:29 PM.

[Inland]

Yeah, there's definitely something to this. That introduction music is running slower.than when I heard it on a different day at a later time. A song I heard also sounds slower. Not only that but the windows task bar is not coming up and down so fast.

I don't know what it is. Is it the change of experience today guys. Is it the caffeine? A period of time where I was doing something besides obsessing over this stuff. I had the soda between around 2:30 today and noticed that the toolbar was slow at about 6:30 today. It's still kind of slow but not as much so that may be down to what manic_racetam said about getting used to it.

I was on the cusp of being myself when I was say 23...and I loved it.

Edited by Inland, 30 September 2011 - 10:48 PM.

[manic_racetam]

So you had a good day? That's great man. Were you just relaxing more than usual or can you pin it down to a specific activity that may have helped?

[Inland]

So you had a good day? That's great man. Were you just relaxing more than usual or can you pin it down to a specific activity that may have helped?

Thank you so much manic_racetam. Yeah, I was crying from hapiness about fifteen minutes ago. I know it sounds so wierd.

I was just having a really bad day in the morning and crying and a family member just up and got me to go to the mall. We made sure to go over the whole place. We had a bite to eat during which I had a coke. I just know it was better. Fifteen minutes ago especially I felt everything slow down (comparing them to when I was doing them yesterday). For example, in a handheld game (that plays to popular music songs), the music was slower and I was able to go through a level easier. This song that I listened to later in the day on a different day was slower.

My cellphone ring was slower.

I mean we left for the mall at around 2:15 and it actually felt like five hours have happened since then. I was so happy at being close to the normal. I don't want it to stop. I'm going to make sure to communicate this to any medical professionals I meet.

I don't know what it is. Psychological? Physiological? Is dopamine the key? I don't know what it is but I need it to keep going 24/7, anything to get away from this maddening I incurred upon myself.

I mean I realized the importance of getting out and living life and how I should have been doing it. Especially having friends (who aren't extended family). Really, all I have right now is my immediate family.

I'm willing to do anything including things I should have been doing like regular exercise.

[unregistered_user]

You aren't going to like my saying this but you have too much idle time on your hands. You have become fixated on what you perceive is an issue and I think your obsession with it has exacerbated what was probably a relatively minor cognitive foible to begin with.

You need friends. A girlfriend. A purpose. Right now your purpose is investigating this phenomenon. An earlier poster mentioned quality of life. My guess is your quality of life and this issue go hand in hand. As your quality of life begins to improve, this issue will begin to dissipate.

Also, I wouldn't worry about any lasting damage to your brain. I have taken tons of different meds and supplements and somehow my brain always manages to achieve homeostasis. Whatever offset or change that occurred may very well repair itself. While I'm not doubting entirely the presence of an issue, I am suggesting that you have created a mountain out of a molehill due to your preoccupation with it.

Incidentally, most people have a terrible perception of time. I work in a restaurant and my service leader tells me someone called for me. "How long ago?" I ask. "Uhm, about 15 minutes" she says. I pick up the phone and look at the most recent call. Try 6 minutes. Many people can't tell you the difference between 20 and 30 minutes or 5 and 13 . Did something happen 30 minutes ago or 48 minutes ago? Know why? Because the rest of us are worried about living our lives and not obsessing over how fast the second hand moves.

You need to find a new hobby. Meet some new people. Develop some new interests. You are frittering away the limited time you do have, despite your perception on how quickly it is elapsing, on a totally fruitless endeavor.

Get well.

Edited by semi-retarded-individual, 30 September 2011 - 11:38 PM.

[Inland]

You aren't going to like my saying this but you have too much idle time on your hands.

First off, let me suggest that you change your name because you are certainly not that. Second, I agree with you. I actually like hearing that. It would confirm to me that there is hope.

You have become fixated on what you perceive is an issue and I think your obsession with it has exacerbated what was probably a relatively minor cognitive foible to begin with.

Yes, I agree with that.

You need friends.

I know.

A girlfriend.

I know and I wish.

A purpose.

This is actually what's most important to me. I'm constantly questioning what I can and can't do with regard to advancing my education. One possibility is going out and studying for whatever I have to at different public places throughout the day.

Right now your purpose is investigating this phenomenon.

I know. It's terrible.

An earlier poster mentioned quality of life. My guess is your quality of life and this issue go hand in hand. As your quality of life begins to improve, this issue will begin to dissipate.

I hope so.

Also, I wouldn't worry about any lasting damage to your brain. I have taken tons of different meds and supplements and somehow my brain always manages to achieve homeostasis. Whatever offset or change that occurred may very well repair itself. While I'm not doubting entirely the presence of an issue, I am suggesting that you have created a mountain out of a molehill due to your preoccupation with it.

I hope so. I mean it was just four months.

I wouldn't want to achieve homeostasis if the dopamine is the ticket though. I mean do you know about avoiding homeostasis combined with exercise, to get the most out of this?

Incidentally, most people have a terrible perception of time. I work in a restaurant and my service leader tells me someone called for me. "How long ago?" I ask. "Uhm, about 15 minutes" she says. I pick up the phone and look at the most recent call. Try 6 minutes. Many people can't tell you the difference between 20 and 30 minutes or 5 and 13 . Did something happen 30 minutes ago or 48 minutes ago? Know why? Because the rest of us are worried about living our lives and not obsessing over how fast the second hand moves.

I know. Also, analyzing how fast somebody is talking instead of just listening to them.

You need to find a new hobby. Meet some new people. Develop some new interests. You are frittering away the limited time you do have, despite your perception on how quickly it is elapsing, on a totally fruitless endeavor.

Get well.

Thank you, friend.

[#1hit]

Dude, just start walking 6 days a week, 30 minutes a day. Try speed walking. when you can, increase the time to 45 minutes, then an hour, then try speed walking that entire time, maybe start jogging for 15-30 minutes. Just get up and do it, it takes months to get the true benefits of exercise so you might as well start now.

Trust me, anyone can start working out. After I had surgery for my septum, I started out walking for 3-4 weeks, then running, and now i'm on the 5th week of P90X. You just have to get the ball rolling.

No matter what else you do, exercising for 30-60 mins a day, 5-6 days a week will make a big impact in your life.

[unregistered_user]

I really think that as your life continues to unfold and new opportunities present this issue will fall by the wayside. I can sympathize with how frustrating and scary something like this must be and I believe it's natural that you've taken to researching it. Who wouldn't? That's what we all do.

Researching something can be both good and bad. Good because you gain knowledge and insight that you might otherwise lack. Bad because if you fail to regulate yourself you'll get trapped in a vortex of nonproductive thinking that consumes you.

Just don't lose sight of the important things in your life. You seem like a smart person with a lot of potential. It would be sad to see that diminished by this matter.

As I said, I don't contend that you have picked up on something different about how your brain is functioning. Perhaps you have. But maybe it's mostly psychosomatic?

As a small and tangential anecdote, when I first tried marijuana as a kid and experienced the feeling of being high something changed. My headspace had been altered for the first time ever and I wasn't sure how to handle it. I was like this kid. I questioned if/when things would return to normal? I went on like this for weeks, perhaps even longer than a month constantly assessing every nuance of my life to make sure it matched up with my perception of normal. Was I still high? Did I have some unique reaction that didn't gel with my neurochemistry that perpetuated this feeling of being high? I was 13... I didn't know. But what I remember was, as soon as I stopped scrutinizing my reality and just started living my life was the moment I started feeling like my old self again.

I made myself a prisoner by my obsessive thinking. The high from that joint probably wore off an hour or two after I smoked it but my paranoia and obsession with thinking I had done permanent damange was what kept me trapped in that hell for so many weeks. I think you might be the victim of something similar.

You'll be fine. Focus on your future, career, and personal value and the rest will sort out in the process.