How to Cope With a Sense of Foreshortened Future

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsSymptoms Related to a Sense of Foreshortened FutureCauses of the Sense of Foreshortened FutureCoping With a Sense of a Foreshortened FutureWhen to Get HelpFrequently Asked Questions

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Symptoms Related to a Sense of Foreshortened Future

Causes of the Sense of Foreshortened Future

Coping With a Sense of a Foreshortened Future

When to Get Help

Frequently Asked Questions

Close

A sense of foreshortened future involves feeling as if life will be cut short without any real explanation as to why. People who experience this may also feel they won’t be able to reach milestones in their life, such as a career, marriage, or children.

This sense of foreshortened future is a reaction that can occur following trauma. It is considered an avoidance symptom ofpost-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) related to negative expectations about the future.

This article discusses the symptoms and causes of a sense of foreshortened future. It also covers coping with this symptom and when you should seek help from a professional.

A sense of a foreshortened future can vary in terms of severity. Some people may have just a mild sense that their life will be cut short, whereas others may have a specific prediction regarding the length of their lifespan and are wholly convinced of their premature death. This symptom can be challenging to cope with and may lead to isolation,hopelessness, helplessness, anddepression.

A sense of a foreshortened future is also associated with holdingnegative beliefs. Examples of negative beliefs people might hold include thinking life is meaningless, thinking that they don’t deserve happiness, believing they will never reach their goals, and thinking that good things never happen.

How Negative Thoughts Affect Your Beliefs

A sense of a foreshortened future emerges as a response to trauma. It most often stems from childhood trauma but also happens following other upheavals, including:

One of the primary symptoms of PTSD is holding negative thoughts about the future, which includes the sense that a person simply won’t be around in the future.

This symptom may emerge in situations where people are led to doubt their ability to function, cope, or succeed. When people are made to feelworthless, unsupported, undeserving, and incapable of finding happiness, they may struggle to envision a future for themselves.

Research has also found that people tend to recall past memories in a more general way that lacks specificity and detail. Because being able to recall specific memories is important for visualizing the future, this overgeneralized autobiographical memory may play a role in the sense of a foreshortened future.

How Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) Differs from PTSD

You can take steps to reduce the severity of this symptom. Below are several potentialcoping strategies.

Press Play for Advice On Mental Strength

Be Mindful of Your Thoughts

Believing that your life will be cut short following a traumatic event makes sense. You may have feared for your life or even come close to death as a result of your traumatic event. Furthermore, following a traumatic event, our assumptions about the world as a safe and secure place are shattered.

People are forced to come to terms with their own mortality. As a result, the belief that your life will be cut short likely feels very true. However, there is really no way to determine your lifespan. Consequently, it can be helpful to be mindful of those thoughts about your premature death.

Notice your thoughts as simply objects in your mind, as opposed to the truth. Doing so will prevent you from connecting with those thoughts, thus reducing the likelihood of hopelessness andhelplessness.

Benefits of Mindfulness

Seek Positive Activities

A sense of a foreshortened future can increase therisk of depression.Therefore, it is important to identify and improve the extent to which you participate in positive activities. Engaging in activities you used to enjoy before the traumatic event may be particularly useful.

You may not notice an immediate change in your emotions or thoughts. That is normal. Keep at it.Being more active, especially in positive activities, will eventually improve your mood and can prevent depression.

Pay Attention to Your Choices

People often make choices based on their emotions. Anxiety may tell you to avoid something.Sadness may tell you toisolate. Anger may tell you toretaliate.

Although listening to youremotionsis important, they may not always lead you down the best path. Instead, it is vital to think about what kind of life you want to live and make choices that are based on that idea.

For example, if you want to live a life ofcompassionand caring, make choices each and every day to engage in behavior that is consistent with those values. Doing so will create a sense of agency and purpose and increase the feeling that you are living a fulfilling life.

Connect With Others

A sense of a foreshortened future can cause people to isolate themselves from others.Given this, the best thing you can do to counter this is to connect with others and establishsocial support. The more meaningful relationships you have in your life, the more fulfilling your life may begin to feel.

Reduce Avoidance

The more you avoid, the more your world feels unsafe, which will lead you to avoid more situations.

Therefore, it can be essential to take steps to approach situations or activities that you want to avoid. Of course, you don’t want to approach situations that may be objectively unsafe (like running alone in a park at night, for example). You do, however, want to engage in activities that you used to feel comfortable doing before the traumatic event occurred.

This practice can be difficult, as you may experience anxiety and fear, but these feelings will eventually dissipate. When you start this process, bringing along a trusted and supportive friend may be helpful.

Avoidance Coping and Why It Creates Additional Stress

Practice Self-Care

Another way to combat the sense of a foreshortened future is to engage in behaviors and activities that are about valuing your life.Schedule time to pamper yourself or engage inself-soothingand compassionate activities. Exercise. Eat well. Taking care of yourself can have a tremendous impact on your emotions and thoughts.

RecapStrategies such as being mindful of your thoughts, seeking positive activities, connecting with others, and reducing avoidance behaviors may help you cope with a sense of a foreshortened future.

Recap

Strategies such as being mindful of your thoughts, seeking positive activities, connecting with others, and reducing avoidance behaviors may help you cope with a sense of a foreshortened future.

Many of the coping strategies listed above are easier said than done. Be patient and take your time.Reward yourselffor any small amount of progress that you make in reducing your sense of a foreshortened future.

It may also be helpful to seek treatment for your PTSD. If a sense of foreshortened future is making it difficult to function or causing distress, talk to your healthcare provider or mental health professional.

By reducing your symptoms of PTSD in general, you will likely notice that your sense of foreshortened future also reduces in intensity. A therapist can also provide you with support as you use the coping skills described above.

There are a number ofeffective treatments for PTSD. Medications may be prescribed to help treat symptoms related to anxiety, mood, eating, and sleep. Different types of psychotherapy can also be helpful, includingcognitive processing therapy(CPT),exposure therapy,group therapy, andeye movement desensitization and reprocessing(EMDR) therapy.

Final Thoughts

Trauma affects the mind in many ways, including how people think and feel about the future. When the world feels unsafe, unpredictable, and untrustworthy, you might think that there is little point in making plans for events that you don’t expect to happen. If the future feels intangible, consider talking to a therapist. They can offer help, support, and treatments that can help you change how you think and make plans to support your goals.

7 Steps for Making a Life Plan

Frequently Asked QuestionsAvoidance symptoms in PTSD tend to focus on evadingemotions and reminders of the trauma.While avoidance is meant to reduce pain and help people cope, it actually ends up making PTSD symptoms worse.Learn More:PTSD and Emotional AvoidanceTrauma contributes to problems with time perception, but it also makes it more challenging to trust that the world is safe and predictable. Feeling a lack of control over the events in one’s life can make it difficult to envision a future.A sense of a foreshortened future can make it difficult for people to stay motivated, set goals, or stick to their commitments. They may feel that since there is no future, there is no point in making plans, pursuing goals, or maintaining relationships with others. It can contribute to poor achievement, depression, hopelessness, and isolation.

Avoidance symptoms in PTSD tend to focus on evadingemotions and reminders of the trauma.While avoidance is meant to reduce pain and help people cope, it actually ends up making PTSD symptoms worse.Learn More:PTSD and Emotional Avoidance

Avoidance symptoms in PTSD tend to focus on evadingemotions and reminders of the trauma.While avoidance is meant to reduce pain and help people cope, it actually ends up making PTSD symptoms worse.

Learn More:PTSD and Emotional Avoidance

Trauma contributes to problems with time perception, but it also makes it more challenging to trust that the world is safe and predictable. Feeling a lack of control over the events in one’s life can make it difficult to envision a future.

A sense of a foreshortened future can make it difficult for people to stay motivated, set goals, or stick to their commitments. They may feel that since there is no future, there is no point in making plans, pursuing goals, or maintaining relationships with others. It can contribute to poor achievement, depression, hopelessness, and isolation.

9 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Ratcliffe M, Ruddell M, Smith B.What is a “sense of foreshortened future?” A phenomenological study of trauma, trust, and time.Front Psychol. 2014;5:1026. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01026The National Child Traumatic Stress Network.What is child trauma: Effects.Kleim B, Graham B, Fihosy S, Stott R, Ehlers A.Reduced specificity in episodic future thinking in posttraumatic stress disorder.Clinical Psychological Science. 2014;2(2):165-173. doi:10.1177/2167702613495199Gallegos AM, Lytle MC, Moynihan JA, Talbot NL.Mindfulness-based stress reduction to enhance psychological functioning and improve inflammatory biomarkers in trauma-exposed women: A pilot study.Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.2015;7(6):525–532. doi:10.1037/tra0000053Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Trauma-informed care in behavioral health services.National Institute of Mental Health.Anxiety disorders.American Psychiatric Association.What is post-traumatic stress disorder?American Academy of Family Physicians.Mental health: Keeping your emotional health.U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.PTSD: Avoidance.

9 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Ratcliffe M, Ruddell M, Smith B.What is a “sense of foreshortened future?” A phenomenological study of trauma, trust, and time.Front Psychol. 2014;5:1026. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01026The National Child Traumatic Stress Network.What is child trauma: Effects.Kleim B, Graham B, Fihosy S, Stott R, Ehlers A.Reduced specificity in episodic future thinking in posttraumatic stress disorder.Clinical Psychological Science. 2014;2(2):165-173. doi:10.1177/2167702613495199Gallegos AM, Lytle MC, Moynihan JA, Talbot NL.Mindfulness-based stress reduction to enhance psychological functioning and improve inflammatory biomarkers in trauma-exposed women: A pilot study.Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.2015;7(6):525–532. doi:10.1037/tra0000053Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Trauma-informed care in behavioral health services.National Institute of Mental Health.Anxiety disorders.American Psychiatric Association.What is post-traumatic stress disorder?American Academy of Family Physicians.Mental health: Keeping your emotional health.U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.PTSD: Avoidance.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Ratcliffe M, Ruddell M, Smith B.What is a “sense of foreshortened future?” A phenomenological study of trauma, trust, and time.Front Psychol. 2014;5:1026. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01026The National Child Traumatic Stress Network.What is child trauma: Effects.Kleim B, Graham B, Fihosy S, Stott R, Ehlers A.Reduced specificity in episodic future thinking in posttraumatic stress disorder.Clinical Psychological Science. 2014;2(2):165-173. doi:10.1177/2167702613495199Gallegos AM, Lytle MC, Moynihan JA, Talbot NL.Mindfulness-based stress reduction to enhance psychological functioning and improve inflammatory biomarkers in trauma-exposed women: A pilot study.Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.2015;7(6):525–532. doi:10.1037/tra0000053Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Trauma-informed care in behavioral health services.National Institute of Mental Health.Anxiety disorders.American Psychiatric Association.What is post-traumatic stress disorder?American Academy of Family Physicians.Mental health: Keeping your emotional health.U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.PTSD: Avoidance.

Ratcliffe M, Ruddell M, Smith B.What is a “sense of foreshortened future?” A phenomenological study of trauma, trust, and time.Front Psychol. 2014;5:1026. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01026

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network.What is child trauma: Effects.

Kleim B, Graham B, Fihosy S, Stott R, Ehlers A.Reduced specificity in episodic future thinking in posttraumatic stress disorder.Clinical Psychological Science. 2014;2(2):165-173. doi:10.1177/2167702613495199

Gallegos AM, Lytle MC, Moynihan JA, Talbot NL.Mindfulness-based stress reduction to enhance psychological functioning and improve inflammatory biomarkers in trauma-exposed women: A pilot study.Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.2015;7(6):525–532. doi:10.1037/tra0000053

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Trauma-informed care in behavioral health services.

National Institute of Mental Health.Anxiety disorders.

American Psychiatric Association.What is post-traumatic stress disorder?

American Academy of Family Physicians.Mental health: Keeping your emotional health.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.PTSD: Avoidance.

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?