Fear Of The Future: Causes And Treatment

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the era in which we live today is one of the eras which have witnessed (and is still witnessing) the most tensions, conflicts, and psychological pressures to which man is exposed, in addition to the spread of wars, crises, and natural or artificial disasters, which in turn increased the burdens and difficulties faced by man in their life and increased their concerns day after day about the future and what it might hold. Future anxiety has become a clear and widespread phenomenon in all societies, especially those filled with changes that are more vulnerable than others to sudden changes in all political, economic, social, and cultural changes, which can affect not only the behavior of the individual, but their existence as well.

Anxiety and distrust of the future have become a feature that distinguishes man kind, and it appears clearly when humans face personal or environmental obstacles that prevent the realization of their dreams and ambitions and may threaten their existence, causing them to develop feelings of confusion, tension, and anxiety as a natural result of the present events they are going through or even past events whose impact still accompanies them in the present, along with a feeling of helplessness towards these events, in addition to the lack of resources available to them to act upon them.

The difference between a dream and a bitter reality leads to psychological and emotional conflicts and various personality disorders under the broad title of the fear of the future, whether it’s a fear related to the profession, marriage, money, success, or related to the family, and so on. The fear of the future has become one of the most negative aspects that accompany humans in various stages of their lives. It often appears in every situation in which the individual feels threatened in some aspect of their life and its stability.

First: What do we mean by the fear of the future?

The fear of the future preoccupies individuals of all ages, genders, and cultural levels. This fear prevents them from reaching clear goals that they attach to a drawn plan and procedural steps to achieve them. Fear of the future is a negative psychological concept that began to appear in scientific studies since Toffler launched the term “future shock.” The future is ambiguous, and the individual’s sense that their future is beyond their control and increasing helplessness towards what is happening and what could happen increases fear, making individuals incapable of planning or thinking as this fear becomes pathological.

Fear of the future, or as it is known scientifically, “Chronophobia”, is a disorder that results from unpleasant past or present experiences, with the exaggeration of the negatives in them and the denial of the positives. It causes the individual’s thinking about the future in a way that makes them permanently tense, irritable, and anxious because of their sense of loss of reassurance and security, which leads them to be pessimistic and generalize the state of failure to all the actions they may do in the future and always expect the worst in all the events that occur around them.

Fear of the future is a disturbed emotional state of apprehension, insecurity, uneasiness, distress, worry, loss of psychological security, and fear of unwanted changes expected to occur in the future that threaten the value of the individual or their  entity. In the extreme case of this fear, there may be a feeling of threat that is not real which may happen to a person.

Second: Is fear a normal thing or a pathology?

Fear is a natural thing in human life. It is a reaction to a real or imagined threat that leads the body to take measures to ward off harm, but there are certain situations that a person goes through which could make this fear a pathology, as it becomes abnormal and frequent, such as the state of fear that is not appropriate for the fearsome thing, or the fear of things that do not exist at all. In other words, it is an irrational fear that is not justified  and cannot be controlled, like the fear of the future, which often happens for unknown reasons, with many unrealistic expectations and imagined scenarios, and it affects the course of an individual’s life negatively.

Third: Reasons for fear of the future

1. The ambiguity of the future and the inability to predict its events:

Man lives in the present moment within a rapidly changing and developing world; A world in which there is no certainty and doubts arise in every corner. Individuals often find themselves unable to fulfill their needs and desires, as they are unable to predict their future or control their behavior, so they do not know what they should do about events and what attitude to take or direction to follow, causing them to fear what may await them tomorrow and then the future. 

2. Social reasons:

Such as the individual’s belief that they will not get help when they need it, as individuals often need the help of others in many matters in their lives, but when they begin to doubt that nobody around them cares about them, and they have no one they can rely on to solve problems, fear begins. The individual’s need for someone they trust, someone who can support them, someone they can discuss fears with and seek guidance and advice from is a necessary need. Not finding that person can be a reason for the emergence of fear from the future.

The establishment of an individual’s social relations on the basis of a benefit and the possibility of its destruction at any moment as a result of the termination of that benefit represents a constant fear among individuals in general, and the loss of a loved one for some reason, such as death is an important factor in the emergence of fear.

3. Loss of a sense of belonging:

When an individual feels alienated from their community, their family, their workplace, school, or university, they become hopeless, their life is stripped of meaning, they lose their identity, and their fears about the unknown future begin.

4. Familial instability:

Problems within the individual’s family, frequent quarrels, arguments, divorce, and the absence of a family member, especially parents, all represent psychological pressures that affect the psychological stability of the individual and push them towards more anxiety and fear of what the future holds.

5. Economic reasons:

The many requirements and burdens of life impose on the individual to be at a certain financial level in order to be able to meet their needs and fulfill their desires. This individual may be the breadwinner for their family, which will cause these burdens and economic responsibilities on their shoulders to increase, and their fear of the future to grow as the size of their economic responsibilities increases, not to mention other cases like unemployment, for example.

6. The absence of religious and moral values:

There are many studies that have come to the conclusion that individuals who are less religious and who are less committed to moral standards show a fear of the future compared to the rest of the individuals.

7. Psychological stressors:

The individual may become unable to adapt with the daily changes they are going through such as changing housing, changing profession, entering a new atmosphere of relationships at work, facing difficulties in exams and test, being exposed to diseases, divorces, marriages, or delay in marriage, advancing age and old age, and other reasons, each of which generates psychological stress that causes fear of the future. 

Fourth: How can fear of the future be treated and eliminated?

1. Gradually removing the causes of fear:

For example, if the individual is afraid of an accident, they should imagine that the accident has already happened, then deeply relax, imagine that incident, and imagine how to face it. They should repeat the experience many times until they reach the point of being able to imagine it without becoming anxious about it. The first confrontation happens in the imagination, if they manage to confront it, surely they will be able to confront the same incident in reality.

2. Organizing thinking:

This method is based on replacing negative thoughts with other positive thoughts. This method saves the individual from mental illnesses and helps them acquire positive strengths that support them for life.

3. Instilling hope and optimism:

Having faith and commitment to moral and human values ​​is how an individual acquires hope that makes them resistant to all fears standing in their way, and helps them advance towards the future with optimism.

4. Flooding method:

In this method, the individual must imagine the maximum of fears in their mind without doing any muscle relaxation, and they must train to adapt to them, and repeat this process for a long time until they accept them and these fears become a habitual thing for them.

5. The need for the individual to stay away from the places where they were exposed to the shock:

Meaning those places that made fear control the individual and control their life. This contributes to gradually forgetting the causes of the trauma, returning to a realistic normal life, planning for their life within the available possibilities, and working to achieve the plan.

In conclusion:

Man lives in an era of rapid change and progress, and with this development, the hopes and aspirations of the individual increase, and they seek to achieve them through various means. Many obstacles appear in their way, which often impede the fulfillment of the individual's needs and desires, thus stress increases, and the individual begins to lose hope in things getting better, and they feel insecurity in addition to sadness, anxiety, and fear about everything that might happen to them in the future.

Fear of the future is spread all over the world like wildfire, but it must be emphasized that this fear is a psychological illness that can be removed with the removal of the cause. Therefore, it is necessary for the individual to follow a treatment program that helps them identify their fears and how they can get rid of them. If the individual’s situation improves and they attain joy, the anxiety will end and the fear will disappear.