Everyone Lives in Time. Not Everyone Lives in the Same Part of it

In counseling work, I often see folks with more extreme difference in time perception or the attention to time.

For some, their reality is more biased/focused on the “here and now time spectrum”. Past time spectrum and future time spectrum can be a bit blurry or uncertain. Some may refer to this as “time blind”.

Their strength is the ability to solve tactical problems in the here and now. What’s in front of me. If it’s more future or past focused, then awareness and effectiveness may drop. This may lead to leaving things to the last minute, distracted by the sensory input of the here and now rather than something that may be very important downstream, and avoiding projects that require sustained actions over the span of time stretching into the future. It can also lead to impulsivity in the here and now and less attention to the consequences in the downstream of time although cognitively, they may be very aware.

Sometimes I would frame this as being good for “close range combat”.

At times, I see the complete opposite where folks may have the extreme bias/focus on “pan time perception” and lack perception of the “here and now” leading to too much living in the past, planning for the future and forget to be in the here and now. They are more built for “medium to long range combat”.

Pros and cons.

In family therapy and couples work, not surprisingly, I often see these folks with different biases in time perception, ending up together because they can cover for each others blind spots. It is complementary. However, if unaware, it can also be a common source of conflict due to a lack of shared reality based on time.

In DSM, these patterns can show up in different diagnoses and I wonder if you can relate to them.