I now have a word for my variable sense of time: tachypsychia.
People will experience time at a different rate from their normal experience in response to a stressful or traumatic event (triggering the fight-or-flight response), or while on drugs, or by something else that alters their perception of time.
For me, before my ADHD diagnosis, time was extremely variable. Five minutes could seem like an hour (time-dilation), or an hour could feel like five minutes (time-contraction). ADHD medication has made my experience of time much more stable (about 2:1 or 1:2, instead of 12:1 or 1:12... that's the ratio of 5 minutes to an hour, but honestly sometimes it was as bad as 20:1).
I came across the term "tachypsychia" while scrolling on YouTube, mentioned in a clip from the TV show "The Rookie". It was given as the explanation from one police officer to another about why his sense of time from a particular event was so different from normal. He said, "Time was all over the place." The other officer responded, "Tachypsychia. It's a common response to a traumatic event."
I've never used recreational substances (besides alcohol only occasionally), and my life is pretty calm. Yet my brain was almost always in that state.
"Time blindness" has never been an adequate description of my experience with time. I still have problems with that a lot. But now I've got "tachypsychia" to add to my vocabulary, to better relate what I live with.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Does anyone else experience extreme variability with your sense of time?
As bad as 20-to-1, like me?
Do your ADHD meds help reduce it for you, too?
Written by
STEM_Dad
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Oh, yes! How I see/feel time is related to my level of focus. If I'm very focused, time disappears for me. I can think I was reading an interesting book for 20 minutes and find 3 hours have passed. I can think I've waited 20 minutes before trying to call a number again, and find only 2 minutes have passed since my last attempt. So if I have to wait for something, time passes incredibly slowly, and I get impatient and anxious. And if I'm involved in something, time flies. It's almost impossible for me to estimate how long something will take me to do, which was critical on the job.
My relationship to time created untold hardships for me while I was in the workplace. It's only since I retired that I'm able to manage time in a better way, because I can take my time preparing for things on my own terms now.
interesting! its my understanding that those of us with ADHD experience time blindness on the regular just as a part of the ADHD. our brains do not just naturally orient to time in the same way neurotypical brains do. time blindness isnt triggered by anything- its just the way our brains are wired and its not linked to any event.
and i thought people experience Tachypsychia in response to a perceived traumatic event. its a short lived immediate response from fight or flight chemicals. its not a constant in someones life, its not ADHD, its a trauma response to a very specific event its not something we experience as a regular part of general everyday stress.
I understand time blindness being described as these things: • Being unaware of what present time is
• Being unable to tell how much time has passed
• Being unable to tell how much time there is between the present moment and a certain event in the future
I think that the term "time blindness" is often used to describe all ADHD time issues. However, I just think that semantically the term "time blindness" doesn't adequately match with all of these experiences.
Maybe I just never grew out of the kid who liked learning new words, but I believe expanding our vocabulary can help us to expand our understanding...of our world, of each other, and of ourselves.
So, I think that tachypsychia better describes the phenomena of experiencing variable time than calling it time blindness like other time sensory issues.
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I'm not insisting that we all have to adopt this specific term. I've used analogies to describe ADHD time sense issues before I got diagnosed with ADHD.
• I had used the term "going down the rabbit hole" sometimes to mean "time blindness", or more specifically "I got so focused on this thing I was doing that it was as if I blinked and hours went by without my noticing".
• As a sci-fi geek, I had likened my variable sense of time (feeling like it was passing very slowly) to "falling into a black hole", which science says would cause time-dilation. (The concept was used to explain how the title spaceship in "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda" was practically frozen in time at the beginning of the series.)
I've heard other people give other analogies to describe their own time blindness or time variability experiences, but I can't recall any very clearly right now. I think a child with ADHD once likened it to me as "being like a cat, sometimes doing nothing and sometimes racing around and doing everything", but I'm not sure if they were talking about their time experience or their ADHD experience in general.
i hear ya, as a social worker im a vocabulary geek as well, 😜
however, the term tachypsychia has a specific meaning. its used to describe the bodys response after an intense event. without an intense or traumatic event- the word tachypsychia wouldnt be accurate. it would just be slang.
and thats okay bc slang is fun too as long as we are mindful of our audience when we use it we dont want to minimize others just to get our own point across n feel understood about our struggle with time issues due to ADHD.
So maybe we need a new word for the similar phenomenon that is experienced so regularly by so many of us ADHDers. (The term might already exist, but only be used in scientific or clinical settings.)
lol, i have no doubt that u will find the word😊😂 and please share it bc i have no idea what the scientific word is- just the casual terms us adhd’ers already use like “ time blind”
good research stemdad! Do you by chance have a link to the video you are describing? I would love to watch it.my tachypsychia isn’t too bad. Sometimes it happens when I am hyper fixated on a task, but I can turn on an alarm to help.
My partner though says he needs to get out and do landscaping with our landlord so he can’t do a chore I ask, but then when I get home, he is still getting ready 3 hours later! Then he complains he doesn’t have time for things, then gets on games at 11pm until 2 am. He is responsible usually, but his concept of time is way off lately. I feel like a nag having to help him keep track. The medications get him going, but it also gets his bowels going 😆. I do notice his tachypsychia is better after he has taken meds and relieved himself. However, he hyperfixates too, which can also affect the time accuracy for him.
This is fascinating STEM_Dad! Thank you so much for sharing! I have now gone down the rabbit hole of reading about tachypsychia, which is really interesting!
Time distortion is a phrase that is super generic but it would encompass either a slow down or speed up of time that many of us are describing/experiencing. I would like updates too if you find other useful vocabulary.
I found out that there is a dictionary of psychological terms posted by the American Psychological Association (APA). It really does seem the best fit term for this variable time sense phenomenon.
Here is the definition of tachypsychia from that dictionary:
tachypsychia Updated on 04/19/2018
n. an altered perception of time, in which time seems to speed up or slow down.
[So, in practice, this term might be used only in certain contexts. However, the actual definition is written generally enough that the term could be used in other contexts, such as to describe our experience of variable time with ADHD.]
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The definition of "psychological time" is also interesting.
psychological time
Updated on 04/19/2018
the subjective estimation or experience of time. This is mainly dependent on the processing and interpretation by the brain of time-related internal or external stimuli (see time sense), but it can be influenced by other factors. In general, time is experienced as passing more slowly when one is bored or inactive and more rapidly when one is engaged in an absorbing activity. Certain peak experiences can produce a sense of time dissolving or being suspended (seetimeless moment). Drugs and hypnosis can also be used to alter the perception of time. See also tachypsychia.
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we dont want to minimize others just to get our own point across n feel understood about our struggle with time issues due to ADHD.
Just Diagnosed at 37! Confused, glad but angry. Dr refuses to prescribe medication due to my history of self medication. Help!!
No Meds Work? A “death sentence” diagnosis. 
Quiet mind then insomnia 😔
College?
