1️⃣ Foreshortened Future.
One of the the least talked about avoidance symptoms of trauma-stress disorder is a sense that you do not have a future. As the trauma of being betrayed and your assumptions shattered by people you trusted, can lead you to have a loss of “trust” or “confidence” in the world.
1️⃣.2️⃣ Foreshortened Future Info-graph
When this happens your brain starts to confuse and meld together things that happened in the past, present, and future. Which leads you to question:
▶️ things you took for granted in the past.
▶️ The plans and hopes you had for the future no longer seem possible or achievable.
As in your new world, nothing can be guaranteed to work out as you planned.
This can lead you to being preoccupied with questions about your ‘new’ and unpredictable future. This is called the ‘foreshortened future’. eg
▶️ ‘Will you die young?’
▶️ Will you have a family,” and ‘
▶️ Will you have a successful career.’
2️⃣ Why do you start to think like this?
Because you no longer have a compass of life expectations, your ‘stressed and depleted brain chemicals’ decide to interpret this as you have no future as your life will be cut short. There is no logical reason for this other than the assumption that you have no life plan because you are going to die soon is the only belief that has not been shattered.
This feeling of a foreshortened future can be mild or severe enough that you are pre occupied with your death. It can be confused with feeling that you need to end your life by committing suicide. But they are not the same.
3️⃣ Foreshortened Future thoughts are not a symptom of Borderline/Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder.
Ironically, health professionals claiming that you are seeking attention and failing to recognise this red flag behaviour change. Creates more trauma-stress disorder and increases the severity of the foreshortened future avoidance behaviours.
4️⃣ How to cope with Foreshortened Future thoughts
