Stuck in painful time: perception of time by individuals with eating disorders depending on their mood

Abstract

Introduction: Eating disorders still pose a formidable challenge to health care professionals. The suffering of eating-disordered individuals may be profound, with the main contributing factors being low self-esteem, guilt and depression, a sense of hopelessness, and loneliness. The objective of the study was to determine how patients with eating disorders perceive time, and in particular whether their experience of time differs from that of healthy individuals. Another goal was to examine the relationship between the mood of the subjects and their time perspective. Materials and methods: The subjects were 30 women with eating disorders and 30 age-matched healthy female controls. The three measures applied were: the Time Metaphors Questionnaire by Małgorzata Sobol-Kwapińska, the Time Perspective Inventory by Philip Zimbardo, and the UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist (UMACL) by Gerald Matthews et al. Results: As expected, statistical analyses revealed that women with eating disorders were characterised by a more negative perception of time than healthy subjects. The study also confirmed the expected correlations between positive and negative time perceptions and mood. Conclusion: The results appear to have a considerable scholarly and practical value, and should be used in the psychotherapy of eating-disordered individuals focusing on existential aspects, including in particular topics regarding the experience of time by sufferers.