I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but I’ve always blanked when someone asked me about my five-year plan or inquired whether I wanted to get married or have kids.

My future feels like it has nothing to do with me, and I struggle to envision it – in general, though, the idea of hitting milestones never felt like it “fit” me.

I also felt vaguely as though I was going to die at 20, then 30 (I wonder if the goalposts will move again). It’s a phenomenon friends have described, too.

So, I felt enormous relief in discovering the term “a sense of foreshortened future”, which may be more common than you realise.

What is a “sense of foreshortened future”?

BACP member Alec Williams, a trauma-focused therapist based in London, said: “A ‘sense of foreshortened future’ isn’t simply just thinking that one’s life will be short”, though that can be a part of it.

“It often goes much deeper and can undermine a person’s entire worldview.

“Often,” he explained, “it happens due to an individual experiencing an extreme traumatic event... that shakes the very foundation of how they experience the world.”

Those with a “foreshortened sense of future” might lose all sense of trust in their environment, no longer believing that it can be a safe place where they are valued and cared for.

“Previous commitments, projects, interests or things they were looking forward to can begin to feel meaningless and become difficult to make sense of. The future of one’s life can often feel collapsed and insignificant,” the therapist added.

“In everyday life, this might mean not making long‐term plans, feeling separate or disconnected from the world or people, or believing that........

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