The enigma of time

The enigma of time

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This episode from All In The Mind takes a fascinating detour into something everyone in recovery wrestles with: time itself. Why does a craving-filled evening feel endless, while a busy, joyful day vanishes in a flash? Cognitive neuroscientist Maran Irish and psychologist Mark Whitman break down why "time, perception, memory and the self are absolutely intertwined." They explain that mood, attention and motivation all shape how long a moment seems to last.

Those long, anxious waits, gym sessions that drag, or the panic before a big presentation are tied to how positively or negatively you frame what’s coming. Whitman’s research points to the body as a kind of internal clock. He links subjective time to the insular cortex, the brain area that pulls together signals like heartbeat, breathing, hunger, pain and temperature.

As he puts it, "through the feeling of our body over time, we sense duration" – which is why boredom, where you're acutely aware of your body and thoughts, makes time feel stretched. Irish adds that emotional events, especially traumatic ones, can feel as if they played out in slow motion, though the "time dilation" is mostly a trick of memory when you replay them later.

She also talks about ageing, dementia and autism, showing how shifts in memory and attention can change time perception dramatically.

For anyone rebuilding life after alcohol, there’s a powerful idea here: "perhaps we could, by virtue of some of these theories, then become masters of the way in which we experience time." Small pauses, paying attention to your body, and filling days with meaningful experiences may help those restless hours feel less punishing and make sober time feel richer and fuller. How might changing your relationship with time change your relationship with recovery?