Is “Hurry Sickness” Real? | Its Impact And 4 Ways to Slow Down

My mother always told me that it’s better if you’re early than late. This habit stuck with me for a while. I would prefer to reach my destination early than the destined time almost every time, but then I thought “why do I do this?” Does this time urgency have a purpose? Or is it that I am used to hurrying?

Recently, I came across the term, “hurry sickness” or a sense of time urgency that has no real purpose. But, what does hurry sickness mean, exactly?

Well, if you spend most of your time hurrying to things – office meetings, social gatherings, or just rush through your daily routine (even on the weekends) – then you might have hurry sickness. This condition makes one feel agitated and almost panicked to finish their tasks even if there is no real urgency to do so.

Here is an example to help you understand this sense of time urgency better; you talk fast, you walk fast, you rush through your routine, and feel like there isn’t time to slow down because you have things to do.

Even when you have no rush to finish things, you feel like you need to get everything done on time. While this can be constructed as a sign of productivity, not slowing down in real life can leave a tremendous impact on your emotional and physical health.

In this article, let’s discover what is hurry sickness, its signs and impact, and how you can slow down your pace without feeling agitated.

What is Hurry Sickness?

If you’re always rushing through things even when you don’t have to, you could be dealing with hurry sickness. It’s a term coined by Meyer Friedman and R.H. Rosenman in their book, “Type A Behavior and Your Heart”. While it’s not a real and recognized medical condition, it can give off a sense of time urgency.

You may feel hurried or anxious to get things done even when you don’t have a real purpose. This chronic hurry can not only physically impact you, but can leave some deep impact on your emotional health too. We’ll read about the impacts below.

Hurry sickness is also said to be commonly associated with people with Type A Personality and can trigger a lot of stress-related conditions including heart attacks and hypertension.

Signs of Hurry Sickness

If you’re worried that you’re moving too fast in life without having a purpose, here are the signs you need to look for;

• You’re rushing through your tasks
• You feel irritated or agitated when things get delayed
• You interrupt or talk over others
• You run through your tasks in your head
• You treat everything as a competition against time
• You feel like you’re always behind schedule
• You’re always multitasking
• You have a constant sense of urgency

When you deal with hurry sickness, you can always feel the side effects through;

• Chronic fatigue
• Headaches, and
• Low immunity

The Impact of Hurry Sickness on Our Health

When you believe that you don’t have enough time to deal with your responsibilities, you accumulate a lot of stress in your mind and body. You take up tasks that you don’t have to and then when you don’t have the time to complete the tasks, you feel agitated and irritated.

This kind of rush can also create a sense of anxiety that can take over your mental peace and leave you feeling scrambling. This anxiety keeps you moving and adds to the already simmering time urgency.

Eventually, when anxiety runs out, anger begins to simmer – towards yourself and others. This anger can manifest as road rage, temper tantrums, and sudden outbursts. Not only that but it can affect your relationship with others too.

You neglect your partner because you’re scrambling to finish tasks, or you snap at your coworkers because you feel like you’re running out of time.

Again, when you’re always rushing things, you neglect yourself and forget self-care. Alone time seems like an alien concept to you and relaxation means that you’re “wasting time”. You also forget basic needs such as hydration, stress management, and sleep.

When you constantly neglect yourself, it can have consequences and can cause;

• Sleep troubles
• Changes in appetite
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Stomach problems
• Low immunity
• Burnout
• Heart disease
• Hypertension
• Anxiety
• Depression

Ways to Overcome Hurry Sickness

If you’re looking to get rid of hurry sickness, then here are 4 ways you can do so and learn to slow down in your life;

1. Become Mindful

If you’re dealing with hurry sickness, then you need to learn to slow down and embrace the present moment. Mindfulness can help you achieve that. Try to bring your attention to the present whenever you feel like you’re rushing through things.

Avoid multitasking and focusing on different things at once. Try to incorporate mindful breathing exercises into your routine and grounding techniques to bring your awareness to the present. Try this STOP mindfulness technique to slow down.

2. Prioritize Self-Care

Spending too much time rushing through tasks means that you don’t pay attention to your self-care. Try to incorporate a simple self-care goal into your daily routine. You can also try to schedule a therapist or counselor so that you can take at least some time out of your routine to care for your mental health.

You can also take some time – I’d recommend an hour out of your day – to do things you like doing without hurrying through them.

3. Focus on One Task at a Time

Figure out what tasks are the most important ones and focus on them one at a time. Prioritizing your tasks can help you complete the most urgent ones first so that you don’t have to rush through the rest.

If you feel like you don’t have time for the other least important tasks, then try to delegate them to others. You’d be surprised to learn that there are many things you can pass off to others that are trivial.

4. Learn to Say “NO”

Another thing that can help you overcome hurry sickness is how to say “NO”. It can be harder to say no to someone when they ask you to do something but learning to say “NO” to tasks that are not your own can do wonders for you. Your hurry sickness could be a result of taking on more responsibilities than you can handle too, so learn to let go.

If you’re struggling then you can set some boundaries. You can try to be assertive in certain cases, take on one task at a time, and say “NO” to tasks that you don’t enjoy or have the time for.

Final Thoughts

It’s not easy to break a habit that’s been going on strong for years, but you can eventually learn to slow down your fast pace with some simple steps. If you’re still struggling with a hurry sickness, then consider connecting to a therapist for guidance or support. A therapist can offer you mindfulness techniques and strategies to help with the stress that you seem to accumulate through time urgency.

Keep in mind that running through life takes away the joy of enjoying each moment. Learn to slow down and live in the present moment to maintain strong and healthy long-term well-being.

Trust me, slowing down in life might not only help you enjoy the little things in life but also improve the quality of your life and perspective.

I hope the ways of slowing down I mentioned above will help you overcome hurry sickness. For more, you can write to us at info@calmsage.com or DM us on social media. You can also share your thoughts, tips, and ways in the comments below.

Take care and slow down!