While the development of advanced time travel technology with the aid of Localized Reality Control Field technology was initially heralded as a feat of science, early experiments soon discovered disturbing problems that, while not completely unforeseeable, were certainly not expected.
Introduction
One of the most serious of these side effects, was a phenomenon known as Time Travel Induced Psychosis. Time travellers who spent significant time away from their ‘home’ time, would invariably deteriorate mentally, and sometimes even physically. Whether or not this phenomenon was purely a psychological experience brought about by the disjoint and jarring nature of being forced into an alien and unfamiliar period of time for which they were not mentally and culturally adapted, or whether there actually were physiological effects associated with time travel was not well understood for a long time. This made easier the drafting of the Temporal Worldline-Transfer Non-Interference Code, a nearly universal agreement that would severely restrict time travel.
Symptoms/Diagnosis
Time Travel Induced Psychosis has a large number of acute and chronic symptoms, some of which can be reversed by returning the subject to their original time, but others which are thought to be permanent.
- Confusion
- Dysphoria
- Anxiety
- Panic Attacks
- Severe Derealization
- Severe Depersonalization
- Fugue States
- Dissociative Disorders
- Amnesia
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Other Schizophrenic Behaviour
- Thought Disorder
- Cardiac Dysrhythmia
- Temporal Phasing
Treatment
While the use of anti-psychotic drugs can delay the onset of the more severe symptoms, they generally are unsuccessful at postponing them indefinitely. Initial symptoms are more likely to be recovered from once returned to their original time. As such, what few human-based time travel operations are allowed under the Non-Interference Code tend to be time limited. This has also encouraged the use of synthetic humans and lesser androids, as the former are much more resistant to the effects of the Psychosis, while non-human level machines exhibit near immunity.
Causes
While the causes of the Psychosis are still not entirely understood, it is believed that the actual process of being shifted to a different space-time has disruptive repercussions to the central nervous system, and information processing functions in general. Organic life forms especially appear to suffer from a kind of ‘temporal separation anxiety’ akin to what has been described as “leaving a part of themselves behind”. The Psychosis is often associated with obsessive and insane ramblings about “returning home” and “escaping the monsters”.
Some rather bizarre theories speculate that time travel is abhorrent to nature itself, and that the Psychosis is a result of a person’s very being, being dragged back towards its original time. Reportedly classified incidents of time travellers spontaneously returning to their original time through unknown means in a severely deteriorated condition can not be confirmed.
Circumvention
In addition to the aforementioned use of synthetic humans and androids, it is believed that a child born in a different time epoch from one or both parents can exist for much longer in that time than their non-native parent(s). In particular, if one parent is native to the particular time, the child may be able to exist in that time indefinitely with only minor side effects, though this remains an unproven conjecture.
Time Travel Issues
http://www.cracked.com/article_18564_6-time-travel-realities-doc-brown-didnt-warn-us-about.html
As seen in the aforementioned article, a number of important considerations must be made before attempting to conduct temporal worldline transfers…