Hypervigilance is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo annoying! I've got a massive startle reflex... I get laughed at a lot because of it. I've learned to laugh it off but I always feel embarassed. It's a pretty extreme reaction (yet doesn't often involve screaming). I know that my hypervigilance is not paranoia - because I'm not out looking for things, I just notice everything without really paying attention to it (?? that looks like it makes no sense but it makes sense to me!) and then if there's anything "off" I become aware of it and am like "...!!!!!"

I think that if Complex PTSD was actually in the DSM I would have that as a diagnosis along with bipolar 2 (For me, I am fully accepting of having bipolar, but I AM quite specific on having the "2" included!). I never had anything really life-threatening (well, I suppose in some ways I have, but not like... not like anything serious or really abusive) but I have had a consistent life of stress and fear and emotional neglect/abuse. I'm acutely aware of how my past has affected me, and although I accept it as being something that happened to me, (as opposed to being born with it, like I was with the bp2), I still can't really accept that it isn't my own fault for not being able to prevent it, or for not being able to totally make it go away (although I do have pretty good management of it and have made looooads of progress over the last decade!)

It was a good read, that article. I've probably gone right off topic but these were my thoughts while reading!