Hypervigilance

What is that and what does it mean to you guys? Counselor told me I am displaying signs of this in my daily life now.

hypervigilance is when you are on edge, waiting at attention, ready to go, wary, just waiting cause you know that any minute now, any second, somethings gonna get you, and you gotta be prepared.

Hypervigilance means your nervous system is very alert. As kaliope says, one way this is manifested is being on guard for something scary to happen. For example, if I hear a noise, I might immediately attach a scary cause to it: I hear a noise outside the window and feel certain that it is a burglar about to invade my home, when in reality, it's the window blowing through a bush. If you have trouble falling asleep because you are listening to every little sound, or if you have trouble concentrating because small noises or movements distract you, then you may be showing hypervigilance.

Another way hypervigilance manifests itself is through an exaggerated startle response, or jumpiness. If someone drops a book behind you, what do you do? People with typical nervous systems may turn to find the source of the sound; someone with PTSD might jump into the air, shout, or put their hands up. A normal response to terrifying stimuli, but not exactly typical for a dropped book.

You can also be hypervigilant within a relationship, always on guard for people close to you to hurt you. This is particularly common if your trauma was caused by another person. For example, a friend might cancel plans, and instead of thinking, "Oh, she's busy because something came up," I assume, "She hates me and can't stand to spend time with me but I disgust her so much she can't tell me; I should never be friends with anyone!"

Do you see yourself in any of these examples?

Yes actuallY I do see myself, other tenants walking past my window is a HUGE trigger for me that I can't seem to get a grip on, i too think someone is either looking in or trying to break in and hurt me, I have the startle responses and hypersensitivity to noise, a worker at store the other day yelled loud and suddenly HEY, he was behind me and I jumped and it was obvious to everyone that I was frightened by it, and the relationship thing, I basically have sabotaged every single relationship for one reason or another very suddenly and out of no where and honestly dont even try to have a relationship now altho I want a healthy one for sure, I have no problem severing ties with people over minor or more major things and have no contact with them. Thank you for the insight.

my t said i was hyper-vigilant. went home and got out my kids old school dictionary and looked it up...
yup, he is right as usual...

i kinda wish he would give me a list of everything i need to fix, but then afraid to ask for it in case it turned out to be a book!