What Is Hypervigilance?

Your brain is designed to be aware of potential dangers in your surroundings. It's how early humans survived. Sensing the presence of predators or other threats helped them stay safe. But our brains shouldn't be in this excited state of extra-sensitivity all of the time. This is known as hypervigilance.While hypervigilance isn’t a diagnosis, it is a symptom that can show up as a part of a variety of other mental health conditions. Hypervigilance is related to anxiety. When you feel particularly on guard, nervous, or worried about a situation or event, you may experience a heightened level of awareness or arousal.Causes of HypervigilanceHypervigilance — the elevated state of constantly assessing potential threats around you — is often the result of a trauma. People who have been in combat, have survived abuse, or have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can exhibit hypervigilance.PTSD can be caused by a wide variety of incidents. Some of these traumatic events include:Living through a...