What is Hypervigilance?
Friday, March 2, 2007
Hypervigilance is an enhanced state of sensory sensitivity accompanied by an exaggerated intensity of behaviors whose purpose is to detect threats. For example, a driver who has previously been involved in a car accident may devote so much attention to road conditions and other cars on the road, that they do not hear an accompanying passenger while driving. Hypervigilance is a state of anxiety that often leads quickly to exhaustion.
Simply put, hypervigilance is a way to describe a person in a state of fight-or-flight.
It is a symptom of a number of stress-related disorders. See for example :
* Post-traumatic stress disorder,
* Combat stress reaction,
* Urban survival syndrome,
* Mean World Syndrome
It is manifested in victims of domestic violence and stalking. It is also seen as an aspect of the psychological condition of codependence, and as needing treatment in victims of torture.