What Is Hypervigilance and What Causes It? – PsychCentral.com

At certain times, hypervigilance staying highly alert is useful. But when it happens all too often, you may start to feel depleted. Heres why and how to cope.

Tense muscles. Room scan. A feeling that something bad is about to happen and youre unable to relax in your environment. Sound familiar?

Living with hypervigilance can not only make it difficult to enjoy the present moment, but it can also take away from your relationships, work, school, and overall quality of life.

The good news is that support and treatment options are available, once you identify the causes of this symptom. Professional resources and self-care may help you cope.

Put simply, hypervigilance is a biological adaptation to stress. Its your brains method of trying to keep you out of harms way by being highly alert and aware of your surroundings.

According to a 2016 review, researchers have found that it generally shows up in two scenarios.

The first is a looming threat, common with anxiety disorders. The second is a reminder of a previous threat, common with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma manifestations.

Hypervigilance is not a diagnosis on its own. Its a symptom. This means that its part of a set of other symptoms.

Some common diagnoses associated with hypervigilance include:

Hypervigilance looks different for everyone, but there are some signs that many people share. These include:

Trauma can rewire the brain to put you on high alert.

Research from 2019 suggests that those with trauma experience increased activity in their amygdala, the part of your brain that sends out the code red signal.

This means that your brain will alert the other systems in your body to get ready for an incoming threat even if theres no direct danger present.

Some cues may include:

Researchers are still trying to pin down why anxiety disorders manifest with hypervigilance.

Research from 2014 suggests that anxiety spurs selective attention in your brain. Then, it creates a feedback loop: You look for a specific threat and you get more anxious, which causes you to look for more threats. On and on it goes.

Research from 2015 suggests hypervigilance may result from miscommunication between two parts of the brain, the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST).

Some triggers may include:

Sometimes. It all depends on where its coming from.

If youve experienced a recent event that shook you up, like a near-miss car accident, your hypervigilance may go away on its own within a few hours or a couple of days if you didnt develop PTSD.

But for many, hypervigilance sticks around. If this is your case, its highly advisable to reach out for support and determine the underlying cause.

Hypervigilance is a natural feature of your limbic system, which manages your fight-or-flight response. It comes in handy in several scenarios, including:

Because it protects you in precarious situations, a small dose of hypervigilance is actually a good thing from time to time.

Your treatment for hypervigilance will depend on the underlying condition. In other words, you would treat the cause of your symptom, instead of just the symptom itself.

A mental health professional may recommend several types of therapy to treat mental health conditions that have hypervigilance as a symptom.

These include:

A doctor may recommend medication as part of your treatment for anxiety or PTSD. These medications will depend on your other symptoms and your specific needs.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is gaining traction in the Western medicine model.

Some supplements and herbs may help reduce symptoms associated with anxiety, including hypervigilance. More research is still needed, though.

Ask your doctor about:

If your hypervigilance is the result of stress, some self-care strategies may help. These include:

Hypervigilance is a natural biological process. In small doses, its useful.

However, for those who live with trauma, anxiety, or other mental health conditions, ongoing hypervigilance may take away from your relationships, work, and more.

In this case, a professional will be able to provide you with an accurate diagnosis and work with you on a treatment plan. Self-care strategies for relaxation may also help.

Remember, the overactive guard dog in your mind doesnt run the household you do. Its possible to take your power back. Youve got this.

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What Is Hypervigilance and What Causes It? - PsychCentral.com