---
title: Hyper-Vigilant
description: The Hyper-Vigilant defined and explained.
---

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# Hyper-Vigilant

## The Hyper-Vigilant defined and explained.

**Description:** Continuous intense anxiety about all the dangers and what could go wrong. Vigilance that can never rest.

**Characteristics:** 

- Always anxious, with chronic doubts about self and others.
- Extraordinary sensitivity to danger signals.
- Constant expectation of mishap or danger. Suspicious of what others are up to.
- People mess up.
- Might seek reassurance and guidance in procedures, rules, authorities, institutions.

**Thoughts:** 

- When is the other shoe going to drop?
- If I make a mistake, I fear everyone is going to jump down my throat.
- I want to trust people, but I find myself suspicious of their motives.
- I need to know what the rules are, although I might not always follow them.

**Feelings:** 

- Skeptical, even cynical.
- Often anxious and highly vigilant.

**Justification Lies:** 

- Life is full of dangers.
- If I don’t look out for them, who will?

**Impact on Self and Others:** 

- This is a hard way to live.
- The constant anxiety burns a great deal of vital energy that could otherwise be put to great use.
- Loses credibility due to the “crying wolf” phenomenon.
- Others begin to avoid the Hyper-Vigilant as the intensity of that energy drains them.

**Original Survival Function:**

- The Hyper-Vigilant often comes from early experiences where the source of safety and security (parental figure) was unpredictable and unreliable.
- It could also result when painful unexpected events proved life to be threatening or unreliable.

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