Hypervigilance - When Your Body Will Not Stop Scanning for Danger

You walk into a restaurant and before you have taken your coat off, you have already catalogued every exit, assessed the emotional temperature of every table, identified the...

You walk into a restaurant and before you have taken your coat off, you have already catalogued every exit, assessed the emotional temperature of every table, identified the person most likely to be a problem, and positioned yourself facing the door.

You did not decide to do this. You did not think about it.

It happened in the time it took to cross the threshold - faster than language, faster than intention, faster than the conscious mind can register its own operations. This is hypervigilance.

And if you live with it, you know that it is not a choice you make. It is a condition you inhabit.