I have to draw a very hard line between vigilance & hypervigilance. It's an easy line, though! Vigilance / Situational awareness is useful, hypervigilance is not.
Vigilance?
- Only danger pops.
- Once it does I can assess it
- Once I've assessed it I can act or dismiss it
Hypervig?
- Everything pops.
- I cannot rationally assess it (what IF...) either at all, or easily.
- I cannot dismiss it. It continues to shout Warning! Danger! Achtung! LOOK OUT!
Medically fragile & certain in types of special needs kids require vigilant parents. Normal parents can relate during times when their young children cannot have eyes taken off them (infants in the bath, small children playing near a street, etc.). That heightened sense of being aware of everything, at all times, in all directions. It's exhausting. But it does end. Children grow, come home from the park, etc. Medically fragile children don't have those natural end points. The only breaks a parent gets are when someone else is taking care of them / is responsible to have eyes on.
Sounds like the times when you "should" be able to relax? Someone else is responsible? Instead of your vigilance relaxing, it's kicking UP. Into hypervig, anxiety attacks, ruminations, etc.
So. Been. There. ( :wtf: PTSD ). Vigilance when my son was present, hypervig & anxiety when he was absent. It is very much like glancing to where a neurotypical child "should" be, finding them absent, and freaking the f*ck out. Charlotte!! Charlotte! Has anyone seen a little girl??? Charlotte!!! Except I knew logically that my son wasn't missing. He was at XYZ place. Didn't matter. My brain was is emergency mode.
So instead of normal being vigilance & relax? Normal was vigilance & massive anxiety attack. Hypervig being a PART of that. Although only a part.
