Prior service military, & a few other things, here.
Short answer… Nope! Not for life.
Long answer….
What I do is start by drawing a HARD line between
vigilance (useful) & hypervigilance (not useful).
What that looks like? Is 3 different ways
- Effortless
vigilance. I am ALWAYS away of where I am, what’s going on, projected pathways, etc. Anything that actually needs my attention? POPS. Like it’s lit up in neon. Anything I’m directing my attention at? In no way obscures everything else I am also paying attention to. Very much like the very normal experience of driving. Emergencies pop, but the rest of the time I’m still aware of the road and other drivers and weather and and and. All of which allows me to adapt easily and fluidly to changing circumstance, whilst taking almost not energy on my part, whatsoever.
- Having to
“manually” assess & dismiss every damn thing. Grrrr. It drives me crazy, and is exhausting, and I can only do it for very limited periods of time (think in terms of minutes). BUT? It’s what allows me to
retrain my hypervig back to vigilance. Mostly? I do it by playing games, because I can play a game longer & more effectively than I can kick my own ass. Other times I sandwich it in between bouts of physical exercise, so I can blow off the stress & exhaustion. (Including if that’s on “accident” : like suddenly finding myself in a bout of hypervig, and having to assess & dismiss to get from a to b? Nothing works better to clear my head.
-
Hypervig. For lack of anything “real” for my brain to be tracking? Man oh man does it start trying to FIND anything/everything. But by throwing giant neon signs around everything, the world becomes an electric kaleidoscope hangover from hell. Everything is too loud, too bright, too demanding of immediate action. Most of the time? I’d rather be being shot at, than attempting to buy cereal. Whether it’s the whole able to hear a mosquito fart 2 blocks away, a empty chip bag blowing under a car screaming as loud as car crashing into it, and don’t even get me started on the faceless blur of people.
1. So. First? I draw the hard line between what’s useful & necessary …and not… in order to not get jacked into the idea that it’s hypervig -or- being deaf/dumb/blind, completely unaware of my surroundings, the way most people are. I WANT my instincts and judgment to be fine tuned and reliable.
2. I start retraining my instincts and judgement by manually assessing and dismissing components in my environment.
3.
STRESS CUP <<< Read this. Use it.
4. Trauma Processing. <<< That’s the long term solution, of going after root problems, but it ain’t no reason have to be eyeballs deep hypervig & other symptoms until then. Walking and talking? Is a thing.
