hypervigilance.

Excessive or persistent alertness to possible threats.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• constant hypervigilance
• signs of hypervigilance
• hypervigilance after trauma

On the page

Her hypervigilance made a routine door slam feel like an emergency.

Even in the café, his hypervigilance kept pulling his attention toward the exits.

The counselor asked when the hypervigilance had first begun.

Usage notes

Primary category: fear. More than sensible watchfulness; it can involve scanning and exaggerated reactions. A symptom or pattern, not a diagnosis by itself. Usually uncountable in this sense. Derived family (not additional inflections or records): hypervigilant.