Short video by Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes explaining two trauma-related symptoms: hypervigilance (a sustained state of heightened alertness after trauma, causing difficulty relaxing and scanning for threats) and exaggerated startle response (oversized physical/emotional reaction to being startled). She links both to the nervous system remaining on alert post-trauma and notes symptoms often decrease as safety and empowerment are restored.
Chapters
Hey there, everybody. Welcome back. I'm Dr. Donnellice Snipes. And today we're continuing to talk about symptoms that may be caused by trauma. Today we're talking about hypervigilance and a exaggerated or a strong startle response. You can kind of see just by what they are, how they may occur as a result of trauma. When people experience trauma, it causes. Causes them to feel unsafe and powerless. Okay, we don't want to feel that way. That is not a way to survive if we are experiencing threat and we're powerless. So once we emerge from that trauma, once we've survived that trauma, our nervous system may be on high alert going, I don't want to go there again. That came from out of the blue. I don't want to be surprised again. So your nervous system stays. Stays on at least moderate alert. It may not be red alert, it may be yellow alert, but it stays on alert. And that is what we call hypervigilance. People who are hypervigilant have difficulty relaxing because they're always primed to respond to problems. They're always scanning for threats in the environment. They have difficulty focusing on what's right in front of them because they. They don't feel safe. And. And again, it makes perfect sense from a survival perspective. And part of the recovery process involves identifying what needs to happen so they can feel safe and secure in the present moment. And there are a lot of things that are associated with that. Far too much to go into in this brief video. But along with hypervigilance, many people have a. What they call an exaggerated startle response when they get startled. It's not just, oh, what was that? They feel like they're going to jump out of their skin. So they're either calm or they're jumping out of their skin. And it's important again, to recognize that this is also a symptom of that hypervigilance. When somebody is constantly on yellow alert, they're primed. They're ready to spring into action at any moment. So when they do get triggered, they. They spring. Oh, boy, do they spring. Somebody who's not hyper vigilant, somebody who's just chilling out and relaxed. When they get startled, they're not already primed. So they often don't have as strong of a stress response. They haven't wound up and stored up a bunch of energy just getting ready to spring as a result of a threat. So hypervigilance and an exaggerated startle response often go hand in hand. And as people start feel. Feeling safer and feeling more empowered in their environment and recognizing that in this context, at this time, they are safe, those symptoms will often gradually decrease.
