What best describes hypervigilance?

What best describes hypervigilance?

• A. Sense of always being on guard that can make it difficult to disengage from stress
• B. Emotional exhaustion that comes from helping others on a long-term basis
• C. Thoughts about ending one's life
• D. Referred to as vicarious trauma, occurs when a person is exposed to the trauma of others

Answer: (A)

Hypervigilance is a heightened state of alertness, always scanning for threats and staying on edge. In practice, it shows up as a sense of being constantly on guard and having difficulty disengaging from stress. This description matches that pattern—a person feels danger could be present at any moment and finds it hard to relax. The other concepts describe burnout from sustained caregiving, suicidal thoughts, or trauma exposure to others’ experiences, not the persistent, exaggerated readiness to perceive threats. So the best description is the ongoing, hard-to-disengage vigilance that keeps someone in a constant state of heightened alert.

Hypervigilance is a heightened state of alertness, always scanning for threats and staying on edge. In practice, it shows up as a sense of being constantly on guard and having difficulty disengaging from stress. This description matches that pattern—a person feels danger could be present at any moment and finds it hard to relax. The other concepts describe burnout from sustained caregiving, suicidal thoughts, or trauma exposure to others’ experiences, not the persistent, exaggerated readiness to perceive threats. So the best description is the ongoing, hard-to-disengage vigilance that keeps someone in a constant state of heightened alert.