Hypervigilance

Imagine sitting in a quiet coffee shop, but every door slam makes you flinch. A stranger walks behind you and your heart races like you’re in danger. Your eyes keep darting to the exits, scanning every face, every shadow—even though nothing bad is happening. 

Living after a traumatic event (or having grown up with loads of adversity) can turn normal, safe places into minefields because your brain never flips the “danger” switch to OFF. This nonstop lookout mode is called hypervigilance, and it’s exhausting. 

It feels like the trauma followed you home and hired a 24-hour security guard that won’t let you rest. You’re not “too jumpy” or “paranoid,” or “crazy”—your brain is doing exactly what it thinks it has to do to keep you alive. 

The problem is, it’s working overtime on a job that’s already over.

After something terrifying happens, a little almond-shaped part of your brain called the amygdala gets stuck in overdrive. Normally, it only sounds the alarm when real danger shows up. Post-trauma, it treats loud noises, crowded rooms, certain smells, or even the time of day like five-alarm fires. 

Brain scans prove this isn’t just “in your head”— some people show much stronger amygdala reactions to everyday things that healthier brains ignore (Shin et al., 2006). At the same time, the “calm down” part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex) gets weaker, so it can’t tell the amygdala, “Hey, relax, we’re safe now” (Hayes et al., 2012). 

The result? Your body stays flooded with stress chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol, keeping muscles tight, heart pounding, and senses on red alert—all day, every day (Pole, 2007).

A super-easy trick that even soldiers and first responders use is called grounding with your 5 senses (also called the 5-4-3-2-1 technique). It works because it forces your brain to notice the present moment is safe, which quiets the amygdala fast.

Here’s how:

5 things you can see right now (look around and name them out loud or in your head).  

4 things you can touch (the chair under you, your clothes, the table, your phone).  

3 things you can hear (traffic, birds, your own breathing).  

2 things you can smell (coffee, fresh air, your shirt).  

1 thing you can taste (gum, water, or even just your mouth).

Studies on veterans and survivors show that doing this for just 60–90 seconds drops heart rate, lowers anxiety, and pulls the brain out of hypervigilance mode. Other studies found that people who practiced 5-4-3-2-1 daily for two weeks had way fewer startle reactions and felt safer in public places.

You can do it in the grocery store, at work, in the car—anywhere. It’s free, nobody can tell you’re doing it, and the more you practice, the quicker your brain learns: “I’m checking the facts right now, and I’m actually safe.”

You don’t have to live on guard forever. Little tools like this one help your brain remember that the danger has passed—even if it doesn’t feel that way yet.

Try the 5-4-3-2-1 trick today.

You’ve got this—and you deserve to feel safe again.

Works Cited

Hayes, Joseph P., et al. “Quantitative Meta-analysis of Neural Activity in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.” Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders, vol. 2, no. 9, 2012, doi:10.1186/2045-5380-2-9.  

Pole, Nnamdi. “The Psychophysiology of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Meta-Analysis.” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 133, no. 5, 2007, pp. 725–746.  

Shin, Lisa M., et al. “A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Amygdala and Medial Prefrontal Cortex Responses to Overtly Presented Fearful Faces in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.” Archives of General Psychiatry, vol. 62, no. 3, 2006, pp. 273–281.