Here are some definitions to ponder:
Hypervigilance: Continual scanning of the environment for signs of threat.
Hysteria (actually called "hysterical neurosis): Diagnostic category for a neurosis involving a sudden impairment of function in response to emotional stress. In the conversion type, there is functional impairment in one of the special senses or in the voluntary nervous system; the dissociative type is manifested by an alteration in the state of consiousnessor or by such symptoms as amnesia, disorientation, fugue, somnambulism, or multiple personality.
Paranoia: Psychiatric syndrome marked by the gradual development of a highly elaborate and complex *delusional* system, generally involving persecutory or grandiose delusions, with few other signs of personality disorganization or thought disorder.
Delusion: False belief that is firmly held, despite objective and obvious contradictory proof or evidence and despite the fact that other members of the culture do not share the belief. (For example: There are bad guys/government agents hiding in the bushes around my house, following me around town, reading my mail, tapping my phone, and reading my mind.)
Anxiety: Unpleasurable emotional state associated with psychophysiological changes in reponse to an intrapsychic conflict; in contrast to fear, the danger or threat in anxiety is *unreal*.
Fear: Unpleasurable state consisting of psychophysiological changes in reponse to a *realistic* threat or danger.
Obsession
ersistant and recurrent ideas, thought, or impulse that cannot be eliminated from consciousness by logic or reasoning.
Compulsion: Uncontrollable, repetitive, and unwanted urge to perform an act; serves as a defense against unwanted ideas and desires, and failure to perform the act leads to overt anxiety. Compulsions are driven by obsessions.
So... if the shoe fits, wear it. I doubt that any of you are true hysterics or paranoics. I personally believe that danger can lurk anywhere and happen at any time. If you snooze, you lose. I carry a gun at all times except in the shower. On the crapper, it was in my pocket all along -- it goes where I go. I dealt with criminals, terorists, and dangerous animals in my previous career and recognize that anyone can become a victim. Like a firearms accident, it happens when you least expect it and is over almost as soon as it starts. I live on an Indian reservation now and consider it moderately dangerous -- especially in view of the cases we see in our Emergency Room! You can call me hysterical, neurotic, or paranoid, but I'm not stupid!
Hypervigilance: Continual scanning of the environment for signs of threat.
Hysteria (actually called "hysterical neurosis): Diagnostic category for a neurosis involving a sudden impairment of function in response to emotional stress. In the conversion type, there is functional impairment in one of the special senses or in the voluntary nervous system; the dissociative type is manifested by an alteration in the state of consiousnessor or by such symptoms as amnesia, disorientation, fugue, somnambulism, or multiple personality.
Paranoia: Psychiatric syndrome marked by the gradual development of a highly elaborate and complex *delusional* system, generally involving persecutory or grandiose delusions, with few other signs of personality disorganization or thought disorder.
Delusion: False belief that is firmly held, despite objective and obvious contradictory proof or evidence and despite the fact that other members of the culture do not share the belief. (For example: There are bad guys/government agents hiding in the bushes around my house, following me around town, reading my mail, tapping my phone, and reading my mind.)
Anxiety: Unpleasurable emotional state associated with psychophysiological changes in reponse to an intrapsychic conflict; in contrast to fear, the danger or threat in anxiety is *unreal*.
Fear: Unpleasurable state consisting of psychophysiological changes in reponse to a *realistic* threat or danger.
Obsession
ersistant and recurrent ideas, thought, or impulse that cannot be eliminated from consciousness by logic or reasoning.Compulsion: Uncontrollable, repetitive, and unwanted urge to perform an act; serves as a defense against unwanted ideas and desires, and failure to perform the act leads to overt anxiety. Compulsions are driven by obsessions.
So... if the shoe fits, wear it. I doubt that any of you are true hysterics or paranoics. I personally believe that danger can lurk anywhere and happen at any time. If you snooze, you lose. I carry a gun at all times except in the shower. On the crapper, it was in my pocket all along -- it goes where I go. I dealt with criminals, terorists, and dangerous animals in my previous career and recognize that anyone can become a victim. Like a firearms accident, it happens when you least expect it and is over almost as soon as it starts. I live on an Indian reservation now and consider it moderately dangerous -- especially in view of the cases we see in our Emergency Room! You can call me hysterical, neurotic, or paranoid, but I'm not stupid!
