I bet so many of us have ADHD because the instant laser-point hyperfocus and blocking of all other stimuli helped our ancestors survive quite a few times.
And anxiety is obviously similar. Though in that case I think it’s more that we have evolved this skill for vigilance so that we can launch into fight or flight mode at a moment’s notice, but there are not the same constant dangers to monitor. So we essentially have an instinct to expect something bad to be coming at any moment, but it is uncalibrated and without meaningful environmental inputs it basically starts amplifying noise.
latenightnoir@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Yep, may even be caused by certain forms of c-PTSD. I was required to develop hypervigilance as a method of survival, so everything bad/unfortunate/uncomfortable sounds the alarm, while anything good/normal/producing joy is glossed over, as the main goal is staying alive and the latter won’t kill me.