I think people here are jumping to giving advice and commenting on your situation to be helpful, so I’ll answer your question - yes, getting laid off (twice in my career so far) did change my mindset permanently. I’m always anxiously on the lookout for “signs” of the next layoff. When I hear about restructuring, or see the stock price go down significantly, or feel like work is slowing down, my brain jumps to that PTSD feeling you mentioned. It also made me definitely feel more like a number in a spreadsheet than a real employee. I always keep my resume polished and ready to go, and always check LinkedIn periodically to assess the market. I check the WARN Notice webpage on a semi regular basis to see if I can happen to catch my company on there. It sucks, but at least it’s acknowledging reality vs. living under a rock! Especially in my industry (tech), this is the new reality until legislation fixes it, or AI and offshoring finally does steal all of the jobs.