I approach social anxiety, narcissism, and post-traumatic reactions as the output of evolved regulatory systems rather than as malfunctions. Each system was shaped to solve a recurring social problem, such as avoiding costly conflict in a dominance hierarchy or keeping one's place in a group, and each is calibrated like a smoke detector: tuned to fire early and often, because missing a real threat once cost far more than many false alarms. Seen this way, symptoms are organized responses whose logic can be reverse-engineered, tested, and, when miscalibrated, recalibrated. This lens generates concrete predictions: which cues a socially anxious mind should overweight, why status loss should scar more than other stressors, and why grandiose narcissism should tie belonging to rank. It also shapes intervention, which aims to recalibrate predictions rather than erase memories.