i was playing the game one day and i noticed suddenly that everyone was running away when they saw me. i decided to ignore it and went on to start boone's loyalty quest (i forgot to remember to forget). when i got to bitter springs, he wouldn't initiate the conversation with me. the quest just advanced to the next objective (i had to go to some cliff). when i got there, he still wouldn't initiate conversation, which meant that i couldn't complete the quest. i realized that this was because boone was, for some reason, in "attack mode". he wasnt actually shooting anything (there werent enemies around) but he had his gun out and his face was angry (like when hes in combat). i switched him with veronica, and i had the same problem. she was also in "attack mode" constantly. she had her fists equipped and had the combat expression on her face. when i went to a casino (Gommorah), i saw that all of the guards had the same problem. they had theire guns out and had the combat expression as well (though no-one was attacking me). this causes a big problem (aside from the impossible quest) because i cant talk to a lot of people now since they are in "attack mode". i tried going in without my companions, killing them and waiting for them to wake up again. i cant fix this problem. Any help would be really appreciated

Did you tell your companions to behave Aggressively? It's an option in Pie Menu Dialogue.
If it isn't, I'm afraid yours is probably another case of a glitch -maybe due to corrupted save games. I've read some of the threads on these forums and it seems that savegame corruption is one serious problem of this game. Once a save is on the fritz, it can cause all sorts of unpleasantness if you advance through the game from a corrupt save.