Defining High Sensitivity--Two Facts to Remember

Thursday June 7, 2007

Categories: Anxiety

If you tested positive as a highly sensitive person in the self-diagnosis I posted yesterday, you may benefit from knowing more about the HSP. Here's a good start (from Elaine Aron's book, "The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You").

FACT 1: Everyone, HSP or not, feels best when neither too bored nor too aroused [remember the author is not talking about sexual arousal].

An individual will perform best on any kind of task, whether engaging in a conversation or playing in the Super Bowl, if his or her nervous system is moderately alert and aroused. Too little arousal and one is dull, ineffective. To change that under-aroused physical state, we drink some coffee, turn on the radio, call a friend, strike up a conversation with a total stranger, change careers--anything!

At the other extreme, too much arousal of the nervous system and anyone will become distressed, clumsy, and confused. We cannot think; the body is not coordinated; we feel out of control. Again, we have many ways to correct the situation. Sometimes we rest. Or mentally shut down. Some of us drink alcohol or take a Valium (or six).

FACT 2: People differ considerably in how much their nervous system is aroused in the same situation, under the same stimulation.

The difference is largely inherited, and is very real and normal. In fact, it can be observed in all high animals--mice, cats, dogs, horses, monkeys, humans. Within a species, the percentage that is very sensitive to stimulation is usually about the same, around 15-20 percent. Just as some within a species are a little bigger in size than others, some are a little more sensitive. In fact, through careful breeding of animals, mating the sensitive ones to each other can create a sensitive strain in just a few generations. In short, among inborn traits of temperament, this one creates the most dramatic, observable differences.

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Filed Under: High Sensitivity

posted by Beyond Blue @10:45am Permalink email icon

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susan

June 7, 2007 8:37 PM

hELLO I HAVE THIS dx: i GET OVER STIMULATED AND THEY ARE THE SYMPTOMS i GET-CLUMSY TIRED AND STRESSED OVER WORKED AND FEEL THIS WHOLE THING ALL TOGETHER- This happened to me today I dropped a glass drink in between my car and another- made me feel worse- Trying to cope Need to find a way to get beyond this when it hits? I am just BURNT I think. If I am not gojng and busy I feel bored but when overly busy fro too long I get spent- this is it!

-Now what to do and where does it coem from?

June 8, 2007 11:42 PM

Susan

It comes directly from your brain, it's like when an over tired child melts down. They're not doing it on purpose, over stimulated neurons are misfiring all over the place.

The best thing to do is find out what works best for you. Find your worse offenders, Visual? noise?
sugar/caffine? stress? pain?

Even though I'm partially deaf, loud voices, or base can push me right over the edge.

Sugar and caffine doesn't bother me, but over eating (even a little) does.

I love water, but when I'm in pain a shower is too much stimulus, a tempid bath is much better.

My clothes are almost all cotton, the tags must come out. My sleep shirts are worn inside out, I can't tolerate the seams on my shoulders. My bras are worn strapless, the pain in 1 shoulder over a year after surgery won't tolerate anything else.

Odors that others claim not to smell can make me too nauseous to walk.

All these pieces started being put together after we realized how distracted I was by the "shiney things" everytime I went to T****t. It took me hours to go buy soap and a movie. The music and lights drove me nuts.

Find what sets you you off and what you can do to avoid those things. You're the one who will benefit.

Claudia

June 11, 2007 10:21 PM

I GET (for want of a BETTER TERM)--(WHAT I CALL)--"GRAHNDE MAL Panic ATTACKS". (I KNOW THAT IS NOT A "SCIENTIFIC" TERM, AT ALL, BUT THEY ARE VERY REAL, AND VERY SCARY. I GET THEM ALMOST EVERY DAY, now. THE WORST "TRIGGERS" ARE SHOPPING, or even, sometimes, JUST GOING OUT OF MY HOUSE, and being in contact with UN-PLEASANT PEOPLE IN MY NEIGHBOUR-HOOD can set them off--(AND LATELY, THEY HAVE BECOME MORE AND MORE FREQUENT, AND MORE SEVERE-to the point where I FIND MYSELF SCREAMING, CRYING--TOTALLY BREAKING DOWN--SO BADLY (AND, SO LOUDLY)--that I HAVE HAD TO STICK MY HEAD IN MY FREEZER, TO MUFFLE THE NOISE(!!!)--NOT because SOME "CONCERNED SOUL" would come to the door, and ask--"WHAT IS WRONG, IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO TO HELP(???)"--(NO!!!!). (MY NEIGHBOURS--(who are a BUNCH OF BARBARIANS(!!!!)) WOULD COME POUNDING DOWN MY DOOR, TELLING ME TO "QUIT MAKING SO MUCH NOISE!!!" SO, WHAT ARE THE (WORST) "TRIGGERS"(???!!!). LOUD NOISES, WORST OF ALL. FLASHING LIGHTS(I AM EXTREMELY sensitive to BRIGHT (AND FLASHING) LIGHTS)--LOUD (SO-CALLED) "MUSIC", that they play in EVERY STORE.(AND, ONE OF MY WORST "PET PEEVES", is when--I GET "HEMMED IN",IN LINE, BETWEEN TWO IDIOTS, who are GLUED TO THEIR "STOOPID" CELL PHONES, AND TALKING LOUDLY--RIGHT IN MY EAR--as if I would be SOOOO INTERESTED, AND FASCINATED, BY ANYTHING THESE FOOLS HAVE TO SAY--(I AM NOT(!!!!!))--I want to tell them--"KEEP YOUR PERSONAL BUSINESS TO YOURSELF, NOBODY HERE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR "BabyMamaDrama, and YOUR BabyDaddyDrama."(!!!!!)--I HAVE PROBLEMS OF MY OWN--I DON't NEED TO HEAR ABOUT ANYONE ELSE's DRAMA(!!!!!)).(I (PHYSICALLY) CANNOT STAND THIS CACOPHONY--I CALL IT--"NOISE POLLUTION".(IT (LITERALLY) MAKES ME PHYSICALLY ILL--(IT BRINGS ON MIGRAINE HEAD-ACHES, DIS-ORIENTATION, VERTIGO, AND NAUSEA).(PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE IS ANYONE OUT THERE, WHO EXPERIENCES THIS SAME KIND OF (ACTUAL(PHYSICAL) PAIN), FROM EXTREMELY LOUD NOISE.(BY THE WAY--I AM A MUSICIAN (A PIANIST)--AND I HAVE HAD LOTS of people tell me THEY LOVE MY Piano--(that IT IS SOFT, SWEET, AND SOOTHING).(ONE Lady even described MY Piano-playing--as "LOVELY, GRACEFUL, AND ELEGANT..."SO, I AM NOT ADVERSE TO (SOFT) MUSIC. BUT-- I NEED TO KNOW THAT I AM NOT ALONE.(THIS IS VERY SERIOUS, because, IN THE LAST WEEK--I HAVE HAD ABOUT (AT LEAST)FOUR of these ("GRAHNDE MAL") (UN-CONTROLLABLE)--SCREAMING, AND CRYING) PANIC ATTACKS, and a COUPLE of them, IN PUBLIC, where the PAIN that I am feeling--TRANSLATES AS "ANGER"(!!!!)--(APPARENTLY--IT IS EASIER FOR PEOPLE TO DEAL WITH "ANGER"--than with "PAIN"--(OR--I "MASK" the PAIN, WITH "ANGER"--TO KEEP FROM APPEARING SOOO "VULNERABLE". (AND, I FIND IT VERY DIS-GUSTING, that I HAVE TO DO THIS--(PEOPLE ARE SOOOO IN-SENSITIVE(!!!!))....
IT KEEPS GETTING WORSE, and I FEEL AS IF I AM HEADED FOR A NERVOUS BREAK-DOWN.PLEASE HELP!!!.

Carol

November 28, 2008 9:45 AM

There is an upside to being a highly sensitive person. This often means that you are sensitive to the needs of the people around you.
Sensitive people are empathetic people and feel things that happen to themselves and other very deeply. This is unfortunately the danger. We must try to avoid personalizing our sensitivities, and instead of allow these felings to hurt us, we can try to be aware of the people around us who may be hurting themselves in some way, and help to ease their pain. This wlll help us focus less on ourselves and more on meeting the needs of others. I am not saying we should ignore our pain, but I am saying that we can use our gift of sensitivity to help others, and in doing this we may find that put pain disapears in the overwhelming joy of helping others.

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