The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You

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Kaufman, Scott Barry (May 4, 2015). "Shades of Sensitivity". Scientific American. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Kaufman explains Smolewska et al. (2006). People identify to varying degrees and for some, it’s simply the most available term. “I didn’t know it was A Thing. Creative people are just more porous. HSP sounds better,” muses bestselling author Jojo Moyes. “It’s helpful not to feel like a weirdo because I worry about the last baked bean left on my plate.”

Men are particularly vulnerable to the toughness myth, the toxic social message that emotion is weakness, says Sólo. They both identify as HSP now but, as a younger man, Sólo himself was guarded against “feminine” concepts, such as empathy or compassion. “I knew that I read people well, so that’s how I would say it. You re-skin it in different language.” Next, this book considers the impact of your sensitivity on your personal history, career, relationships, and inner life.It focuses on the advantages you may not have thought of, plus it gives advice about typical problems some HSPs face, such as shyness or difficulty finding the right sort of work.p.38 – Not Just Artists and Geniuses – Sensitivity, then, is a normal part of life. All humans – and even animals – are sensitive to their environment to some degree. stars because I found reading this book to be tremendously validating and meaningful, but at the same time I had a lot of criticisms of it. This book describes that percentage of the population whose systems are easily (over)stimulated by sensory information. Wow, do I wish someone had given me this book to read, like, 10 years ago.

Vivid dreams, a deep need to have alone time, easily overwhelmed by loud noises, sensitivity to pain, a rich and complex inner life or searching for a deeper meaning to life… All signs you might be an HSP. I am easily overwhelmed by things like bright lights, strong smells, coarse fabrics, or sirens close by. I have no tolerance for this kind of writing. Especially since this is in a book about highly sensitive people, you'd think she would know better than to pull that.I remember feeling quite jazzed about this book when I first read it. After all, I was so shy that I didn't really begin to connect with my peers until late middle school. I felt overwhelmed every time I had to leave my house and whenever I was around people I was a tightly wound ball of anxiety and irritation. I always felt I was way more sensitive to nearly everything than most people, and here was a book that seemed to validate my experience and offer solutions. If fewer questions are true of you, but extremely true, that might also justify calling you highly sensitive. Also, although there are as many men as women who are highly sensitive, when taking the test highly sensitive men answer slightly fewer items as true than do highly sensitive women. In our culture, however, possessing this trait is not considered ideal and that fact probably has had a major impact on you.Well-meaning parents and teachers probably tried to help you "overcome" it, as if it were a defect.Other children were not always as nice about it.As an adult, it has probably been harder to find the right career and relationships and generally to feel self-worth and self-confidence. It helped me better understand my relationships with other people, society, and myself, and pointed with a more defined focus to a life purpose I've always felt drawn towards but was missing the ingredient of my sensitivity.

Over twenty percent of people have this amazing, innate trait. Maybe you are one of them. A similar percentage is found in over 100 species, because high sensitivity is a survival strategy. It is also a way of life for HSPs. From Wolf et al. (2008): coping style, reactivity, flexibility, plasticity, and differential susceptibility. Healing.If you have not yet done so, you must begin to heal the deeper wounds.You were very sensitive as a child; family and school problems, childhood illnesses, and the like all affected you more than others. Furthermore, you were different from other kids and almost surely suffered for that. a b c Boyce, W. Thomas (2016). "Differential Susceptibility of the Developing Brain to Contextual Adversity and Stress". Neuropsychopharmacology. 41 (1): 141–162. doi: 10.1038/npp.2015.294. PMC 4677150. PMID 26391599.

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Most of us feel overstimulated every once in a while, but for the highly sensitive person, it’s a way of life. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Elaine Aron, a highly sensitive person herself, shows you how to identify this trait in yourself and make the most of it in everyday situations. One thing I couldn't help wondering, however, (and maybe it's because I'm one of the more internal consider-ers she talks about, rather than a "warrior king" type) was whether the concept of sensitivity was being used too widely as a kind of blanket cop-out.

a b Klages, Wolfgang (1978). Der sensible Mensch: Psychologie, Psychopathologie, Therapie (The Sensitive Human: Psychology, Psychopathology, Therapy) (in German) (1ed.). Stuttgart, Germany: Enke. p.133. ISBN 978-3432898711. OCLC 6710563. Klages distinguishes between sensitive and highly sensitive people, classifying artists and "high intellectuals" as an example of the latter.

Calling myself HSP, HPV or HSBC won’t stop me walking around feeling like an open wound some days. It won’t stop people getting in touch to say how much they disagree with me, or their words being an anvil in my heart for years. And it definitely won’t stop strangers on the bus telling you about their divorce. If it’s any consolation, I feel your pain. What Being Sensitive Really Means If you have ever felt like life is too overwhelming and all you want to do is crawl into a cave and hide away from it all, this book might be for you.