HSPs' high sensitivity means they take great joy in the simple pleasures in life, making them low maintenance and easy to please. HSPs need a lot more downtime than others, thrive in silence, and need a slower pace of life. This means taking the time to relax and process experiences is essential for their wellbeing.
What's more, we found that sensitivity is connected to brilliance. The characteristics of the world's smartest people—those who are considered gifted—often overlap with the characteristics of sensitive people.
#1 Most Sensitive Type: INFJ
INFJs usually exhibit high levels of sensitivity and have a deep affinity for other people's feelings. INFJs have strong emotional connections to both their own feelings and the feelings of others.
HSPs are typically highly intelligent, and seek out opportunities to do deep work. Many HSPs are academics, artists, researchers, scientists and technicians with high level proficiency.
HSP struggle to witness arguments, hear raised voices or see any form of physical violence because they are highly attuned to the emotions and energy of other people. They also tend to avoid conflict because they don't like the thought of upsetting others, or other people being upset with them.
For highly sensitive people, sleep is a magical elixir.
But sleep is more than just a necessity. It's a magical elixir, especially for highly sensitive people (HSPs). Because they can get easily overwhelmed, HSPs may need more sleep than others.
HSPs thrive in relationships where they feel seen, heard, and valued. When a partner validates an HSP's words and feelings — and without judgment or condescension — it's very gratifying.
Depth of processing: HSPs are deep thinkers. Over-arousal : HSPs are prone to anxiety and overwhelm due to deep processing. Empathy: HSPs have a huge capacity for empathy; they feel emotion deeply. Sensory specific sensitivity: HSPs tend to be sensitive to smells, bright lights, loud sounds, tastes, and tactility.
The truth is, friendships are not about quantity: they're about quality. An HSP can be fulfilled in their relationships even if they have only a few close friends, so long as those friends are a good match for the HSP's unique needs. An ideal friendship for an HSP is a truly meaningful one.
Helping Professions: Counseling, Therapy, and Social Work
Many highly sensitive people have a deep desire to help others. Careers in counseling, therapy, and social work allow HSPs to use their sensitivity to empathize with others and provide support.
Aron estimates roughly 15–20% of the population is highly sensitive. Researchers often use the term “sensory processing sensitivity” to characterize the experiences of HSPs. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) does not list sensory processing sensitivity as a diagnosis.
HSPs have stronger emotional responses, both positively and negatively. This means they feel higher levels of joy and happiness, but easily upset at times of sadness. They may also get angry when they are hungry or feel hurt when criticized.
The truth is that our sensitivity allows us to be strong and capable and even thrive while faced with setbacks. The same traits that make us sensitive are the same traits that give us tremendous inner strength.
Because HSPs' brains are wired differently, the way they process information and come to a decision is different from people who don't have high SPS. They take more time making decisions, and can feel overwhelmed when asked to make a particularly tough one.
If your mind is a high spec processor, you probably learned to do with fewer filters on your sensory data that your average person. You can handle more sense data, so you sense more than average: you're sensitive. You process more, and more quickly, so you're able to sense more.
In the DSM sensory processing sensitivity (the formal name for HSP) it is not associated with autism at all.
Bjelland noted a belief that all empaths are HSPs, but not all HSPs are empaths. Dr. Orloff said that an empath indeed carries all of the attributes of an HSP but with more developed intuition and a sponge-like ability for absorbing emotions.
When highly sensitive people (HSPs) confide about love, there is notable depth and intensity. They fall in love hard and they work hard on their close relationships. Yes, sometimes non-HSPs sound similarly enthralled and confused by love, but on the average, HSPs have a more soul-shaking underlying experience.
HSPs are anxiety prone because they process thoughts and feelings deeply. Because of how deeply they experience the world, they're more easily and quickly overstimulated.
Mirror neurons play a big role in the HSP brain. They help us understand what someone is doing or experiencing, based on their actions. Essentially, these brain cells compare the other person's behavior with times you yourself have behaved that way, effectively “mirroring” them to figure out what's going on for them.
Seeing the world through another person's eyes is central to the experience of being a highly sensitive person (HSP). There is now a documented, replicable fMRI study showing that HSPs demonstrate stronger empathy than do others in tests involving reactions to images.
Sensitive people have a higher likelihood of having low self-esteem. As a highly sensitive person, you may have learned to hide the depth of your emotions or your propensity to become overwhelmed. You may be trying to be “normal” or fit in with “risk-takers,” a temperament trait highly prized in our society.
The 5 Love Languages (Chapman, 2015) include: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. Words are powerful for HSPs, who tend to replay conversations over and over again.
From a clinical personality perspective, high sensitivity could be considered to have substantial overlaps with hypersensitive narcissism, or generally vulnerable narcissism.
For the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) who understands and embraces the unique trait of High Sensitivity (HS), life can be gloriously lived. For the HSP who still lives in the dark with regard to the trait of High Sensitivity, life can be a constant struggle to fit in.