Being an HSP comes with both advantages and challenges. It is possible to be too easily offended by people who mean no harm or who are trying their best to be kind. It is also possible to overreact to daily stressors or relationship issues, particularly if you become emotionally aggressive as a response.
HSPs tend to have more intense reactions to criticism than their non-sensitive counterparts, and as a result will often employ certain tactics to avoid criticism, such as people-pleasing, criticizing themselves first (before the other person has a chance to), and avoiding the source of the criticism altogether.
HSPs often struggle with overthinking, feeling like an imposter, and feeling like they are always doing something wrong.
Characteristics of Highly Sensitive People
Are easily overwhelmed by such things as bright lights, strong smells, coarse fabrics, or loud sirens. Feel stressed when they have a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time. Avoid violent movies and TV shows.
Sights, sounds, smells, and other forms of sensory input may cause a heightened experience for HSPs. A sound that is barely perceptible to most people may be very noticeable, and possibly even painful, to an HSP. There's more to being a highly sensitive person than just being sensitive to stimuli.
Due to traits of their personality, heightened empathy or childhood conditioning, many highly sensitive people have repressed anger, and do not know how to deal with their emotions healthily.
Someone who knows how to have an authentic connection — they like deep conversations about feelings, emotions, and aspirations. Superficial relationships made up of small talk hold no value to highly sensitive people.
Most highly sensitive people display rare strengths in key areas of emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient (EQ) — the ability to recognize and understand emotions in themselves and others. These strengths including self-awareness and social-awareness.
Most HSPs are either INFJs or INFPs — the ones that don't tend to be ENFJs or ENFPs. Whether you're one or both, it's important to know what stresses you, what overstimulates you and what makes you feel calm, relaxed and happy.
If you're a highly sensitive person, you have a heightened awareness of the stimuli around you, which can be good or bad. HSPs tend to be bothered by violence and can easily be overwhelmed, which leads them to avoid certain situations. Highly sensitive people can also be very creative and have a deep level of empathy.
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. "You turn up the volume going from HSP to empath," Dr.
1. Jealousy. The dictionary defines jealousy as "feelings of worry over the potential loss of something valuable." In business, experiencing jealousy is fairly common, but those feelings are amplified if you're a highly sensitive person.
As a psychotherapist, I have found taking things personally to be a common struggle that many experience. And highly sensitive people (HSPs) have an active inner world and a heightened nervous system, which makes them more prone to these experiences than others may be.
High Sensitivity is not a disorder. Nor is it an attempt to be dramatic or to get attention. It's a trait in the same way eye color is a trait. HSPs' nervous system is calibrated differently than non HSPs'.
In the DSM sensory processing sensitivity (the formal name for HSP) it is not associated with autism at all. Another major difference is that HSP don't struggle with 'social' issues like eye contact, recognizing faces, social cues, and knowing the intentions of others.
From a clinical personality perspective, high sensitivity could be considered to have substantial overlaps with hypersensitive narcissism, or generally vulnerable narcissism.
Being highly sensitive can benefit emotional intelligence because you can pick up on other people's feelings. It becomes easier to communicate with them even when they're not saying much or giving off apparent cues, which helps you be a better friend and partner.
Highly sensitive people (HSPs) are introspective, can become overstimulated if their surroundings are too busy, and feel drained by small talk. In other words, parties are your worst nightmare. Because of this, making new friends as a highly sensitive person can be exhausting, anxiety-inducing, and unappealing.
Take a mental step back and assess the situation before responding. This will help you process the criticism and form space for you to think clearly. You can also choose not to react at all. You might think you're the one who's done something wrong but that's not always the case.
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.
For HSPs, who exist in a world that doesn't always understand our needs and neurodivergence, dating can be especially overwhelming. The uncertainty makes the process inherently risky, especially for people who experience feelings on a more intense level than most.
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. We thrive on strong, solid, and deep connections.