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.
HSPs often struggle with overthinking, feeling like an imposter, and feeling like they are always doing something wrong.
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.
Highly sensitive people may be more affected by certain situations such as tension, violence, and conflict, which may lead them to avoid things that make them feel uncomfortable. You might be highly touched by beauty or emotionality. Highly sensitive people tend to feel deeply moved by the beauty they see around them.
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.
“People who are emotionally sensitive tend to personalize, blame, and be self-critical, and judgmental,” says Dr. Yip. “They can often have a lot of social anxiety about being perceived in a negative light.” Because of this, she explains that highly-sensitive people often feel hurt emotionally.
If someone's levels are high, overwhelm will occur much more quickly. If someone is unable to self-regulate or decrease the overwhelm, then a meltdown can occur.
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.
HSPs may even feel annoyed or irritable if they have too many things to do at once. On busy days, they may find a strong need to withdraw into bed or a darkened room where they can decompress and hide from the stimulation.
Highly sensitive people (HSPs) tend to get overwhelmed or over-stimulated because they “process more information from their environment and from within than others do,” said Jean Fitzpatrick, LP, a psychotherapist who specializes in working with HSPs.
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.
Narcissistic personality disorder.
People with narcissistic personality disorder often exploit others who fail to admire them. They are overly sensitive to criticism, judgment, and defeat.
The three subtypes of highly sensitive people include Aesthetic Sensitivity (AES), Low Sensory Threshold (LST), and Ease of Excitation (EOE). Before we explain what each of these means, it's important to note that HSPs can fit into more than one subtype, each subtype has its own characteristics.
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.
Being highly sensitive is an invaluable trait that comes with many advantages. HSPs are known to be highly observant, intuitive, thoughtful, compassionate, empathetic, conscientious, loyal, and creative. In fact, managers consistently rate people with higher sensitivity as their top contributors.
What Is a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)? Those who are highly sensitive "are really kind, caring, compassionate, empathetic, genuine people who want to help others and the world," said sensitivity expert and psychotherapist Julie Bjelland, LMFT. High sensitivity is an innate trait you can't develop or change.
HSPs like to handle their emotions in silence.
Highly sensitive people don't like the thought of burdening others with their problems. Because we can feel others' emotions and pain, we know how heavy it can feel. We often prefer to handle things alone because we must process them before verbalizing them.