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 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. HSPs are deep learners, and so enjoy going deep on their chosen subjects, and often gain proficiency early in life.
“The higher an individual's IQ, the more likely the person is to fit the characteristics of a sensitive person.” This correlation has been observed across a wide range of fields, from the arts to science to business.
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.
Highly sensitive people can also be very creative and have a deep level of empathy. “Highly sensitive people are built more deeply, emotionally and mentally than most people,” notes Dr.
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.
INFJs are highly sensitive to the words and deeds of those close to them. INFJ is regarded as the most sensitive personality type. Some estimates suggest that 80 to 90% of people who test as INFJs also test as highly sensitive people, because the traits of the two overlap so much.
Are Highly Sensitive People More Susceptible to Trauma? In a word, yes. As highly sensitive people, our nervous systems are more finely tuned than those of non-HSPs. This means we respond to all stimuli in a stronger way, including traumatic experiences.
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.
Someone who externalizes their anger may act violently or harshly at others, with little ability or potential to self-reflect on what they have done. A highly sensitive person who tends to externalise their anger may be irritable all the time, easily annoyed and triggered.
It is therefore not surprising that many highly gifted contemporaries recognize themselves in the characteristics of (high) sensitivity (reference bogg). However, this does not mean that all (high) sensitive people are also highly gifted while most highly gifted people seem to be high sensitive.
How common are highly sensitive people? Since Aron conceived the concept of what it means to be an HSP, more and more people have been identifying themselves as highly sensitive. It is believed that HSPs are not rare, and that about 15-20% of the population are thought to be an HSP.
They found that sensitive people's brains showed the highest level of empathic response. Their brains also lit up more in areas related to action planning. This indicates that — just as sensitive people frequently self-report — they could not watch a stranger in pain without feeling a strong desire to help.
The finding of the study showed that introvert, intuition, feeling and judging (INFJ) personality type were more emotionally intelligent than the extrovert, sensing, thinking and perceiving (ESTP) personality type.
HSPs' emotions are extra vivid due to a part of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). The vmPFC is involved in emotion regulation, especially the vividness of emotions. The emotional vividness is not of a social nature (unlike mirror neurons).
Intuitive nurturing skills
In addition to heightened empathy, our sensitivity also leads us to place value on nurturing others. We know not everyone experiences life as intensely as we do, but because we're used to feeling deeply, we strongly desire to bring happiness to the ones we love and help them avoid pain.
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.
HSPs often struggle with overthinking, feeling like an imposter, and feeling like they are always doing something wrong.
While highly sensitive individuals tend to experience hyper-reactivity to sensory information, autistic individuals may have either a hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory information, a combination of both, or neither.
Being a highly sensitive person and an empath are not mutually exclusive: One can be both, and many highly sensitive people are also empaths.
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.
Aron's (1996) original definition understood high sensitivity as inborn, genetic, and binomial rather than learned or existing on a spectrum. In other words, you are either born with it or you are not. The terms HSP and SPS are often used interchangeably.
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.
Most HSPs need at least 8 hours, and many sleep over the average -- 9 or 10 hours nightly. If you're not getting enough sleep you WILL burn out and edge towards depression, anxiety and become less capable of functioning.
#9 They seem to be able to read your thoughts and emotions
People with HSP personalities are not psychic—at least not as a general rule. But they are extremely empathic, and that makes them extraordinarily sensitive to the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the people around them.