One of the main reasons that HSPs might feel lonely is that their interactions and relationships are lacking substance — and our constant sense of being an “outsider” only makes this worse. Unless we can stop withdrawing and get the meaningful interactions we crave.
Science shows that HSP brains are more active in areas that involve deeper information processing. So add in a significant life change or something emotional an HSP needs to work through, and the need for alone time to process is even greater.
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.
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.
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.
Do highly sensitive people have higher emotional intelligence than other people? Not necessarily. HSPs tend to have very strong emotions, which is a challenge when learning how to manage our emotions rather than being overwhelmed by them.
Being a highly sensitive person and an empath are not mutually exclusive: One can be both, and many highly sensitive people are also empaths.
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.
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.
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.
Highly sensitive people are not the same as emotionally needy, whiny, complainers. They aren't victims, and they're not making up problems just to get attention. We all know people like that, but there are key differences: Victims are focused on themselves, while HSPs are often focused on others.
From a clinical personality perspective, high sensitivity could be considered to have substantial overlaps with hypersensitive narcissism, or generally vulnerable narcissism.
It is said that highly sensitive women experience a lot more orgasms in their lives than other people. That's true. But perhaps they do not so much have more orgasms, as researched, but rather a greater ability to have multiple orgasms and to experience any sexual act very intensely.
Most HSPs need at least 8 hours, and many sleep over the average -- 9 or 10 hours nightly.
Stress & Sensitivity Can Worsen With Age for HSPs. Here's How to Prevent That. If you are a highly sensitive person (HSP) you might be growing larger stress centers in your brain without even knowing it, and if you don't do anything about it, they will become even bigger.
There is often a misconception that highly sensitive people have low self-esteem, as if the two are one and the same. But high sensitivity does not cause low self-esteem, nor are highly sensitive people born feeling insecure.
Increased empathy and creativity are some of the secret superpowers of highly sensitive people. You'll feel more intense joy when something great happens and be more fulfilled by creative activities that engage with your emotions.
It tends to bubble up into anxiety and or depression when left untreated. HSPs can be even more impacted by trauma.
According to Dr. Aron, HSPs can feel physical sensations (including pain) deeper than others, so certain “typical” forms of affection or love-making may be too intense for us. (On the flip side, good touch feels extra good). And some HSPs just don't feel comfortable being touched in certain places.
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.
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.
Trauma affects highly sensitive and intense people more intensely. Like any other of your reactions to stimuli, as a highly sensitive person (HSP) your trauma reactions are also more intense than most. As a result, many HSPs have used trauma splitting, or structural dissociation, as a way to cope.