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.
HSPs and Their Pain Tolerance
In fact, in early research, so many highly sensitive people revealed their increased pain response that it became one of the factors used to make up the HSP scale. Stress impacts pain threshold, and HSPs experience everything, including stress, more intensely.
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.
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. Meltdowns are often mistaken for tantrums in children as they will throw themselves around, scream, cry, or lash out much like they would during a tantrum.
And it's important to know that being a highly sensitive person isn't considered a mental health disorder — and that there's no official way to diagnose someone as HSP and there's no official highly sensitive person test (though there's this quiz from the doctor who coined the term “highly sensitive person.”)
While this personality trait presents some daily challenges, I am able to connect and build healthy relationships with others, respond more empathetically to things, and use many other strengths to my advantage. Unlike the personality trait suggests, being “highly sensitive” does not have to equal weakness.
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.
Our brains are wired for bigger emotional responses.
This means we can feel our own emotions more powerfully. Happiness, sadness, frustration, and more come on strong for HSPs — and crying is a natural way to process and release those emotions. (Importantly, these strong emotions are still considered normal.
HSPs often struggle with overthinking, feeling like an imposter, and feeling like they are always doing something wrong.
According to Dr. Elaine Aaron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person, sensitive people tend to cry more easily than others. “Sensitive people can't help but express what they're feeling,” she told the Huffington Post.
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.
They have a tendency of being more reflective than non-sensitive people. Actually, being sensitive protects you from harm . Because of awareness of danger , the ability to develop discernment and flexibility.
Highly sensitive people (HSPs) need daily downtime that is alone, unstructured, and unplugged. If you are always taking in extra sensory and data information, it will lead to nervous system overload. This trait of high sensitivity is scientifically known as Sensory Processing Sensitivity.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Being a highly sensitive person can come with many challenges. HSPs may struggle to adapt to new circumstances, may demonstrate seemingly inappropriate emotional responses in social situations, and may easily become uncomfortable in response to light, sound, or certain physical sensations.
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.
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.
INFJ is the rarest personality type across the population, occurring in just 2% of the population. It is also the rarest personality type among men. INFJ stands for Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, and Judging. This unique combination is hard to find in most people.
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.
3 steps to feeling good about yourself as an HSP. 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.
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.