The good news is that highly sensitive people aren't more or less emotionally intelligent than others. They just use emotional intelligence differently.
It's true that HSPs have a tendency towards overstimulation and high emotional reactivity. But we're also gifted with high empathy and deep intellectual processing. HSPs are extremely valuable and important for a thriving, well-rounded culture.
Gifted people are usually also highly sensitive and intense. They are more aware of subtleties; their brain processes information and reflects on it more deeply. At their best, they can be exceptionally perceptive, intuitive, and keenly observant of the subtleties of the environment.
If you're sensitive, you have much more information to process than your average person. You probably need a bigger processor – i.e. a higher level of general intelligence – to do this. Maybe your sensitivity led to you developing higher processing powers – your high intelligence.
HSPs have greater memory connections.
It makes sense that HSPs would spend more time processing memories; doing so helps us manage the world around us. Reflecting on past experiences can help us prepare for future events, feeling more confident in handling them.
The Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS) scale and the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) were administered to a non-clinical group of 274 participants recruited from a university volunteers list. We found a highly significant positive correlation between number of self-reported ADHD traits and sensory sensitivity.
Sleep is crucial for HSPs, so make sure its highly quality and your night-time sleep is long. 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.
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.
They have a hard time with conflict and tend to avoid confrontation. This can be challenging in the workplace or at home. They also feel responsible for others' expectations, which makes it harder to let people down. HSPS can overcome many of these downsides through therapy and learning to be more assertive.
Did you ever notice that most of the sensitive people you know are also the strongest? When it comes to inner strength and resilience, the ability to handle difficult situations and stress and when overcoming obstacles, sensitive people seem to have almost a secret ability to deal with the challenges of life.
It is believed that HSPs are not rare, and that about 15-20% of the population are thought to be an HSP. There are also thought to be no significant differences in sex, with equal numbers of males and females being an HSP. Being an HSP is an innate trait, with biologists finding high sensitivity in over 100 species.
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.
It is important to note that many highly sensitive people are not narcissistic. Highly sensitive people are often aware, empathetic, and excellent listeners, which are the antithesis of narcissism.
As children, HSPs also have a rich, complex inner life, and are often seen as shy by adults. A very important thing to know about highly sensitive people is that they are born this way.
HSPs have a variant of the serotonin transporter encoding gene, known as 5-HTTLPR. The 5-HTTLPR gene variant decreases serotonin in the brain and increases sensitivity to surroundings. The HS brain may have less mood-stabilizing serotonin than the non-HS brain, but it has an enhanced ability to learn from experience.
Not only are HSPs extra sensitive to environmental stimulation, they're also sensitive emotionally. According to Dr. Elaine Aaron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person, sensitive people tend to cry more easily than others.
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.
Alone Time Helps HSPs Process Life
And nearly 30 percent of the population is highly sensitive, so it's not as uncommon as people think. When you're highly in tune with everything (and everyone) around you, it's natural to become overstimulated — and easily overwhelmed.
That depth of processing makes highly sensitive brains are capable of a unique levels of creativity or insight. Now in a new study, researchers have found that it is when people with sensory processing sensitivity rest that their brains engage in deep levels of thought processing.
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.
In fact, the leading expert on sensitivity, clinical psychologist Elaine Aron, PhD, reported, in her original research in 1997, that 70 percent of highly sensitive people are also socially introverted, says Dr.
If you're a highly sensitive person (HSP), you may already know that high sensitivity is often compared to autism. This can be surprising—the signs of the two traits are very different. But both have been treated very similarly by the general public.
HSP has several forms of inheritance. Not all children in a family will necessarily develop symptoms, although they may be carriers of the abnormal gene. Symptoms may begin in childhood or adulthood, depending on the particular HSP gene involved. There are no specific treatments to prevent, slow, or reverse HSP.
Inflammatory changes associated with HSP can also develop in the joints, kidneys, digestive system, and, in rare cases, the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). In one form of the disorder, termed Schönlein's purpura, the skin and joints are affected but the gastrointestinal tract is not.