Highly Sensitive People (HSP): Are YOU One, or Someone You Know? Some Traits, Possible Causes and Solutions

"Sensitivity" is an interesting word, and implies 'the senses'. How many senses do you think of with the word 'senses'? Some people prefer to operate believing in five senses, which is what our formal education in the US teaches, typically (and beyond). A popular expression in recent years that people might have heard or used which comes to my mind is 'energy vampire'. While that might be reserved for extreme cases of 'drama queens and kings', or perhaps what was humorously portrayed on on Saturday Night Live as "Debbie Downer", the people who are HSPs might essentially feel around most people and situations and rooms the way an average person would around a 'vampire' or 'downer'.

Just as labels in the past about 'attention deficit' might lead people away from seeing the unique benefits these people bring with them as well, the topic of ESP could create the same feelings. That is why I liked the way the author of the topic provided from The Huffington Post framed the information as you'll see in the items about what benefits HSPs bring to a team, and how to set them up best for a work environment. Remember, I'm 'an old OT' at heart! (Occupational therapy, how people occupy time is what OT is all about and finding solutions to the unique situations people get into and need some help solving is what we're experts in, or at least ideally and historically.)

Increasingly, people believe in what might be most popularly thought of as 'the sixth sense', and some keep going, exploring more 'esoteric' information that someday will perhaps become our everyday understanding of things. Just as a person, if they're sensitive to mercury needs to learn where mercury might be coming from in terms of what goes on or in their body that could cause a reaction and continue to 'load' them down, disrupting things and hence avoiding these things, the same occurs with the less tangible and the non-material things in our environments as well.

YOUsers of Lumigrate generally appreciate finding quality information sources at Lumigrate that sometimes are 'outside the box', or perhaps inside the box but not so far inside the box you'd easily find the information on your own. We have a 'complement', or palate of information in the Forums (and other parts of the website too) that allows for looking to the underlying reasons for someone to be well or ill, and striving to create wellness or return from illness towards wellness, by 'going a layer deeper'. AND by 'integrating' the belief that integrative medicine is founded on -- treating the whole -- body, mind, spirit.

So I direct your attention to a topic that was on The Huffington Post's websites in late February (2014) regarding "highly sensitive people", or HSPs. I will be providing the article, below, as well, so that you can easily read it, but I ALWAYS encourage people to look it over and then follow the link out to the original source -- they have all the bells and whistles and images that make it more interesting visually, and they also have a plan of bringing information to people -- and this might start you in the direction of learning other things from that source. I will also be providing resources for further learning in directions I suggest people might want to take things from here.

Naturally, I hope you'll value this and put us high on your list of places to re-visit on the Internet. We're increasingly a good place to start on a number of subjects, as well as a good place to routinely study the overall information. For those who might identify with the term 'sensitive person', I believe our information is going to likely help you understand a great deal about what has caused that to be, if you take the time to look around Lumigrate's various areas. Ultimately, I hope YOUsers learn about various provider types and surround themselves with the ones they want on their 'team' surrounding them; that might mean a virtual provider in some cases. Here's the Lumigrate model as a reminder of how that looks:

Generally, the "inside the box", allopathic, conventional 'mental / behavioral health' way of looking at someone being 'sensitive' is different than the way it is viewed by those who professionally are "outside the box". As an example of that diversity, I direct your attention to our topic about 'shame blame and letting it go' versus 'forgiveness'. They're very similar, but also very different. Our topic about shame/blame/let it go was enhanced in years past by two of our invited Forum experts conversing about where they believed a person would end up in a situation with 'letting it go'; I had personally and professionally had a different viewpoint and later created the "forgiveness" topic using guest blogger Mastin Kipp of "The Daily Love" as an example.

Something similar occurs with the topic of "highly sensitive people"; inside the box providers are going to look at things from a more conservative, conventional vantage point, and those outside the box are going to perhaps have something additional to say. Remember, it's up to YOU, the YOUser of your body and captain of your ship, so to speak, to learn and form your opinion; ultimately the right answer is the one YOU come up with -- for YOU.

Some will say that the conventional mental health industry has created so many disorders to label people with, and provide treatments, that literally every person in the United States could be diagnosed with something. Typically the treatments from the conventional approach has relied upon pharmaceutical medications and extensive time with providers talking with the patients about their past and present, looking toward the future and intending to have the patient in an improved state of mind.

The 'mind' was separated from the 'body', much as 'dental' was separated from 'mental' as well as from the overall of medicine. If you've ever had a problem with your gums or anything else in your mouth, you'll find that you're very much on your own learning about SYSTEMICALLY with the body, why that might be. The segregation of allopathic medicine, in my opinion, does not work in favor of the patients having the underlying issues addressed efficiently, and causes more expense and pain and suffering in many cases.

Do you feel like you reflect on things more than everyone else? Do you find yourself worrying about how other people feel? Do you prefer quieter, less chaotic environments?

If the above sound true to you, you may be highly sensitive. The personality trait -- which was first researched by Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D., in the early 1990s -- is relatively common, with as many as one in five people possessing it. Aron, who has written multiple studies and books on high sensitivity, including The Highly Sensitive Person [2], also developed a self-test (which you can take here [3]) to help you determine if you are highly sensitive.

While recent interest in introversion [4] -- driven largely by high-profile publications on the subject, including Susan Cain's book "Quiet," [5] -- has brought more awareness to personality traits that value less stimulation and higher sensitivity, Aron notes that highly sensitive people still tend to be considered the "minority."

But "minority" doesn't mean bad -- in fact, being highly sensitive carries a multitude of positive characteristics. Read on for some of the commonalities shared by highly sensitive people.

1. They feel more deeply. One of the hallmark characteristics of highly sensitive people is the ability to feel more deeply than their less-sensitive peers. "They like to process things on a deep level," Ted Zeff, Ph.D., author of The Highly Sensitive Person's Survival Guide [6] and other books on highly sensitive people, tells HuffPost. "They're very intuitive, and go very deep inside to try to figure things out."

2. They're more emotionally reactive. People who are highly sensitive will reactmore in a situation. For instance, they will have more empathy and feel more concern for a friend's problems, according to Aron. They may also have more concern about how another person may be reacting in the face of a negative event.

3. They're probably used to hearing, "Don't take things so personally" and "Why are you so sensitive?" Depending on the culture, sensitivity can be perceived as an asset or a negative trait, Zeff explains. In some of his own research, Zeff says that highly sensitive men he interviewed from other countries -- such as Thailand and India -- were rarely or never teased, while highly sensitive men he interviewed from North America were frequently or always teased. "So a lot of it is very cultural -- the same person who is told, 'Oh, you're too sensitive,' in certain cultures, it's considered an asset," he says.

4. They prefer to exercise solo. Highly sensitive people may tend to avoid team sports, where there's a sense that everyone is watching their every move, Zeff says. In his research, the majority of highly sensitive people he interviewed preferred individual sports, like bicycling, running and hiking, to group sports. However, this is not a blanket rule -- there are some highly sensitive people who may have had parents who provided an understanding and supportive environment that would make it easier for them to participate in group sports, Zeff says.

5. It takes longer for them to make decisions. Highly sensitive people are more aware of subtleties and details that could make decisions harder to make, Aron says. Even if there is no "right" or "wrong" decision -- for example, it's impossible to choose a "wrong" flavor of ice cream -- highly sensitive people will still tend to take longer to choose because they are weighing every possible outcome. Aron's advice for dealing with this: "Take as long to decide as the situation permits, and ask for more time if you need it and can take it," she writes in a recent issue of her Comfort Zone newsletter [7]. "During this time, try pretending for a minute, hour, day, or even week that you have made up your mind a certain way. How does that feel? Often, on the other side of a decision things look different, and this gives you a chance to imagine more vividly that you are already there." One exception: Once a highly sensitive person has come to the conclusion of what is the right decision to make and what is the wrong decision to make in a certain situation, he or she will be quick to make that "right" decision again in the future.

6. And on that note, they are more upset if they make a "bad" or "wrong" decision. You know that uncomfortable feeling you get after you realize you've made a bad decision? For highly sensitive people, "that emotion is amplified because the emotional reactivity is higher," Aron explains.

7. They're extremely detail-oriented. Highly sensitive people are the first ones to notice the details in a room, [8] the new shoes that you're wearing, or a change in weather.

8. Not all highly sensitive people are introverts. In fact, about 30 percent of highly sensitive people are extroverts, according to Aron. She explains that many times, highly sensitive people who are also extroverts grew up in a close-knit community -- whether it be a cul-de-sac, small town, or with a parent who worked as a minister or rabbi -- and thus would interact with a lot of people.

9. They work well in team environments. Because highly sensitive people are such deep thinkers, they make valuable workers and members of teams, Aron says. However, they may be well-suited for positions in teams where they don't have to make the final decision. For instance, if a highly sensitive person was part of a medical team, he or she would be valuable in analyzing the pros and cons of a patient having surgery, while someone else would ultimately make the decision about whether that patient would receive the surgery.

10. They're more prone to anxiety or depression (but only if they've had a lot of past negative experiences). "If you've had a fair number of bad experiences, especially early in life, so you don't feel safe in the world or you don't feel secure at home or ... at school, your nervous system is set to 'anxious,'" Aron says. But that's not to say that all highly sensitive people will go on to have anxiety -- and in fact, having a supportive environment can go a long way to protecting against this. Parents of highly sensitive children, in particular, need to "realize these are really great kids, but they need to be handled in the right way," Aron says. "You can't over-protect them, but you can't under-protect them, either. You have to titrate that just right when they're young so they can feel confident and they can do fine."

11. That annoying sound is probably significantly more annoying to a highly sensitive person. While it's hard to say anyone is a fan of annoying noises, highly sensitive people are on a whole more, well, sensitive to chaos and noise. That's because they tend to be more easily overwhelmed and overstimulated by too much activity, Aron says.

12. Violent movies are the worst. Because highly sensitive people are so high in empathy and more easily overstimulated, movies with violence or horror themes may not be their cup of tea, Aron says.

13. They cry more easily. That's why it's important for highly sensitive people to put themselves in situations where they won't be made to feel embarrassed or "wrong" for crying easily, Zeff says. If their friends and family realize that that's just how they are -- that they cry easily -- and support that form of expression, then "crying easily" will not be seen as something shameful.

14. They have above-average manners. Highly sensitive people are also highly conscientious people, Aron says. Because of this, they're more likely to be considerate and exhibit good manners -- and are also more likely to notice when someone elseisn't being conscientious. For instance, highly sensitive people may be more aware of where their cart is at the grocery store -- not because they're afraid someone will steal something out of it, but because they don't want to be rude and have their cart blocking another person's way.

15. The effects of criticism are especially amplified in highly sensitive people. Highly sensitive people have reactions to criticism [9] that are more intense than less sensitive people. As a result, they may employ certain tactics to avoid said criticism, including people-pleasing (so that there is no longer anything to criticize), criticizing themselves first, and avoiding the source of the criticism altogether, according to Aron.

"People can say something negative, [and] a non-HSP [highly sensitive person] can say, 'Whatever,' and it doesn't affect them," Zeff says. "But a HSP would feel it much more deeply."

16. Cubicles = good. Open-office plans = bad. Just like highly sensitive people tend to prefer solo workouts, they may also prefer solo work environments. Zeff says that many highly sensitive people enjoy working from home or being self-employed because they can control the stimuli in their work environments. For those without the luxury of creating their own flexible work schedules (and environments), Zeff notes that highly sensitive people might enjoy working in a cubicle -- where they have more privacy and less noise -- than in an open-office plan.

Energy medicine, or bio-energetic medicine, is an emerging specialty and I wanted to provide these quotes and the link to Dr Oschman's website. you'll see his credentials listed in the quotes, below: energymedicineuniversity.org/faculty/oschman.html [10]

"Many therapists who work daily and successfully with human energy systems have felt alienated from the sciences that provide the logical and rational foundation for conventional medicine... A close look at energy medicine resolves this unnecessary confusion and controversy."

"These methods can often help the patient who has not found relief from more orthodox approaches"

- James Oschman, PhD,

Biophysicist & Cell Biologist, "Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis"

- World Authority on Bio-energetic Medicine

I want to also provide the website where I found the above quotes, it's a website provided by a Virginia (USA) D.C. (doctor of chiropractic) which is rich in information about 'auricular medicine'.

I recently discovered and poured over Dr. Liebell's websites (they're interconnected and easy to navigate) for the majority of a day and found the information he presents in terms of his base philosophy, as congruent with my beliefs as anything I have ever reviewed. And I learned a great deal about auricular medicine and how it is integrated in with other tools for wellness in treating a number of the more common illnesses for which people are seeing information and assistance.

Hence, I very much encourage you to take the journey, read what a chiropractor who is also an auricular medicine specialist AND educator has to say. THANK YOU, to Dr. Liebell and Dr. Oschman for having put the information on the Internet for me to link our YOUsers to, in addition to having undertaken the additional studies and difficulties in your professional paths to be on the cutting edge in bringing these things to medical consumers in the United States (and beyond) today.

And perhaps our YOUsers will take all this into account relevant to YOU or those you are learning with 'in mind'.

Dr. Donald Liebell, D.C., B.C.A.O., B.A.

earsecret.com/Bio-Energetic_Testing.html [11]

[12]Click HERE for Video: "Meet Dr. Liebell" [12] : Where you'll see this greeting: "Thank you for visiting EarSecret.com. This video will give you the opportunity to "meet" me, and get an idea of how I do things at the Liebell Clinic." -- I encourage you to go and view because it will give you an idea of what this type of provider has to say. Perhaps you can find someone similar 'in your neck of the woods'. Yes, neck reference intended -- grins!