What it means to be a 'highly sensitive person' (and how to tell if you're one)

Table of Contents

Do you ever get the feeling you're more empathetic than others?

You might find yourself reacting more strongly to things than your mates or family do, or feel overwhelmed by bright lights, emergency sirens, or the feel of certain textures.

I'm happy to help with the task. However, I don't see any text provided to paraphrase. Please paste the text, and I'll get it done for you in Australian English.

Bec Black was in her 50s when she chanced upon a book by the American psychologists Elaine and Arthur Aron that explained the concept.

Dr Black felt a sense since childhood that she was a bit different from the rest and then felt like she finally understood herself.

"I just absolutely devoured it. As I was reading, I thought to myself, 'Fair dinkum, this is like my story,'" she says.

It felt like the ground beneath me was yanked out from under me when I found out about this defensively sensitive personality trait. It was a real game-changer – it helped me make sense of heaps of things about my life that I'd never been able to put into words.

My mates back home would've told me, 'Fair dinkum, you're too sensitive.' I used to think being sensitive was something I needed to work on, like a personal failing.

What is a highly sensitive person (HSP)?

Dr Black is now a lecturer at the Centre for Wellbeing Science at Melbourne University's Graduate School of Education. Her PhD focused on highly sensitive people and wellbeing.

:

• Greater depth of information processing power.
• Heightened emotional responsiveness and connection with others.
• Increased awareness of slight differences in surroundings, and
• Greater propensity for overstimulation.

Dutch researcher Sharell Bas and her colleagues did an investigation with 26 people who were very sensitive and found that everyone experienced SPD (Sensory Processing Sensitivity) differently.

.

"Not everyone will be sensitive in the same way to the same things," Dr Black says.

A person with sensitive senses might pick up on a very faint odour while someone next to them won't notice it at all … or there might be a light shining onto a screen that's really annoying for them.

Researchers found that approximately 47 per cent of individual differences in sensitivities were heritability driven, whereas the rest, about 53 per cent, were influenced by environmental factors.

You're still a bit of a crap-sack about makin' decisions, cause if someone else's opinions are different to yours, your brain starts wonderin' if you're doin' the right thing.

The Arons worked on developing a self-assessment tool to gauge high sensitivity levels.

"In situations where sandpaper-like rough textures or high-pitched, ear-piercing sounds are nearby".

.

However, they say the self-test isn't supposed to "diagnose or rule out any condition".

Being extremely sensitive is not a mental health condition

It may overlap with personality traits such as being shy and worrying alot.

"It's one of those concepts you might've come across in academic psychology, but it's not really a topic that gets a lot of attention. I'm not saying it's not worth looking at, I'm just saying it's not one of the ideas we think about often," he says.

The blokes behind this idea are genuine psychologists, no worries. The research got popped out in respected academic journals, but unfortunately, it's yet to make it into the mainstream.

There is no original text provided. Please provide the text to be paraphrased in an interview with Vogue magazine.

.

"There's no personality trait that's ever a clear-cut category. There are no personality types like groups where ya instantly fit in or out," he says.

These things follow a bell curve distribution. There'll only be a handful of people at the top and bottom ends, and heaps in the middle.

Note: I made minor adjustments to ensure the language and grammar are consistent with Australian English.

Dr Black was aware she reacted differently to certain things than others, yet she experienced a deep sense of wellbeing.

She was trying to figure out a way to better understand her experience, and Aron's idea really helped. It's something she also came across in her research.

"As far as the interviews I conducted went, that was a pretty common experience for the people I spoke to – just being able to feel more accepting and not feeling like they had to change who they are," Dr Black says.

, too.

Mendin' that naggin' internal critic can really take its toll off your overall wellbeing, fair dinkum. I reckon that was the case for me, and I've also heard it from a few mates I've interviewed.