Highly Sensitive People: When the World Feels a Little More Intense
Yesterday I spent the entire day doing what I love.
I sat with people for hours, listening to their stories, making sense of difficult experiences together, staying present with grief, hope, joy, fear and uncertainty. Six, sometimes even eight hours of deep conversations. By the end of the day I usually feel tired, but it is the satisfying kind of tiredness that comes from meaningful work.
The next day I get on a tram.
Someone nearby is having a loud phone conversation. Another passenger is wearing a very strong perfume. The lights flicker as we move through the city, the wheels rattle against the tracks, people squeeze in and out at every stop.
Twenty minutes later I step outside feeling as if my nervous system has simply said, “That's enough for today.”
For a long time this seemed completely irrational to me.
Today I know there is nothing irrational about it.
My nervous system simply measures load differently.
I know this not only because I have spent years working as a psychotherapist with highly sensitive clients, but because I live with a highly sensitive nervous system myself.
If any of this sounds familiar, you may be one of the roughly 20% of people who are considered Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs).
Being highly sensitive is not a diagnosis. It is not a mental health disorder. It is an inborn temperament trait known in psychology as Sensory Processing Sensitivity.
What Does It Mean to Be Highly Sensitive?
People often assume that high sensitivity simply means being emotional.
The differences begin much earlier—with the way the nervous system receives and processes information.
Research suggests that people high in Sensory Processing Sensitivity process incoming information more deeply than average. This means sounds, smells, light, facial expressions and emotions require more processing and therefore more energy.
That deeper processing has obvious advantages. It also asks much more of the nervous system.
When the World Becomes Too Much
Many highly sensitive people cope remarkably well with emotionally meaningful experiences.