First listened to the audiobook of The Highly Sensitive Person about five or so years ago and felt I had achieved a revelation. Then I went through a period of rejecting it completely -- "No, that's not me, I'm just crazy." I keep coming back to it, though, and after the month I've just had, I'm willing to give it serious attention once again.

It seems hard to square the idea that the way I react to things is normal with, essentially, the idea that the way that I react to things is abnormal. Either I'm mentally ill or I'm not; it can't be both. But maybe my emotional disturbance comes from the fact that I feel so much upset over my emotional responses -- deep shame, as a matter of fact: the feeling that I can't handle situations in which others wouldn't even bat an eye.

But one thing I've learned is that, with a problem like this, you take help wherever you can find it, even if it seems to contradict something else you also think might help. And I think it makes perfect sense that I'm drawn to a belief system that doesn't tell me my behavior is pathological.

http://hsperson.com/