Sense and Sensitivity

They tear up at phone commercials. They brood for days over a gentle ribbing. They know what you're feeling before you do. Their nerve cells are actually hyperreactive. Say hello to the Highly Sensitive Person—you've probably already made him cry.

Settling into a chair for coffee with a friend, Jodi Fedor feels her heart begin to pound. Tension creeps through her rib cage. Anger vibrates in her solar plexus. But she's not upset about anything. The person across from her is. Fedor soaks up others' moods like a sponge.
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The Highly Sensitive Person has always been part of the human landscape. There's evidence that many creative types are highly sensitive, perceiving cultural currents long before they are manifest to the mainstream, able to take in the richness of small things others often miss. Others may be especially sensitive to animals and how they are handled. They're also the ones whose feelings are so easily bruised that they're constantly being told to "toughen up."
http://www.psychologytoday.com/artic...nd-sensitivity

i found this article informative. i have always seemed to be over sensitive. perhaps this may explain why.

Don't forget, we all judge ourselves "above average" too.

madisgram, thank you for sharing this great information. This is something that will have me thinking for a time about creativity and sensitive feelings.

Thanks for this post :]

Hi I liked this I wonder what brings such sensitivity to light in people.

i'll check it out, child. who knows this may be the cause of it. idk.
i googled it and here's a site
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/...ht-sensitivity
further down in the article it states some meds can cause this.

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/

thank you much for this! although I don't experience a lot of what this article has describing for some aspect of my life my therapist actually brought this up as a possibility once. So I really appreciate this link =)

I'll finish it later though!

Thanks, madisgram. I can relate to some of this.

I understand your confusion, I often feel the same way, particularly being ashamed of my feelings, like sadness and anger, or any other emotions I feel I am weak for not being able to control. At a funeral for a friend of the family I felt so terrible for crying that I had to hide in the bathroom for over an hour I don't know how people do it. I felt like a spectacle.

Does this, for you, have anything to do with being raised in an environment where your emotions were discounted or punished? Were you ever goaded or chided or shamed for showing your feelings? It's hard not to come out all kinds of confused from a situation like that, and still hard to feel like your own emotions are "allowed" even after you've grown up.

Thanks so much for posting this. I had never heard of HSP before, but I was surprised to see how much applied to me. Verrryyy interesting ... I'm going to look into this further, because it would explain a lot about me, and how I can deal with things better. Oh year ... and mention it to T and see what he says. Thanks again for sharing!

I've been reading up on HSPs for some time, as I seem to fit the profile quite well. What's more, I think I'm the quirky subtype called "Highly Sensitive Person - Sensation Seeking", i.e., HSP yes, and whatever you do, don't let me get bored, either

These are some more links you may find interesting:

http://www.hsperson.com/
http://talentdevelop.com/category/high-sensitivity/
http://healing.about.com/od/empathic/a/HSP_hallowes.htm
http://www.sensitiveperson.com/

Great! Have recently begun to look into this and am reading Elaine Aron's book right now as well as Making Work Work for the HSP by Barrie Jaeger. Labeled "shy"and quiet as a child, I am now embracing my INFP and HSP nature and trying to use it more to my advantage. What I relate to most is absorbing the feelings of those around me. I have suped up empathy. I crave intimacy. I love deeply. But I definitely believe suffering abuse in childhood can affect the HSP much more profoundly.

Yeah I think I am one of those people who were super sensitive in childhood but had to learn to mimic others emotional reactions to things...