[mala]

On the board there is a commentary about being highly sensitive- and again - something I find completely baffling that anyone would find that as a gift.

[likewater]

It can make you very
empathic and compassionate.

[unaluna]

I'm confused - i don't know what "the board" is. "Highly sensitive" isn't a gift, it's simply a description; it's not like "she's highly thought of". It means you can't stand the inside seams in your pajamas or strong tastes or noises or emotions - there's a book. Parents will have kids screaming and not know why, and really it's because their clothes hurt them, or their haircut hairs are itching them to death.

[likewater]

Hankster you talking about sensitive to physical sensations, we are talking about being emotionally sensitive, and i dont know what the board is either

[likewater]

Oh and Hankster, i know what you are talking about also being sensitive to noise. My nephew and i are like that. He covers his ears a lot and wallks on his toes. Im 38 and couldnt eat fresh peaches until this year because couldnt stand the feel if fuzz on teeth, and
stuff like that. But im also emotionally sensitve as welk

[missbelle]

Being highly sensitive can be a problem though. As sensitive people we can take on the problems of the world unable to have a solution. It can leave us feeling rung out and unable to cope in our own lives. Being sensitive helps to be empathetic but without some degree of hardness it can also cause extreme anxiety and depression. I wish for a happy medium!

[gma45]

I am with you Mala and Hankster, I don't see it as a gift either. I think of highly sensitive as overly emotional. But what do I know?

[Buddyslove]

I am Highly sensitive to emotions. And I find it hard because some times if the person is angry or upset I feel as if I did something wrong . Also, If there sad I wan't to make them feel better so bad and My stomach Hurts when I can't help them be happy

[likewater]

Missbelle and gma45, i see what you are saying. I suffer from extreme anxiety abd depression too , and i have done things like being homeless strangers home(that was a nightmare) . It is a struggle for me. But i'm me and if i can learn healthy boundaries there is
nothing wrong with feeling so deeply. If i cry every time i see a homeless person so be it. Maybe i should cry. Jesus cried. He wasn't
weak. Just maybe i should work at food bank or something instead of bringing them home lol.

[di meliora]

The board likely is one of the forums at PC.

[missbelle]

Originally Posted by likewater

Missbelle and gma45, i see what you are saying. I suffer from extreme anxiety abd depression too , and i have done things like being homeless strangers home(that was a nightmare) . It is a struggle for me. But i'm me and if i can learn healthy boundaries there is
nothing wrong with feeling so deeply. If i cry every time i see a homeless person so be it. Maybe i should cry. Jesus cried. He wasn't
weak. Just maybe i should work at food bank or something instead of bringing them home lol.

LOL Yes definately don't bring them home...although I did that once myself and could not get her out of the apartment. Yes we have to take care of ourselves and not put ourselves in any danger. Some of those things can be life threatening and we need to be very careful that our sensitivity towards others does not hurt us....Again as you have mentioned we need concrete boundries to protect ourselves

I once brought a homeless man into my sisters Christmas staff party to eat. He was standing outside the window freezing. Ok by the reactions maybe I should have brought the food out to him. I dunno. I am highly sensitive and it can be both a curse and a blessing. But everything has a yin and yang to it. I'm working on achieving a balance. A harmony. But I don't think being highly sensitive is all that bad. I'm sure many of the people who make serious positive changes in the world are and were also very sensitive creatures. Maybe the highly sensitve people bring balance to the less sensitive and vice versa.

[likewater]

Missbelle: i couldnt get the homeless lady out of my apartment either and then she kept showing up for months asking me for money and she made my dog sick by giving her aspirin ( not to make her sick on purpose) and stole my medicine.

Anika you have a marvelously poetic way of looking at the world.

[di meliora]

I think that I shall never see balance in my sensitivity.

[mala]

Originally Posted by Anika

I once brought a homeless man into my sisters Christmas staff party to eat. He was standing outside the window freezing. Ok by the reactions maybe I should have brought the food out to him. I dunno. I am highly sensitive and it can be both a curse and a blessing. But everything has a yin and yang to it. I'm working on achieving a balance. A harmony. But I don't think being highly sensitive is all that bad. I'm sure many of the people who make serious positive changes in the world are and were also very sensitive creatures. Maybe the highly sensitve people bring balance to the less sensitive and vice versa.

Thats wonderful and I mean that & Im sure that many people have so many stories. A snippet of what Ive experienced this evening at work - a woman visits the bookshop, she is looking after two asian kids that arent hers, I think wonderful- a caring loving woman. Then like many sensitives I feel her energy on various levels - its not pleasant although many love this type of spiritual energy or revere it or are energised by it. I write this as I feel that for the sake of some "idea?" of truth, I dont know perhaps for the sake of truth which for me is ever changing like a river. I accept that my beliefs and feelings are not everyone or anyone else's - Im not agaisnt people spiritual beliefs, but they only defend themselves, their position. Im not into anything being wonderful but I feel this type of spirituality is a lie. The point is that people would use children to justify their position in spirituality or to recieve their spiritual thrills. Sorry but I have to say it, I only wish I wasnt in a minority but I feel so angry about this. I dont condemn anyone, and dont see myself as any different. Perhaps science is the truth. But it doesnt heal the soul and even if you have all the scientific / spiritual stuff it doesnt make a difference when the mind / soul or personality is truly destroyed. But Im glad that most sensitives dont feel like this.
Love
mala

[mala]

I thought it was the community board, but I guess there is no board.
lol
mala

[Susan Quinn]

Here's a biological angle. After having a nervous breakdown two years ago, my doctors and research taught me that the brain's limbic system can become overly-stimulated during constant childhood trauma. The amgdala becomes overactive to any and all emotions thereafter and the constant overload of cortisol (fight or flight) poisons the hippocampus, causing it to shrink. With the addition of SSRIs and a healthier lifestyle, including cognitive behavior therapy, new brain pathways (neuroplasty) can be formed. The hippocampus can increase in size, thus thwarting off possible early onset dementia.

Now I have appropriate emotions. I no longer cry at near-nothing, or wake up depressed, or charge out with my co-dependent cape flying to "save the world" or feel overwhelmed.

Something to think about for those out there feeling bad about themselves. I've had the best two years of my life from just understanding the brain's reaction in needing help. I honor it now: my life has become wonderfully well. SQ :-)

[likewater]

That's interesting. But i've tried all kinds of therapy and ssris and i remain the same.

Therapy hasn't helped me much either, and I can't take SSRI's as they make me manic in turn. I've been doing self therapy, yoga and mindfulness and I think I am making progress towards some emotional balance. it's hard to measure, but I feel it.

Maybe it isn't so much balance as much as learning how to use what we have for the better with a lot of acceptance.

[StrongerMan]

I consider myself a highly sensitive INFP and emotional empath and an ACOA. Highly sensitive persons are often introverts but can also be extroverted. It is said the introverts often suffer more negatively from their sensitivity possibly due to the fact that they turn within and withdraw socially when overstimulated. As children they were often bullied, shunned or criticized for being "too sensitive" or "shy". And those highly sensitive introverts who experienced difficult or abusive childhoods often suffer the most, sadly. I may be biased, but I believe being an HSP is just as valuable in society as being less sensitive. It takes all kinds as the saying goes and even more-so in relation to modern social, economic and political realms. We need a check and balance of types of people who can make a snappy decision with little information at hand and those who ruminate a little more in coming up with solutions to problems, ala "measure twice and cut once". The war generals need the philosophers and statesmen to keep them in check. Unfortunately, in our age of the bottom line mentality, short attention spans and the need for instant gratification, HSP's and intuitive, empath types have been marginalized to a great extent. With all the problems we have in society today due to hasty decisions, who really can argue against the measured, calculated, well thought out, possibly more expensive in the short term (oh my!!) approach to problem solving?

[Open Eyes]

Originally Posted by Susan Quinn

Here's a biological angle. After having a nervous breakdown two years ago, my doctors and research taught me that the brain's limbic system can become overly-stimulated during constant childhood trauma. The amgdala becomes overactive to any and all emotions thereafter and the constant overload of cortisol (fight or flight) poisons the hippocampus, causing it to shrink. With the addition of SSRIs and a healthier lifestyle, including cognitive behavior therapy, new brain pathways (neuroplasty) can be formed. The hippocampus can increase in size, thus thwarting off possible early onset dementia.

Now I have appropriate emotions. I no longer cry at near-nothing, or wake up depressed, or charge out with my co-dependent cape flying to "save the world" or feel overwhelmed.

Something to think about for those out there feeling bad about themselves. I've had the best two years of my life from just understanding the brain's reaction in needing help. I honor it now: my life has become wonderfully well. SQ :-)

Thanks for posting this, I never heard of this information before, sounds like you had a therapist/doctors that knew more than the average therapist/doctors. I do know that I am sensitive to others and how they suffer, and this was since I was young but did suffer child abuse, perhaps that is where I get that extra sensitivity to the emotions of others?

Open Eyes

[Susan Quinn]

Originally Posted by Open Eyes

Thanks for posting this, I never heard of this information before, sounds like you had a therapist/doctors that knew more than the average therapist/doctors. I do know that I am sensitive to others and how they suffer, and this was since I was young but did suffer child abuse, perhaps that is where I get that extra sensitivity to the emotions of others?

Open Eyes

I have an internist, psychiatrist, and therapist who work all together in my care. The therapist specializes in my particular disorders, but also does parent-child directed play therapy, which has worked amazingly well given my upbringing. I am presently going through play therapy to hear the proper responses I didn't get as a child: it works faster than talk therapy because I am in a different part of my head doing play dough, etc. as if I were a child (in memory). I no longer randomly do talk therapy coming out feeling vague. I do therapy with a purpose and get my time and monies worth!

I've also outlined the abuse I endured as a child; my therapist is showing and modeling the counter-words and actions necessary were I to have come into her care as a traumatized child. Playing as a child builds social skills as an adult. I didn't know that and always wondered why I couldn't play as a child--so serious and bossy and stuck in my head obsessing on my lack of safety. Now I know those first seven years of attachment are foundational for proper adult attachment. New brain pathways can be formed. I'm proof.

If you google neuroplasty, you will find many links to this very exciting field. Also, Daniel J. Siegel's book Mindset explains the science in a practical, easy way to understand. As does Bruce Perry's The Boy Who was Raised by Dogs and Born for Love. Excellent resources.

I'm 65 and am more playful now that I've ever been. My grown children enjoy me more, and we are closer as a family. The grandchild are an absolutely delight to me especially when we play. Just think, I am actually a part of their brain developing pathways. It's awesome to be a part of someone else's history in the making. SQ

[Neurontin]

I find my emotional sensitivity a pain in the you know what...lol I do not like it but just like Water said I does make me have more empathy for others....Thanks again....good post