Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)

I'm curious to know how many people here are highly sensitive persons (HSPs), based on this online test:

http://www.hsperson.com/pages/test.htm

I am an HSP and am wondering if that, in itself, contributes to our having more than the usual difficulty in managing our emotions.

Based on that test -yes I am. I checked 19 of the answers. But I have never really thought of myself as sensitive.

All but two of the statements were true for me. So, yes, I am an HSP.

My T has told me that I'm an HSP, and that it does make things more difficult for me because I feel things so much more, and notice and react to such tiny changes in my environment, and am very affected by sensory input.

Yes I relate to most of the questions really well. I think I got 21 but counting in my phone was not an ready task

Wow, you read my mind with this post! I had been struggling a bit last week and looked it up online. I could check off most of the statements, although I am an extrovert, not an introvert. Some research says that about 70% of HPs are introverts and about 30% are extroverts.

I think one would want to define "usual"?

Allegedly 20% of the world's population are HSP's but I haven't seen enough independent testing to get any sense that that is correct; it seems everyone you ask believes they are an HSP (as well as being "above average") which makes it not very interesting to me. Even Stopdog "is" one and he doesn't want to be

Some of the test questions seem leading to me, "do you feel annoyed if someone is asking you to do too many things at once" - I think everyone "should" feel annoyed in that instance, it would be a rarer person (not 80%) that did not; that's what "too many" implies?

All the questions are too subjective for me too; even "too many"; how many is that for you and how many for me? Are you diagnosed with any of the autism disorders or ADD?

I don't see the designation of HSP as being very helpful to me, in understanding myself or someone else. I prefer to perceive my startle reaction as coming from my stepmother's expressions of her anger, my overstimulation issues as being genetic (I'm left handed: http://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/19/sc...pagewanted=all ) and the challenge of being raised in a blended family of five children with differing needs, ages ranging across thirteen years.

I got 19, maybe 20 so I qualify.

I checked 17 and I already knew I am a highly sensitive person.

Yep, 21 checkmarks. I know I am oversensitive to things though...although some of it has to do with my injury this past January. But interesting test.

I checked all the boxes but one, and my T already told me she thinks I'm highly sensitive..

I would qualify as the reluctant hsp if I am really hsp at all. I question the accuracy of the conclusion for me even though the score puts me in the category. But I am not a he.

Thank you. I might have known that but your nick feels masculine to me. Sorry for not checking it out to make sure.

I'm really surprised that according to that test I am not. I've always been considered "too sensitive" and was called a crybaby as a kid. Anyone who knows me at all has probably seen me cry. I noticed that the test questions ask more about overwhelming environmental stimuli and being busy, whereas I consider myself extremely sensitive to other people. I think I also have an issue with the choice of words such as "rattled" and "frazzled."

[edit] I went back and answered again and barely managed to fit into its criteria, but I'm still not a fan of the question wording.

Is this thread directed at me? Only joking :-)

I'm definitely not this, although I doubt that comes as much as surprise to anyone here. I kept thinking as I read down the list how impossible it would be to do my job if I were. Teaching requires a high tolerance for noise, chaos, multi-tasking, crowds, unpredictability, etc.

oh, I think that explains why I always wanted to be a teacher but almost flunked student teaching and never did end up with a teaching job.

Yeah, you have to have a high tolerance for unpleasant stimuli to teach, be it noise, unplanned changes in schedules, backtalk, being able to do things you really haven't been trained to do because everyone pitches in for everything, being able to fly by the seat of your pants, being able to deal with a room fulll of students when someone vomits, a roach crawls across the room, someone faints, goes into seizures, lights go out, alarms go off, etc. Ah, the things they don't prepare you for in all those theories of teaching classes in college!! Flexibility is our middle name!

I qualify. After reading the book that this quiz is based on I feel that I am an HSP who has learned coping techniques for some areas.

I only checked 2 boxes. Guess I'm not very sensitive!

There's a pretty good overlap with those questions and symptoms/aftermath of trauma, e.g. sensitivity to loud noises and other stimuli, easily startled, etc.

So some of the "highly sensitive person" may be a person with a trauma history, or perhaps it is trauma (this makes sense to me) that increases one's sensitivity, particularly to one's surrounding environment. If you're attuned to the fact that danger lurks in your environment, particularly in the part closest to you, you're for sure going to pay attention and that increased attention is likely to feel overwhelming at times.

But I noted, going through the questions, that I would have answered more yes when my PTSD symptoms were stronger.

Yes - unfortunately I am. T confirmed it a few months ago after I took the test online after it was discussed in this forum.

I guess I was born that way. I cope with some of this stuff better now than when I was younger. But it does explain a lot of my behavior as a child. So I guess it's not all bad .....

I would have too. Makes you wonder if this has more to do with trauma reaction than anything. As my PTSD reactions have become less of an issue, I also can now check off quite fewer boxes on this quiz than previously.

I scored over the 14 necessary, but I think I'm more in tune with my environment. According to my T , children who grow up in tumultuous homes always have their "feelers" or "antennas" up so they can act accordingly. I am hoping through therapy to fall below the 14.

I got 4- yeah I knew I'm not really a sensitive type but somehow I'd expected more...

I have PTSD, but I had "yes" on this survey looong before the traumas happened. It was first introduced to me when I was in school (about age 14?) through the book. I think the traumas also made the sensitivity worse for me, but not extremely so.