Episode 23

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A Highly Sensitive Person, or HSP, is a term coined by psychologist, Elaine Aron. It refers to a portion of people who process sensory information more deeply. It is a trait just like having blue eyes or black hair is. When I discovered Dr. Elaine Aron's book, The Highly Sensitive Person in 2015, it changed my life. I’ve always had very strong feelings since I was a child and didn’t know what to do with them. As I got older, I could tell my reactions to things were different than those around me but I didn’t know why and I just felt different and like something was wrong with me. The sensitivity I felt but didn’t have language or tools to navigate created challenges and difficulties throughout my life. Combined with obsessive compulsive tendencies since I was a child, I felt controlled by my deep feelings and strong impulses until I began my healing journey and started to learn about HSPs and OCD.

What is essential to know is that HSP or SPS (sensory processing sensitivity, the scientific term for HSP) is not a disorder. It is a human trait like any other. Dr. Aron has an acronym she developed to help describe the traits of someone who is an HSP that I find very helpful:

“D.O.E.S”

D: Depth of Processing

“At the foundation of the trait of high sensitivity is the tendency to process information more deeply.HSPs simply process everything more, relating and comparing what they notice to their past experience with other similar things. They do it whether they are aware of it or not. When we decide without knowing how we came to that decision, we call this intuition, and HSPs have good (but not infallible!) intuition.

Studies supporting the depth of processing aspect of the trait have compared the brain activation of sensitive and non-sensitive people doing various perceptual tasks. Research by Jadzia Jagiellowicz found that the highly sensitive use more of those parts of the brain associated with “deeper” processing of information, especially on tasks that involve noticing subtleties.”

(source: https://hsperson.com/faq/evidence-for-does/)

O: Overstimulation

“If you are going to notice every little thing in a situation, and if the situation is complicated (many things to remember), intense (noisy, cluttered, etc.), or goes on too long (a two-hour commute), it seems obvious that you will also have to wear out sooner from having to process so much. High sensitivity, however, is not mainly about being distressed by high levels of stimuli, as some have suggested, although that naturally happens when too much comes at us.”

(source: https://hsperson.com/faq/evidence-for-does/)

E: Emotional Reactivity and Empathy

“There is a common misunderstanding that emotions cause us to think illogically. But recent scientific thinking, reviewed by psychologist Roy Baumeister and his colleagues, has placed emotion at the center of wisdom. One reason is that most emotion is felt after an event, which apparently serves to help us remember what happened and learn from it. The more upset we are by a mistake, the more we think about it and will be able to avoid it the next time. The more delighted we are by a success, the more we think and talk about it and how we did it, causing us to be more likely to be able to repeat it.

Other studies discussed by Baumeister that explore the contribution of emotion to clear thinking find that unless people have some emotional reason to learn something, they do not learn it very well or at all. This is one reason why it is easier to learn a foreign language in the country where it is spoken—we are highly motivated to find our way, converse when spoken to, and generally not seem foolish. From this point of view, it would seem almost impossible for a highly sensitive person to process things deeply without having stronger emotional reactions to motivate them.”

(source: https://hsperson.com/faq/evidence-for-does/)

S: Sensing Subtleties

“Our awareness of subtleties is useful in an infinite number of ways, from simple pleasure in life to strategizing our response based on our awareness of others’ nonverbal cues (that they may have no idea they are giving off) about their mood or trustworthiness.”

“This is often what is most noticeable to us personally, the little things we notice that others miss. Given that, and because I called the trait high sensitivity, many have thought this is the heart of the trait. (To correct this confusion and emphasize the role of processing, we used “sensory processing sensitivity” as its more formal, scientific designation.) However, this trait is not so much about extraordinary senses—after all, there are sensitive people who have poor eyesight or hearing. True, some sensitive people report that one or more senses are very acute, but even in these cases it could be that they process the sensory information more carefully rather than having something unusual about their eyes, nose, skin, taste buds, or ears. Again, the brain areas that are more active when sensitive people perceive are those that do the more complex processing of sensory information. Not so much the areas that recognize alphabet letters by their shape or even that read words, but the areas that catch the subtle meaning of words.”

Discovering I’m an HSP has given me clarity, resources and support to live in ways that honor and care for that depth of sensitivity I have. It has also allowed me to continue creating art in deep ways.

I hope you enjoy listening to the episode. Please reach out and let me know if you are also an HSP or know someone who is.

Resources:

-Take an online quiz to see if you are a Highly Sensitive Person

-Take a quiz to see if your child is a Highly Sensitive Person

-The Highly Sensitive Person website is full of resources: www.hsperson.com

-Dr. Elaine Aron’s book, The Highly Sensitive Person

-Myree Morsi, a spiritual healer and trauma therapist who teaches an online class on being a highly sensitive person that I took in 2020 and 2021 and loved.

-Follow me on Instagram @deeprootedhealing