Why is someone overly sensitive

My professor said that HSPs are often intuitive and easily overstimulated. Intrigued by the way sensitivity shapes our personalities and interactions with others, I went to graduate school and became a psychologist. Now, I embrace my sensitivity as a gift and take care of myself by avoiding loud parties, scary movies, and upsetting news.

Juli Fraga is a licensed psychologist based in San Francisco, California. Here are five…. Taking a moment for true healing is more than hashtagging a moment or indulging in a life choice.

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Skip trying to maintain a step routine every day and break down your regimen into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Then back up. And so on, throughout the day. Other sensitivities include sounds and visual stimuli — flashing lights and moving objects. Prior to discovering my hypersensitivity, I perceived my overly emotional responses as a character flaw.

This added to my already-low self-esteem. Denise is sensitive to environmental noise. I am also overwhelmed by the constant flow of information we are bombarded with these days.

She told me about a client whose manager made an unkind, unfair remark at work. A person without ADHD may have let the words bounce off of him, but her client, who has a high level of sensitivity, ended up in tears.

Novotni suggests that it is the tendency of people with ADHD to feel overwhelmed that leads to their hypersensitive reactions. This, in turn, contributes to their difficulty in coping emotionally. Take the routine of going to work in the morning, for example. Most people get out the door without forgetting anything, ready with a game plan for the day.

We take on the experiences of others very quickly, like the insect on the leaf that takes on the color of the leaf. Many of us have discovered positive things about living with ADHD, and a high level of sensitivity may also be used to our advantage.

But like ADHD, hypersensitivity must be managed and controlled to let the positive aspects — creativity, empathy, and depth of perception — shine through. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing.

Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you. Prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication. Thank you for posting this. Again, thank you for posting this article. I have to deliberately choose not to read anything about people being treated badly, or death, because I absorb it, get furious, or cry, and then try to save the world.

My anxiety is awful! I remember watching Born Free when I was about 7 or 8 years old. When Elsa died I cried, no I sobbed hysterically for hours. Thank you for listening to me. Pers Soc Psychol Rev. The relationships between sensory processing sensitivity, alexithymia, autism, depression, and anxiety. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for VerywellMind. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page.

These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. I Accept Show Purposes. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. Potential Pitfalls. For HSPs, lows may be lower, but highs have the potential to be higher as well. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback!

Sign Up. What are your concerns? Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Related Articles. What Is Gratitude? What Is a Love-Hate Relationship? What Is Narcissistic Rage? How to Stop Being a People-Pleaser. Unfortunately, these people, due to being too aware of their surroundings in most of the time, have a higher chance of experiencing anxiousness and depression.

Nonetheless, though being a highly-sensitive person has its lows, it is not necessarily a bad thing and these individuals do have a lot of things to be grateful for and can live a happy and healthy life.

After we learn more about the benefits of being a highly-sensitive person, we will present useful tips on how can highly-sensitive individuals cope with the stress they often go through. Being a highly-sensitive person has a lot of advantages. Due to their high level of contemplation and pondering and their cognitive dedication to problems, they can be of great assistance when there is an ongoing issue or a question that needs to be answered. They want to have more time to work on themselves, their current friendships, and their interests that help them feel satisfied.