Are you a HSP? Highly sensitive person?

[HSP2022]

Apparently 20% of people are classified as a highly sensitive person.

I'm certain I fit the criteria but do any of you?

Is there a way to get absolute clarification?

Do you just accept that's how you are or have you been able to change aspects so you are not as highly sensitive to certain things?

😂😂😂😂

@Somethingsnappy Thank you, I just thought it's reasonable to think sensitivity might be a spectrum and some people are at the higher end of it!

I’m interested in so many people belittling this. Op has read about HSP and felt that she recognised herself In what she read and is hoping to connect with others who might related to being a HSP too.

Why does it matter? it’s just a way to think about her own character and relate to others with similar characters.

I think the problem is when your character is ‘I can relate to art on a HIGHER level than YOU’ and ‘I feel affected by abhorrent violence’ and ‘I always know what people need, I can read even the tiniest emotional changes.’ It’s arrogant and implies you’re somehow more evolved than anyone else, when in fact it’s the opposite - someone who insists they have some superhuman ability to understand other people’s emotions is usually mistaken or just hasn’t realised that most people know if someone is sad/happy/cross. And if you genuinely think it’s unusual to be affected by abhorrent violence then I don’t know what to tell you - most people are. That’s why it’s abhorrent, because most of us are affected by it.

As for ‘knowing what someone needs,’ the most empathetic way to do that isn’t showcasing your super sensitivity by guessing - it’s simply asking. ‘What can I do for you? How can I help?’ These are far better than presuming your super empathy knows what others need and forcing it on them.

I’m highly sensitive to this being the only answer.

This.

All the indicators are attributes of being a normal kind person.

I personally don’t see any arrogance in what Op has written. I have read it as her reflecting on her own character not her own character in comparison to others.

I think the fact that true crime documentary’s, crime podcasts/books horror films etc are so popular show that not everyone is overly bothered by violence. That’s not to say there is anything wrong with enjoying a horror book etc but clearly there is a variety of reactions to violence.

The trouble with categorising a proportion of people as "highly sensitive" is that none of us really know what other people's inner emotional landscape is like. I think a lot of people find violence, even in films difficult to watch and many people dislike pressured time deadlines. It's a bit of a presumption to assume other people are less sensitive in some way-although clearly there are personality differences between people.
I don't like the idea that some people are just "highly strung", someone else may feel just as stressed but have learned to regulate it.

She literally said one of the traits of the HSP (which she says she thinks she is) is that they can enjoy art on a ‘higher level.’ That’s arrogant. Firstly to presume to presume that you are somehow able to understand the level on which every other person understands and appreciates art, and secondly to then assume you have some higher artistic understanding.

And op was talking about ‘abhorrent violence’ mentioned in the news. Most people will think that’s awful. Some of us just bang on about it less. Hardly anyone sees ‘abhorrently violent’ situations like child abuse or murder on the news and goes by unaffected about it.

It is definitely a reasonable assumption. I was about to add that some posters are being a little too sensitive on this thread, but then thought better of it!

I'm too sensitive for this thread

Why does it matter? it’s just a way to think about her own character and relate to others with similar characters.

Why does it matter? Because @HSP2022 has got hold of a heap of pseudo-scientific rubbish which seems to justify her being “better” than others.

Take this statement, for example:

You can appreciate the beauty of art on a much deeper level:

It’s so generalised it’s meaningless. What does “appreciate“ mean here? Where does this psychobabble mention studying varieties of the arts with a critical analytical brain, to really learn about the techniques and contexts of a particular art form?

No, it means screaming in the Sistine Chapel.

Badically, it’s about the OP pretending that she’s a better than anyone else.

Whereas I’d say that all that she lists are just aspects of being an ordinary human.

@Somethingsnappy 😆

Is highly sensitive person the new-fangled name for a smug, self-aggrandising arsehole?

Asking for a highly sensitive friend.

People are irritated and taking the piss because it's pathologising personality traits with pseudo scientific codswallop. It's one of the great banes of the current age, this need so many seem to have to be labelled, to fit in this box, or that box, to be defined.....it's exactly the same urge which has given us the idea of 342 genders and the regressive view that liking playing with dollies means a boy is probably a girl. We all have many complex, contradictory elements to us. It's the human condition. (And yeah in a lot of the cases described on this thread probably neurodiversity. Which is an actual thing. Not internet balls).

Why do so many people have to have a special label? Why isn't enough just to have a personality, like everyone else?

There's way too much info and reading in the OP to even kick off a discussion.
I'm probably a highly sensitive person, but I can't be arsed reading through your long post.
Sorry ☹️

You can appreciate the beauty of art on a much deeper level:

Well, it's not well phrased but I think suggests an emotional rather than intellectual response to art. Linked to the idea of increased CNS response to stimuli. HSP seems to be a personality trait sometimes linked to an evolutionary trait, trauma and the dopamine system. The concept was developed by psychologist Elaine Aron. Maybe it's nonsense, but seems to be an amount of research on it.

Because it’s just such an arrogant and self absorbed thing to claim to be, and is largely claimed by those lacking in all self awareness who make life quite difficult for the people who have to deal with them on a regular basis.

That list is laughably vague.
"I have a rich, complex inner life"? Well, unless we're going down the route of philosophical zombies, I'd presume that everyone has a richly complex inner life. As we can't experience the consciousness of anyone else, we have absolutely no clue how our inner life compares with the general population.

Actually, maybe that's where I'm going wrong - are HSPs so highly attuned to other people that they can weigh up the complexities of their consciousness against their own?

As other posters have already pointed out, if human characteristics are on a bell curve then you can take the top 5/10/20% of people and say that they are Highly X persons. You would have highly sensitive people only in the same way that you have highly intelligent people, highly creative people, highly extroverted people etc.

I identify as one, and I have a son who I think is one. I see it as just having a fairly reactive nervous system, really, eg in my two kids, one could never sleep away from home because they'd have to explore the whole new space, couldn't read anything scary because they'd be terrified, struggled with loud noises (HSP) and the other was very chilled in all those situations (less reactive nervous system). That's how I understand it anyway 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hi OP, I can relate to all of those traits.

I got 24 on that test. I have had PTSD in the past and currently have bouts of anxiety and depression. I startle very easily. I am a good artist (so quite possibly appreciate art more than others). I read other people pretty well from years of social anxiety and so being hyper-aware of how I'm interacting with others.

I would say I'm sensitive, though not in the kind of 'you were born special!' Vibe that the 'highly sensitive person' label tries to give.

I'm a bundle of unfortunate traits from genetic inheritance and past experiences that have had some positive side effects, but mainly have had negative ones.

How do you know you feel on a much deeper level? You can't tell how others feel.

Don't you mean you make more fuss about how you're feeling?

A bit like when I took dd to A&E with agonising stomach ache (at the GP's suggestion), she said 9/10 on the pain scale. Ds had 2/10 on the pain scale.
Dd's recovered at the sight of chocolate ice cream. Ds had his appendix removed.
Who made more fuss... who had more pain...

There are several meanings for sensitivity in the Cambridge dictionary and OP’s posts uses a couple of them. But not really that one.

The discription OP uses in terms of identifying if you’re and HSP almost totally relies on the meaning of sensitivity of being overwhelmed at a lower threshold than most people.

There is also being sensitive in the sense of being aware of and able to discern subtleties. This could be (part of) a basis for a claim of being able to appreciate art on a higher level or being able to responded positively to other’s needs. But that’s not what the description relies on in identifying if you are an HSP. You can’t really be overwhelmed and be more capable of discerning subtleties at the same time, if anything it’s the opposite. If you’re overwhelmed then subtleties will be lost on you. Yet the HSP descriptions almost always treat the fact of being overwhelmed as a foundation for claiming better discernment which they then claim to be the “good side” to being more sensitive.

The description also starts off with a claim that, in effect, being an HSP will mean you aren’t that logical or rational. Which, again, is at odds with the idea of being sensitive in the sense of being able to discern better, and certainly at odds with the idea of being able to discern better and use that discernment to better meet people’s needs.