Highly Sensitive in an Insensitive World

Basic science tells us that we have five core senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. All of the information that we take in comes through these five senses. We use this information to then interpret our surroundings, communicate with them, and to regulate our nervous systems. The combination of the information from all of our senses together guides us; it is sent to our brains where it is processed to create a complete sensory picture of our environment. 

When our senses take in more information than our brains can physically process (this is unique to each individual), our brain becomes overwhelmed by the amount of input it is receiving and enters crisis mode. To observers, this appears to be a person who is in fight or flight mode. While the body seems to respond to the overwhelming stimuli as if this is a trauma, the brain is actually experiencing sensory overload. 

Sensory overload is a very real, very regular occurrence for most of the population. Many people don’t even realize it when they are confronted with it. For many, it is concealed with its symptoms and masked as exhaustion, irritability, hyper-vigilance, headaches, and more. 

For approximately 15-20 percent of the population, however, this is a serious challenge that they face every single day. This category of people is referred to as Highly Sensitive People (HSPs). HSPs possess a personality trait also referred to as a sensory processing sensitivity, which essentially means that they have an extremely sensitive nervous system that is highly attuned to its environment and therefore becomes easily overwhelmed.

Through psychologist Dr. Elaine Aron’s research, the book she consequently published on the topic (The Highly Sensitive Person), and the HSP self-test that she developed, she was able to scientifically confirm that this trait exists, that it is normal, that it is innate, and that, although it comes with unique difficulties, it is possible to thrive with proper self-care.

Considering that the key traits of HSPs are deeper processing of emotional stimuli and a lower tolerance to sensory input, their main struggles are highly correlated with what their five senses can and cannot handle. HSPs tend to become overwhelmed by things like bright lights, loud sounds, strong scents, and coarse fabrics. They tend to startle easily, avoid violent movies and TV, are sensitive to the moods of others, to the effects of alcohol and caffeine, and to pain.