What Is A Highly Sensitive Person | How To Know If You Are One
When I discovered I was highly sensitive, my self-perception shifted for the better.
It was so slight at first; my first thought was “Oh! This makes sense.”
And then, it sunk in. A lot started making sense, all at once. I gained clarity on aspects of my mental health that I didn’t even question before.
Once I understood I had depression and anxiety, it was a relief. I thought my diagnosis’ explained my experiences. It was the reason behind my struggle.
But “you have a chemical imbalance” isn’t a detailed explanation, is it? It’s an extremely vague statement.
Once I understood my highly sensitive nature, I understood the why behind a lot of my childhood experiences and symptoms of mental illness.
So if you’re wondering if you might be a highly sensitive person yourself, this article is for you. Let’s talk about what it means to be a highly sensitive person.
What Is A Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)?
A highly sensitive person, or HSP, is someone who has a heightened level of sensory processing sensitivity, or SPS.
This is an inherited personality trait that causes a person to be more sensitive to their environment.
Due to this hyper-awareness and attuned senses, they navigate a seemingly different world than those who are not highly sensitive.
What Makes HSPs The Way They Are?
What makes highly sensitive people the way they are? In short – their DOES.
DOES, an acronym coined by Dr. Elaine N. Aron, stands for depth of processing, overstimulation, emotional reactivity, and sensory processing sensitivity.
Each trait is independent of the others – meaning you can have high levels of one trait and low levels in another. Not every highly sensitive person is the same.
In fact, everyone has these traits!
What makes HSP different is the levels at which they experience them. HSPs experience them at a high level of intensity and frequency that others don’t necessarily understand or can relate to.
Let’s explore a highly sensitive person’s DOES.
Highly Sensitive Traits
Again, this is in reference to Dr. Elaine N. Aron’s work, so I recommend checking out her books, like The Highly Sensitive Person: How To Thrive When The World Overwhelms You.
Depth Of Processing (D)
Depth of processing refers to how much awareness you have about any given situation or event that you experience or observe. It’s related to being able to focus on details or think deeply about things that happen in your life.
When you have high depth of processing, you notice small changes or differences in your surroundings. You pay extra attention to things that occur around you. When something happens that affects you emotionally or mentally, it affects you deeply.
Because of this, highly sensitive people prefer to reflect. When life moves really fast, it’s not ideal because they rely heavily on their reflections to make their decisions.
Overstimulation (O)
Because HSPs process more information from their surroundings than others, they can become overstimulated easily.
When there are too many distractions around them at once – such as loud noises or bright lights that cause physical discomfort in the body (like headaches), it’s hard to maintain composure for long.
This can look like anxiety symptoms, which highly sensitive people are likely candidates for, but it’s not the same thing as anxiety. To understand the difference, you can listen to this podcast episode I did on ‘Navigating Overstimulation As A Highly Sensitive Person.’
Emotional Reactivity (E)
Highly sensitive people tend to react strongly to positive or negative emotions whether they are theirs or someone else’s.
They may experience strong empathy towards others which causes them to become upset if others around them are experiencing pain or suffering.
Being highly sensitive isn’t just about being easily affected by the world around you; it’s also about having strong emotions like joy or sadness, which can range from mild to very intense.
You may feel deep empathy for others’ suffering and worry often about how they’re feeling or doing in life, whether they’re strangers or not.
Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS)
Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is a trait that affects about 20% ( or 1/5) of the population. It’s not something that you can see, but it impacts how people think, feel, and behave.
SPS is related to the way we process sensory information. Highly sensitive people are hyper-aware of things like lights, sounds, scents, and textures. They’re also sensitive to the effects of medications and certain foods.
SPS is what truly distinguishes a highly sensitive person from others. This trait is the root cause of the other traits listed above.
Suppose you’re wondering whether you have a sensory processing sensitivity. In that case, you can take this Highly Sensitive Person Test, which is based on the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (otherwise known as the official, scientifically proven measure for SPS in individuals).
Are HSP Considered Empaths?
This is something I see often – highly sensitive and empaths being used interchangeably. And honestly, I would do the same thing in the past, before I realized a key difference between these two identifiers.
Highly sensitive people are always empaths, but empaths aren’t always highly sensitive.
What Is An Empath?
An empath is someone who has an innate ability to pick up on other people’s emotions and energy. Empaths usually have strong intuitions, are highly creative, and of course, highly empathetic.
They feel other people’s emotions — they can sense what someone else is feeling even if that person doesn’t communicate their feelings verbally or physically.
It’s empathy fueled by intuition, and they can unintentionally take on the emotions of others if they aren’t careful.
But there are many people who experience empathy that aren’t necessarily HSP. Remember, empathy is a result of emotional reactivity. That’s just one trait highly sensitive people have.
The Difference Between Empaths and Highly Sensitive People
The difference between an empath and a highly sensitive person are the other traits that highly sensitive people experience.
HSPs process sensory information more deeply than others do. They may be able to hear someone talking in another room or smell food being cooked the next block over — even when those things aren’t necessarily apparent to other people around them at the time.
Is it because others can’t notice these things? Absolutely not!
It’s because highly sensitive people have a hard time blocking these details out. For non-HSP, these details fade away like white noise, making it easier to focus on their immediate surroundings (albeit without as much detail).
Is Being Highly Sensitive A Disorder?
Being highly sensitive is not a disorder. Many come to think that having these traits can mean something is “wrong.” Also, many of these traits seem similar to someone on the Autism Spectrum.
But these traits do NOT mean that a highly sensitive person can’t function well in society, or need accommodations.
Let’s outline the differences, shall we?
People on the spectrum do get overstimulated quickly. But what they commonly experience is sensory discomfort, or having a problem with sensory processing instead of having unusually good processing sensitivity.
Again, this is coming straight out of Dr. Aron’s book, The Highly Sensitive Person, where she explains that “[t]heir problem seems to be a difficulty recognizing where to focus their attention and what to ignore. When speaking to someone, they may find the person’s face no more important to look at than the pattern on the floor or the type of light bulbs in the room.”
The difference here is persons on the spectrum pay mind to irrelevant things within their environment because they truly do not no better.
On the other hand, highly sensitive people will make sure they’re appropriately responding to all social queues within their environment that pertain to them – even subtle facial expressions and body language.
They understand these subtleties are important, and so everything is taken into consideration before they take action.
This was all about what is a highly sensitive person and how to know if you’re an HSP!
If this article confirmed what you already know and you’re looking for guidance to overcome the issues your highly sensitive traits can bring (i.e. crippling overwhelm, anxious and depressive symptoms, and immense self-doubt – to name a few), then check out The Highly Sensitive Foundation To Success Bundle.
It’s a great resource I created that offers you supportive direction in tackling your cognitive distortions and cultivating a positive environment where you can thrive.
You’ve got this, sensitive soul. Until next time.
“Highly sensitive beings suffer more but they also love harder, dream wider and experience deeper horizons and bliss. When you’re sensitive, you’re alive in every sense of this word in this wildly beautiful world. Sensitivity is your strength. Keep soaking in the light and spreading it to others.”
~Victoria Erickson
