A couple years ago I was visiting a friend and she said something to me that made me think! She said “Jen you notice everything around you, you are constantly turning your head when you hear the slightest noise, when I talk it is almost like you can feel me talk because the look on your face is so intense and expresses my emotions that I am feeling, and you are always adjusting your hair and you clothes like they bother you.” I looked at her and said. “I thought everyone was like that!” That day I found out that everyone is not like that and started to do some research. As I was browsing the internet looking for answers I came across several articles about “The Highly Sensitive Person” (HSP) and as I read through the articles it was like reading the story of my life.
Dr. Aron’s research suggests that approximately 15-20% of the population fit the description of being “Highly Sensitive.” HSPs– by her definition– are people whose brains and central nervous systems are “wired” in such a way that they are more acutely aware of, and attuned to, themselves, other people, and their environment. As a result, a highly sensitive person is more easily stimulated and aroused by their surroundings, from which it follows that they also get more readily “over aroused” than most people. This is an inborn trait which interestingly enough researchers have also observed in animal populations ranging from deer to octopi.
So what does it feel like to be highly sensitive?
HSPs are often very sensitive to pain, and often respond to much lower doses of medications than most people. We are bothered by bright lights, strong smells, and loud noises and it is very hard to ignore these things. For example, I simply cannot concentrate if there is too much talking going on. HSP tend to take on the emotions of those around them because they are so perceptive and intuitive. This often can wear a HSP down quickly. We get overwhelmed easily and need to retreat often. We need more sleep and more quiet than most. The thought of a crowded mall does not appeal, nor does a huge, loud party. Many people who are HSP are introverts, but 30% of HSP are extroverts. We do not tolerate hunger well, and some of us can literally feel the pain of others. Do you identify with any of these traits? If so take the free Highly Sensitive Person self test online http://www.hsperson.com/pages/test.htm
The highly sensitive person and chronic illness connection
After I did all the research and discovered I was highly sensitive I was curious if others with chronic illness were highly sensitive so I put a post up on FibroTV and to my surprise in 30 mins we had over 70 comments of people relating to the article I posted. Some of them knowing already that they were highly sensitive and other who never heard of it and related to the article. HSP are nearly always in the “Fight or Flight” mode. This is the adrenaline packed state that people go into when danger is perceived. This constant level of hyper stimulation, stress and being overwhelmed can lead the HSP into a state that leaves them wide open to a host of physical and stress related illnesses, as well as depression and addiction. Anxiety can be a huge issue, as can a low self esteem. So if you feel you are HSP it is very wise to learn as much as you can about it so it does not effect your health negatively.
The positives of being a highly sensitive person
So far everything I have talked about is the negatives of being HSP but there are many positives to having this trait as well. HSP are the Mother Teresa’s of the world, and the artists, and the empathic listeners. Without HSP’s there would be little activism towards change for the better. We are the ones that sympathize and feel others pain so we tend to be the onces to make positive changes in the world. Many HSP are intuitive which is a very special gift! Once you learn more about being HSP you can focus on using your traits as a gift instead if it taking over you life!
Although this blog post is just touching on the subject of being a highly sensitive person. I hope it opens the doors for others that might have never been introduced to the subject before to get more information on it. Although I believe a high percentage of people with Chronic illness are highly sensitive not everyone of us are. Those that are and do not know what it is will experience more symptoms and pain if there is no awareness of it. Take time to learn about your special trait so that you might better manage your Chronic illness symptoms.
Thank you for sharing this information. I am currently reading the Highly Sensitive Person and it all makes so much sense to me at 51 yrs. old.
Thank you so much for this article..it sure does describe me..my goodness!! But now I have to research some more on it on my own..it is great to know the connection with my Fibro!
I read the Highly Sensitive person after I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and I have to agree. My husband says this article fits me to a “T”. I also have noticed now that |Im in my 30′s that my intuition is so much stronger or maybe I Am finally listening. I strongly recommend The Highly Sensitive Person, it is excellet. I thinkthey are onto something here!
Thank you so much for posting this! I haven’t taken the survey but am already pretty sure this is me.
Medical Marijuana Council states that fibro patients are getting relief from marijuana. It’s not only a neuroprotectant, but also helps with anti-anxiety. I’m guessing many of students who fiddled with their itchy shirt in class, or couldn’t focus because the background noise was too loud, or the birds kept flying by the window were diagnosed as ADD, or ADHD.
Thank you. I was always told that I was overracting all the time, or having anxiety attacks, but I knew thhat there had to be something else involved. I work in the medical field with human patients,and empathize with them far too much at times. I also run a cat rescue/adoption in my ‘free time’. My dog and cats are so much more soothing to me, I just need to glance in one of their faces to relax and feel calmer. We don’t need words to understand each other. Body language, muscle tension says it all. They don’t bombard me with stimuli as the human world does.
I had never thought I was over sensitive -but I do fit the criteria, I have FM for3 years diagnosed and many years before. I took a counselling course and became a welfare officer, visiting people in their homes, for over 5 years until I had a nervous breakdown. I do not work now but write and make stuff and I have 3 dogs and four cats and they are the most relaxing thing and full of love for you I have closed myself off from the world at large and am only just recovering enough for the odd day out. Reading this all made sense to me.
OMG JEN THIS IS ME AND I SHIT YOU NOT I AM SITTING HERE AND MY BACK PORCH AND WE JUST GOT BACK FROM OUR CABIN IN THE QUIET , PEACEFUL, BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAINS. ANYWAYS………sitting here on my porch thinking that I finally understand what has been wrong with me lately. OK, the young women about my age who lives over my fence has cancer. Next door neighbor has financial problems , stress, job problems, emotional problems but Lord I love her she is so wonderful and so is my neighbor over the fence. I have always thought I was sensitive (or way more sensitive than others) MY husband knows it and so do my kids but never knew there was a name for it just thought it was part of my child abuse, ptsd, and blahblahblah…..LOL
AND THEN I FIND THIS POST FROM YOU! To my amazement and It just totally clarifys what I have always kinda known. I mean I am like a detective I can walk in someone’s home and remember everything about it when we leave. I just notice and observe everything. VERY sensitive to others needs and their moods, always have been like this. Crazy crap BUT since turning 50 I have begun realizing so,so many things and they are good things to.
I could say so much more but I am sure I have took up alot of room girl.
Have I told you lately how neat I think you are? Well you are Jen and thank you so much for taking the time to research these things for all of us. Always valuable information not the generic fibro stuff. Hugs Verlinda
Ditto to what Verlinda said!
OH well my whole point is when I come home I start feeling so badly and not well and I couldn’t figure out why…………..until today
@Joan I have a tendency to believe you as my son was diagnosed with this and ofcourse I didn’t let them perscribe him medicine but I have a feeling all the time that one day or if not now he has fibro. His life is so busy with child and wife and life. constant headaches,pains, hurts every morning and dosen’t like getting up because he knows it hurts.
But I do believe there is a connection as well
I have strugglied for over 10 years with fibro it turns out…I am sure brought on from the stressers of this. I had to become my own doctor and that lead my to natural rememedies and learning about all of the horrible things in our products and food. eliminating those toxins change my life 180′. If you would like some tips or advice for your son just go to my website, there is a blog and he can get in touch with my on facebook or on there and get some tips from me. It isnt a fibro site so I dont have everything for that on there. Hope to help. _ Tiffany from Alaska
Yeah, I found out about HSP’s and Dr. Aron’s work awhile back. Shortly after I was dx with fibro, I started making a connection. Everyone I met in person with fibro (yes, even men!), I’d ask, “Just out of curiosity, do you consider yourself to be intuitive? Do you seem to ‘know’ things before they happen? Or do you “feel” other peoples moods, etc?” And every single person I asked answered, ‘Yes.” So I began making a connection between fibro & intuitive gifts & empaths pretty early in my journey.
We can quite literally “take on the pain of the world” – especially when there just seems to be an ever increasing amount of it. This is why I never watch the news and avoid violent movies like the plague! I get very exhausted in crowds & overstimulating environments, and also in metaphysical stores with all of the intense energy of the crystals, etc.
Yesterday, I learned that antique stores totally drain me, too! I guess I picked up on all the emotion, etc. the previous owners had linked to their belongings! I have to remember to ‘shield’ my energy before I go in places like that so I don’t get an energy zap!
Great stuff, Jen. Keep up the awesome work!
How did you learn to ‘shield’? I have known for years that I am ‘empathic’ when it comes to emotions. Working college registrations would exhaust me in minutes. I have always hated confrontations because I can feel the other person’s emotions and have a hard time not taking them on myself. Please tell me where you learned to ‘shield’ and how. Thank you!
Do you have a Facebook page or Twitter? Would love to follow you there, I’m on my iPhone and love reading your stuff!
Thanks you
Yes I have both http://www.facebook.com/fibrotv and http://www.twitter.com/fibrotv Have a awesome day 
This makes sense! I have anxiety and that tension on my body causes added pain to my fibromyalgia. These traits seem to resonate with anxiety disorders too; I wonder if there is a study about how common untreated anxiety disorders are in fibro patients?
Mercy sakes! I can’t believe it! I have always felt other people’s emotions. I’ve never dealt well in large crowds or in situations where there is a lot going on. I’ve had to quit working because of it. Now I know I’m not just weird, I am just an HSP!
I totally agree with you. My Pain psychologist teaches to react to the fight/flight, so my sensitive me can function without to,to much interference. Thank you for sharing, and writing about so many of us.
i appreciate this article because iam in a fight or flight response right now and my world is falling apart and im having a hard time going thru it right now thanks again
I used to tell people I had a crystal ball because I could sense certain things about them without meeting them in person but by talking to them online or on the phone. I used to tell my children, when they were youngsters, that I had eyes and ears in the back of my head–they could never figure out how I always knew what they were up to when they were out of sight. I’ve had the ‘deja vu’ since childhood and can sense the presence of deceased loved ones. It never frightened me but I knew it was not normal. Finally, now retired, I better understand things I see, hear, taste, smell and feel. The anxiety phase lasted for 1 year & the depression was awful. I’m grateful & blessed to finally find doctors who are not bent on retesting every year to justify insurance claims. I consume few prescribed meds because of IBS, can drink only filtered water & no longer stress over the things I can’t eat & the aromatherapy I used to love so much. Smoke is my worst offender yet businesses allow their employees and customers to smoke at the entrance & exit doors. Once I’ve inhaled a chemical substance I totally lose my voice until my lungs can clear. Still, I try to live as normally as feasible. My PT noted that I will work through pain and deal with it once I return home. Home is filled with air cleaners and fans. I can detect formaldehyde in products and I’m an avid label reader…have no choice. Thank you for enlightening us while encouraging us to educate ourselves more and keep a positive attitude! I’m determined that it will NOT control my life. My primary focus word is JOY and I share it @ every opportunity I get! <3
This is a wonderful article. It has given me more insight to my illness. Thanks Jen.
Jen, I’m so glad you’ve raised this topic. I have long known I was ‘different’ and realized I was an HSP about 15 years ago after reading Elaine Aron’s book on the HSP. Finally a name to how I felt. And to know there were others out there like me was a tremendous comfort and relief. I’ve often wondered about a possible connection to chronic disease, fibromyalgia and having an HSP trait. Dr. Aron has written a series of books on HSP, such as the HSP In Love, On the Job and the HS Child. I have written about this subject on my blog. I am glad to see that it is gaining more exposure in the media. Great job.
After reading this post in Sept 2011, it became yet another epiphany in this discovery of Fibromyalgia and how to cope with it. One thing after another continues to “make sense” to me and the last 20 yrs of my life with all the quirks and symptoms I’ve had during that time actually mean something too. I’ve yet to read all the HSP books, but I’m sure going to start! Thanks for sharing. Your site has been a great resource for me in learning about FM/CFS.
Wow, I have now opened my eyes. I went away on a cruise with a friend and last week she mentioned that I am a very sensitive person. I always knew that I was and am very emotional and feel everyones feelings to the point of crying. I will now read up on this. Thanks for the insight. xx
Not only am I a HSP, I try to save everyone I love, and even those I just know. Any problems that I have had in my life, I just dig in and internalize, because I wouldn’t want to add to anyone else’s problems….. all the while I let people emotionally and physically abuse or neglect me and keep it tied up so tight inside me that I believe there has been years and years and years and years of damage to my well being. I have heard that fibro and post traumatic stress disorder are believed to be one in the same….. except more women get fibro and more men get post traumatic stress disorder…..but with a HSP personality type and extreme emotional and/or physical stress I can see that a woman’s life in the states, could be as damaging as a soldier’s life on the battlefield.
This article is so interesting! I was unaware of this line of research until a friend of mine mentioned she was a Highly Sensitive Person. Thanks for sharing! It has opened up a new area of interest for me
Overstimulation is such a problem for HSP’s. It can lead to many illnesses. Also since people are born as HSP’s they may also have some genetically based diseases. These links offer some information about it. http://www.hsp-stress-relief.com/human-genetic-diseases.html#axzz1lJeU9a4M and http://www.hsp-stress-relief.com/left-handed-people.html#axzz1lJeU9a4M .
I just want to say thank you so much for this article! I seen it on my facebook and reply to it on their also…but i just can not believe how much i relate to this article and how much it make sense to me now. I knew i was sensitive as a person and got flustered so easy but my surroundings and i hate the way clothes touch my skin and hair touches my neck,strong smells but just love pretty smells and always pick out the best perfume,i can not go hungry,i feel pain easy,and so many other things in this article.The test i took i check almost all of the questions asked.Thank you so much i would have never known if not for you.Your great!!
I am this profile to a “T”! I have learned to back off the overstimulation, shield my psyche from dysfunction and chaos around me and to center myself to peace. I always attributed my difficulty with hunger to the hypoglycemia end of my diabetic blood sugar syndrome. I will repost!!!
Interesting!
Now I understand why every situation with people around me magnifies ten folds!
I used to work as a Home Visitor with that wonderful program Head Start, but after carrying their problems with me always, and trying to empower families for ten years, I ended up with a tremendous case of “burnt out” even more severe due to the fact that I didn’t have adequate support from the people running the program. I used to cry at night only thinking that this family or this other needed this service or the other!
My brain was on high alert always! I couldn’t shut out my thoughts, sympathizing with “my” families, and devoting myself to them even after hours, or on weekends, etc.
I still suffer with this over stimulation, tags on my clothes drive me insane, smells give me migraines, noises kill my ears and go inside my brain like a terrible echo, I get headaches if a laugh too hard or for too long as well as if I cry, the weather affects me greatly either way; it can kill me if it too hoot, or too cold, my body gets hot or cold to the extremes without an apparent reason, etc, etc. The list it’s too long!! Thanks for your article, it’s so reassuring and makes so much sense! I knew something wasn’t right with my body decades before they diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia. THANKS!!
This is so me….so in tune with surroundings…over kill…tires me out…I developed ck..after trauma….can’t take medications…sometimes even low doses..stress anxiety..panic…pain over the top…tooooooo sensitive…wow..great to read..I am not alone!
I so agree with the sensitive,Of noticing everything.I can spot a sunflower in a jungle.I’m alert to just about everything.My husband thinks I’m crazy.I sense how someone feels,To many people talking at once is overload.I’ve had FM for yrs.In some ways I’m better,(the Lord healed me) I still do have days.but better than I was.
I can’t believe how much this described me. I answered yes to all the questions in the self-test. I know I always felt this way but never realized that it was different from what other people felt. Or that I felt this way more. Very interesting…