Determine a highly sensitive person
Highly Sensitive person – Our society has different kinds of people and these people are different in many senses from each other. In our society we find angry people, we find sad people, happy people, some are depressed, some are stressed out, some are introverts and some are extroverts, etc. In every walk of life, we meet different kinds of people and together people make the society we live in.
In this article, we will be dealing with the topic of highly sensitive people HSP, what are their traits and how to spot them, what are the challenges they face, and what are the benefits of being an HSP.
Many people among us are highly sensitive. Anything that triggers some changes in the behavior of a person which can be emotional, mental, or behavioral due to some stimuli are categorized as a highly sensitive person. Some highly successful people such as celebrities in various fields have said in their interviews that they are highly sensitive.
’Lorde’ a pop singer who became a sensation with her hit song ‘Royals’ has described herself as a high sensitivity person. Kanye West in his interviews has said the same and the popular actress Nicole Kidman has also described herself as highly sensitive and the list does not end here.
When did the term highly sensitive person arise?
The term highly sensitive person came to light when the U.S psychologist Elaine Aron published a book in 1996 and together with her husband authored the research paper named ‘highly sensitive personality profile’.
In this research, they found that a highly sensitive person is related to a shy and introverted person but are different in many senses from these terms.
After interviewing and counseling dozens of students, this duo concluded that a highly sensitive person shows more sensitivity than others when exposed to some specific stimuli. The discoveries came to infer that around 15 to 20% of the populace have a place with this gathering of profoundly delicate individuals.
How do determine whether a person is highly sensitive or not?
The Arons created a personality test named the highly sensitive person scale, in this test they had a set of questions for the participants.
- Some of these questions were ‘Are you easily get affected by strong sensory inputs?’
- Does consumption of caffeine affect your sensitivity?
- Do chaotic scenes and noises bother you?
- There were 27 questions like these above-mentioned questions and if the participants agree with these sets of questions they were described as highly sensitive people.
Being an HSP does not mean you have a mental illness. HSP is a personality trait and involves increased sensitivity to things going around us. A person with HSP can be overwhelmed by anything that is going around them and they try to avoid these situations. An HSP can be easily touched by beauty, emotionality, and the things they love.
They may have a close relationship with others. Being an HSP helps in being empathetic and promotes strong relationships. A person can make it more of a strength and less of a challenge if he learns how to manage to be an HSP.