HSPs & Empaths

According to psychologist Elaine Aron, Highly Sensitive People comprise about 15-20% of the population. HSPs..." are high in a personality trait known as Sensory-Processing Sensitivity, which displays increased emotional sensitivity, stronger reactivity to external and internal stimuli (pain, hunger, light, and noise), and complex inner life."

 

Everyone experiences the world through their senses. However, when you're highly sensitive, your senses are magnified. You're more aware of subtleties than others, making you more prone to stress and stress-related symptoms, including herpes outbreaks.

 

 

HSPs & Empaths: What's the Difference?

 

When you're a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), excessive stimulation of the senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell) can overwhelm you, and you require alone time to recuperate. HSPs are born with this trait, which is NOT a disorder.

 

Being an Empath is a complex experience. You share HSP traits (as mentioned below), but you can also absorb subtle energies from people, places, and things, including animals and nature. For example, Empaths energetically internalize others' feelings and pain, making it challenging to distinguish another's discomfort from their own. HSPs don't share this trait of absorbing energies unless they are also highly empathic, which can be both uplifting when positive and draining when negative. It's important to note that the opposite of empathy is narcissism.

 

You can be an HSP or an Empath (or both). HSPs are more likely to be introverted, whereas Empaths can be either introverted or extroverted. Emapths tend to be highly psychic. All Empaths are Highly Sensitive People. All Highly Sensitive People have empathic abilities, but not all possess strong psychic abilities. If you are an HSP with highly psychic skills, you are likely to be introverted, but you can also be extroverted when moved to be. 

 

 

Sensory Processing Sensitivity

 

According to Wikipedia, Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is a temperamental or personality trait involving "an increased sensitivity of the central nervous system and a deeper cognitive processing of physical, social, and emotional stimuli". The trait is characterized by "a tendency to pause to check in novel situations, greater sensitivity to subtle stimuli, and the engagement of deeper cognitive processing strategies for employing coping actions, all of which are driven by heightened emotional reactivity, both positive and negative".

HSP & Empath Traits

While not all Highly Sensitive People and Empaths share the same traits, the following twenty-four traits are commonly found among them. 

 

  • HSPs genuinely care about people, the Earth, and all life forms, and find it difficult to witness violence and abuse.

 

  • Confrontation, criticism, and conflict can make the HSP physically ill, so HSPs often become people pleasers.

 

  • HSPs are detail-oriented and apply their very best to everything they attempt. 

 

  • The Highly Sensitive Person is moved by beauty and art. 

 

  • The HSP needs to live a life of meaning and purpose.

 

  • As an HSP, you may find noisy environments unpleasant. Equally unpleasant are repetitive noises. 

 

  • HSPs commonly pick up on others' underlying emotions.

 

  • It's easy for the HSP to discern the truth behind mixed messages. You have a built-in radar that lets you know when someone is lying. 

 

  • Most HSPs are polite, considerate, and mannerly, and they do not need laws because they would not break them, to begin with.  

 

  • Most Highly Sensitive People communicate with animals without realizing it, forming deep connections. 

 

  • An HSP can be upset for days after seeing a road kill. 

 

  • All HSPs need downtime to recharge their batteries. 

 

  • Most HSPs have a lower pain threshold than non-HSPs.

 

  • Some HSPs are extremely sensitive to time-related pressures (real or perceived), such as deadlines at work or doctors' appointments, and will feel anxious days or weeks in advance of the event.

 

  • HSPs easily see how to rectify a problem from point A to point B, often with a backup plan in place.

 

  • The Highly Sensitive Person is naturally curious and asks "Why?" about EVERYTHING.

 

  • HSPs have vivid imaginations and often use them to escape from (meditate on) stressful situations and feelings. 

 

  • Most HSPs struggle with change. They need time to process things, and adjusting (when there's no time available) isn't easy.

 

  • HSPs often feel misunderstood because they don't realize they are susceptible and that not everyone shares the same sensitivities, which can confuse the HSP, who doesn't understand why others can't feel them out.

 

  • HSPS are often labeled (as early as their toddler years) as being shy, introverted, or cold when really they are showing signs of sensory overload.  

 

  • HSPs are self-aware, quick-learning, resourceful, and creative.

 

  • Some HSPs are highly empathetic and have psychic abilities, which is why many HSPs are interested in metaphysical or occult topics.

 

  • HSPs know the true meaning of love and how to do it (love is a verb).

 

  • Many HSPs admit to having 24/7 conversations with God (source, spirit, whatever or whoever God is to them). It's as natural as breathing. 

 

 

HSPs, Empaths & Stress

 

Highly Sensitive People and Empaths can spend a lot of time, money, and energy sitting in a doctor's office looking for cures, and are told their symptoms don't appear to have any origin other than stress, which is disheartening. Walking out of a doctor's office with no more than vague instructions on how to reduce stress can feel unhelpful and insulting. Even worse is being waved off with a prescription for something you're not entirely sure you need, like an antidepressant, for something like Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

 

Doctors treat stress-related conditions with drugs like antidepressants, which can have severe and long-lasting side effects, especially in Highly Sensitive People. HSPs often feel "off" or have severe side effects from medications. While prescription and over-the-counter drugs undoubtedly have a place in emergencies, they are not the answer to relieving stress, at least not the complete solution. Engaging in sense-based activities and using natural remedies often helps prevent and reduce stress and its many symptoms.

 

 

How HSPs Can Be Genetically Hardwired to Anxiety & Fear

 

HSPs with anxiety, panic disorder, and phobias can be genetically hardwired for fear more than others, and here is why. Among the genes you inherit from your parents, two specific genes (one from your mother and one from your father) determine how strongly your amygdalae are wired to the rest of your brain. Your amygdalae are two small, ancient organs in your brain that help manage your emotions. I refer to them as your inner fish. 

 

On the subject of genes, if you are lucky enough to get two long gene variants (long fishtails), you are hardwired soundly. Long variant genes (long fishtails) help produce more protein, substantially recycling serotonin. Serotonin is a "feel-good" chemical, a neurotransmitter, that your body manufactures in the brain and the gut. It keeps your amygdalae calm and helps you feel good about yourself. 

 

If you get one long and one short gene variant, you have a 50/50 chance of having a phobia.

 

If you have two short gene variants (shorter fishtails), you come up weakly connected, producing anxiety due to the weak link between your amygdalae and the rest of your brain, which causes heightened senses. It nearly always guarantees the development of hypersensitivity and resulting fatigue, irritability, sadness, and hypersensitivity (FISH) at some point in your life. Pain and anxiety fall under hypersensitivity. Your body will produce less serotonin and weaken the mood-regulating circuitry in your brain. Serotonin plays a crucial role in establishing emotional wiring during early childhood development. Hence, with two short fishtails, it isn't likely that your brain will ever be set up correctly, but you can still do things to calm your amygdalae, your inner fish, which manage your mood.

 

 

What Being Highly Sensitive is Not

 

Being a Highly Sensitive Person is not the same as having Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID), Asperger's Syndrome (AS), Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or being neurotic.

 

Being an HSP is also not the same as having an Avoidant Personality Disorder (APD), typical shyness, or being an introvert, although these conditions may coexist. For example, suffering from General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) does not mean you were born sensitive. However, it is certainly understandable that you could end up suffering from GAD as a Highly Sensitive Person.

 

Whether you develop stress-related symptoms is typically influenced by inherited factors and personality. It also depends on whether you have proper coping skills. For HSPs, a considerable part of coping is understanding that you ARE highly sensitive and why. Most HSPs are unaware they are different than others. Some never find out, which is a shame because they may never understand that their differences are gifts. 

 

 

The Gift of Empathy

 

When you possess the gift of empathy, you can sense the energies of people, animals, places, and things. Everyone, except for sociopaths and narcissists, has empathic abilities. But when you're an HSP, it can make you feel like you live in outer space. It's no fun picking up on others' sorrows, pain, and anger as if it's your own. It can leave your head spinning, both emotionally and physically. If you don't know you're a Highly Sensitive Person, you can feel ike you need to fix something that isn't yours to fix. For example, you might suddenly get a headache or stomachache, which could be due to picking up on someone's negative energy. Before you decide to heal something, ask your gut, " IS THIS MINE?" If not, let it go.

 

Being an empath can lead to addictions of all kinds to stop feeling so much, which can cause overwhelm that leads to ongoing stress.

 

Being empathic can also lead to getting involved with a narcissist. Narcissists are adept at presenting themselves one way to the world and another to the mirror. As long as it's in their best interest, they come across as exceedingly stable and sound (and internally "quiet"), which can relieve the HSP who is tired of "reading" everyone. What is considered "inward calm" is a barrier between you and their inner "rage". Their energy can seem positive, stable, and comforting until they reveal it's not.

 

 

Others Can't Read You the Way You Read Them

 

When you understand that 80% of the population can't read you the way you read them, life becomes much more manageable. You no longer have to worry about whether people are "reading" YOUR every emotion. They aren't. You are hidden, except to other HSPs and those you decide to reveal yourself to. You can finally relax.

 

 

You're Unique

 

If you possess the extraordinary gift of empathy, it means you are meant to do something special in the world—your gift is tied to your life's purpose. Don't allow your sensitivities to get in the way of your values or dreams. I invite you to watch the 7-minute video, Sensitive: The Untold Story, directly below. It may help you determine whether you're a Highly Sensitive Person.

Also, see Resources for Highly Sensitive People.