I used to play World of Warcraft. When you play a game like WoW, you do something called "raiding," where lots of players kill lots of monsters and get lots of rewards. It's chaotic and it's loud and it's stressful.
Often, in the middle of a raid, I would experience what I came to call "overload," where every noise and image was magnified and I just couldn't handle it any longer. I never understood why I reacted so strongly to these stimuli, and then one day I ran across the term "highly-sensitive person."
As I started reading about it, all of the "weird" things about me started to come to mind!
- I hate to hear people crunch on their cereal.
- A lot of people talking at once really bothers me. (Yes, I see the irony in the fact that I'm a teacher.)
- I'm a light sleeper and wake at most noises.
- I cry a lot, both sad and happy tears.
- I hate letting people down and feel guilty for awhile after I do.
- I have a really hard time making decisions.
- Stress affects me much more deeply than it affects most people.
- You will not catch me watching a violent movie.
- Criticism, even when constructive, is amplified.
- I'm extremely empathic.
- I notice tiny changes in voice, expression, etc.
"Highly-sensitive" is a term that was created in 1996 by Elaine Aron, Ph. D. According to her research, it affects around 20% of the population. It basically means that we process information more deeply than most people do; our nervous systems are more sensitive to little changes in the environment, which leads to feeling overstimulated or overwhelmed.
Here are 10 habits of highly-sensitive people (HSP's):
- Noise stresses them out more than other people.
- They notice details and changes in environment, voices, faces, tones.
- Violent movies are usually a no-go.
- When they're criticized, it's amplified and they tend to take it more personally.
- They're incredibly empathic.
- Good manners are usually very important to them, both in their own lives and in the lives of others.
- They don't like to be rude or cause conflict.
- Exercise is something they enjoy, but they prefer to do it alone.
- Making decisions takes longer. All outcomes matter. They hate making mistakes.
- They cry more easily, for good or bad reasons.
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Does this sound like you? Let me know in the comments!
