What Can A Highly Sensitive Person Assessment Reveal About You?
Highly sensitive people (HSP), as revealed in Dr. Elaine N Aron's book, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You, display characteristics including sensitivity, keen observation, and depth of feeling. Potentially resulting from hypersensitivity of the nervous system, highly sensitive people may feel overwhelmed by loud or chaotic environments.
Throughout her book, Dr. Aron highlights the need to understand HSP and how these individuals can confront challenges in daily life. A highly sensitive person test may help you identify actionable steps to manage overstimulation. Talking with a therapist may give you additional tools to address your goals.
What to expect from a highly sensitive person assessment?
There are many ways to find a highly sensitive person test available online. However, the original highly sensitive person test is free on Dr. Elaine Aron's website. In addition, Dr. Aron's website offers a child version of the highly sensitive person test, which provides tips for supporting a highly sensitive child. High-quality generic versions of these tests can be found on sites including Loner Wolf and Oprah.com.
A highly sensitive person test often consists of several questions that assess whether you fit the HSP characteristics. They may not be accurate for everyone, so you may want to follow up with a therapist after taking the highly sensitive person test. However, many people have taken a highly sensitive person test and confirmed with a therapist that they are highly sensitive.
With the information from the highly sensitive person test, individuals have improved their quality of life and gained an understanding of advantageous traits associated with being highly sensitive, including potentially higher levels of empathy and greater artistic ability.
Traits of highly sensitive people
As a highly sensitive person, you may have a high sensitivity to the feelings of those around you. You may pick up on details that others often miss. However, less desirable traits may also occur in HSP, such as feeling overwhelmed by your heightened senses thanks to sensory processing sensitivity.
You may possess various positive traits, including creativity, empathy, deep emotional understanding, depth of thinking, and heightened intuition. These traits may make you a good problem-solver and listener.
In her book on highly sensitive people, Dr. Aron identifies the following four main characteristics of HSP:
- Depth of processing
- Overstimulation
- Emotional responsiveness and empathy
- Sensitivity to subtleties
Why do these characteristics appear in highly sensitive people?
In her book, Dr. Aron discusses new research regarding the connection between being a highly sensitive person and sensory processing sensitivities (SPS). For example, one study found that HSP showed higher-than-average levels of brain activation related to emotions, emotional memories, and emotional processing while looking at emotional pictures.
Additional research has shown that highly sensitive people, in general, may be more susceptible to anxiety, depression, and stress. However, when HSP had greater mindfulness and acceptance attitudes, they were less anxious overall.
Strategies for highly sensitive people
Traits associated with being highly sensitive may pose challenges for some individuals. As an HSP, you may encounter overstimulation and experience the pain and emotions of the people around you. As a result, it could be valuable for you to find opportunities to relieve sensory overstimulation.
Self-care
Try to get adequate sleep, eat well, and engage in moderate exercise. Self-care may look different for different people. Engaging in something that benefits your body, mind, and soul may reduce stress and improve your ability to challenge overwhelming emotions.
Meditate
Dr. Aron emphasizes that HSP can learn to integrate their qualities better and care for themselves by making time for solitude or silence and setting boundaries with others. Highly sensitive people may need quiet space to prioritize themselves, reflect, decompress from the stress of work and relationships, and honor their inner life. HSP who cultivate inner silence and practice self-care may be more capable of supporting their own growth and those around them.
Identify triggers
Several things may be triggering for HSP. For example, some HSP can have high expectations of themselves, and others may fear rejection.
Some people may experience physical symptoms caused by emotional stress, have difficulty being in large crowds, or experience high sensitivity to lights, sound, or scents thanks to sensory processing sensitivity. Awareness of your unique sensitivities and triggers may help you minimize stress and exposure to overstimulating events throughout your life.
Careers for sensitive people
Highly sensitive people may prefer work that can be conducted in a pleasing environment that doesn’t overwhelm their sensory processing. Loner Wolf identifies careers that may best support HSP, including massage therapy, counseling, visual arts, music, speech pathology, and writing.
Benefits of therapy for highly sensitive people
According to Dr. Aron, 15-20% of the population have HSP characteristics, which may be relatively common. You could develop a more profound sense of calm by making minor changes to your environment or lifestyle.
If changes do not reduce stress, seeking a licensed therapist specializing in HSP may be an option. A professional can help you understand your strengths and triggers. You may be used to being a listener, but a therapist can be there to listen to you. With a counselor, you can process your thoughts and emotions in a safe environment.
Because a highly sensitive person may take in new information constantly, it could take longer for them to settle into therapy. Therapy from the comfort of your own home and on your schedule might allow you to focus more readily than in unfamiliar surroundings. Studies have found no difference in the development of therapeutic relationships between in-person and online therapy. You can discuss your concerns with an online therapist from sites like BetterHelp. A variety of therapists are available to match with you.
Takeaway
Being a highly sensitive person may come with many character traits. When you understand your strengths and weaknesses, you may be better able to handle challenges and excel in work.
If you think the HSP characteristics describe you well, consider taking an online highly sensitive person test or talking to an online therapist. You may be able to gain deeper insight into who you are and improve your overall well-being from the test and the support of a mental health professional.
Can two highly sensitive people be together?
Some highly sensitive people (HSPs) may be more prone to sensation seeking and may be easily overwhelmed by some environmental stimuli, but it would likely be unwise to generalize those traits to all HSPs. Similarly, there is nothing to suggest that two highly sensitive people are unable to have a happy, thriving relationship. It may even be possible that HSPs work better in relationships than people with lower sensitivity. HSPs may also be able to learn skills and techniques to help make their relationship more comfortable, even when tackling the difficult parts of a long-term partnership.
How valid is the highly sensitive person scale?
The Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS) was developed by Elaine Aron, PhD, a psychologist and author of the book The Highly Sensitive Person. The 27-item scale measures sensory-processing sensitivity in adults and may be used alongside other measures to help determine whether someone exhibits high sensitivity. Research conducted on the HSPS indicates strong reliability and validity. However, the HSPS should still be part of a larger assessment battery, and freely available versions found online should be interpreted with caution.
Can HSPs control their emotions?
Highly sensitive people are capable of controlling their emotions, but some may need extra space or time to do so. They may be overwhelmed more easily than their less-sensitive peers, but there is no conclusive evidence that they are unable to control their emotions after experiencing overarousal. Like many others, HSPs may need to learn additional relaxation and coping skills to manage their emotions effectively, but it is likely that the most commonly used strategies would be effective for them as well.
How common are highly sensitive people?
The author of the book The Highly Sensitive Child and The Highly Sensitive Person, Dr. Elaine Aron, estimated that as much as 20% to 25% of the population may be highly sensitive. Recently, new research indicates that the number may be as high as 29%, making high sensitivity an extremely common trait.
How is an HSP different from a low-sensitivity person?
Highly sensitive people have higher sensory processing sensitivity than most other people. In practice, that means that HSPs tend to be more aware of their surroundings and more attuned to environmental stimuli. Their depth of processing related to incoming sensory information is likely more substantial than that of low-sensitivity people. HSPs may be especially sensitive to strong physical stimuli, such as bright lights and loud noises. They may also exhibit greater emotional sensitivity and may be more reactive to things that feature harm being done to others, such as violent movies.
How do you recognize an HSP?
People may appear highly sensitive for a number of reasons, regardless of whether they score high on measures of sensory sensitivity. For example, some mental health conditions, like autism spectrum disorder, are characterized by excessive sensitivity to external stimuli. Therefore, it is generally not possible to recognize a highly sensitive person based on behavior alone. The only way to be sure someone is an HSP is if they indicate that themselves.
Do highly sensitive people like to be alone?
Many highly sensitive people report enjoying being alone in a quiet, safe space. Because HSPs are more sensitive to the environment around them, their day-to-day experience may be more draining than for those without high sensitivity. It is possible that highly sensitive people may need more time alone to “recharge” and prepare for environments with a significant level of stimuli.
Can you develop into a highly sensitive person?
High sensitivity to sensory stimuli is a complex personality trait that is partially based on biological factors, like genetics and brain structure, as well as environmental factors. Researchers still debate on which matters more, biology or environment, but it is likely that at least part of being a highly sensitive person comes down to innate factors present from very early in life. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether someone can develop into a highly sensitive person. Despite this, it is likely possible to become more attuned to the environment and be more aware of stimuli by practicing observation skills and mindfulness.
How is a highly sensitive child diagnosed?
Being highly sensitive is not a formal diagnosis, but it is something a clinician may consider when evaluating a child for certain mental health conditions. A sensitive child might exhibit behavioral cues, such as oversensitivity to noise or light, and personality assessments may indicate that they have high sensory sensitivity. Although high sensitivity is not a diagnosable condition, a professional may use that information to develop appropriate interventions for a highly sensitive child. For example, a child who struggles to pay attention in school due to becoming overwhelmed by the environment may benefit from cognitive-behavioral interventions that teach them how to work within the environment and keep themselves relaxed.
Is being a highly sensitive person a medical condition?
Being a highly sensitive person is not a formally defined medical condition. However, high sensitivity to sensory stimuli may be a symptom of a mental health condition, or it may indicate that certain interventions to manage the high sensitivity may be helpful. A clinical may measure how likely a person is to be highly sensitive to gain more information about how they can best be helped and what factors are most likely to be beneficial when supporting their sensitivity.
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