On Being Highly Sensitive

Oh dear friends, if you've had the opportunity to be in my inner circle, you know this one, very important thing about me...I am NOT very self aware.  I'm not entirely sure why revelations about myself are so shocking to me.  They make sense after I hear them, but don't really occur to me before that.

I wrote a blog post last month about Big Brother and some of the trouble he was having in life.  One of my good friends mentioned that she'd just read an article about Highly Sensitive People and urged me to look into it for insight into my kiddo. ( HSP website here.)  Well, it hit home.  I bought the book Highly Sensitive Child and learned some very key information about my son...AND myself.  I am a HSP.   You might be too, Dr. Aron's research shows that nearly 20% of people are Highly Sensitive...my whole nuclear family and all of my inner circle friends are HSPs.  (My husband and Little Brother are not.)

Deep down, I always realized it, but it wasn't until I saw that I scored 19 on a test where anything over 13 means you are a HSP, that I realized that things that I had counted as weaknesses are actually inborn and valuable temperament traits.  I didn't know that not everyone can go into a room and "feel" it.  I didn't know that not everyone reads and accurately interprets body language.  It came as a surprise that the hyper feeling I get when I am around people is because I am not only an extrovert, but a highly sensitive one...so I am getting both soothed and overstimulated...good times.

And, as a "sensation seeking" extroverted  HSP it totally makes sense that I love ethnic food, aromatic environments, and over-Googling things!  One website of traits even lists my very short tolerance for being trapped inside in the winter and my ability to quickly and accurately discern deception as HSP traits.  (It might also have mentioned my knack for, well, um....being attuned to the spirit world...which is now just awkward information for us all, really.)   I've ordered a workbook that is supposed to help people work through some of the issues of being Highly Sensitive.  Just leafing through the Amazon page has proven to be helpful...so I'll keep you posted on how that works out.

The book I am reading about Big Brother is also going to be quite helpful.  I've already been able to pick up some strategies that will help me raise him the way he was created...something that has been lacking from every other parenting book that I've read.  And, while not everything applies to him, a good chunk of it does. I will be blogging later this month about a big change that we making for Big Brother in light of some of the information I've discovered through this book.

Learning about Highly Sensitive People has most assuredly brought up some things about myself and my son that are enlightening, however, it's just one piece of the complex puzzle of humanity.  This being true, I consider knowing this information a valuable addition to my (and my son's) mental health toolbox.