All content Copyright ©2003-12 Peter Messerschmidt & HSP Connections. All Rights Reserved.
20041014 20120131
HSP Connections
The Information Directory for the Highly Sensitive Person
Are you a Highly Sensitive Person?
If you have found this web site, there's a good chance you have read Dr. Elaine Aron's book "The Highly Sensitive Person." If not, maybe someone has suggested that you might be highly sensitive, and now you're looking for more information. Perhaps you're on a personal journey to understand more about yourself, or maybe you were referred here from another web site.
Whatever path brings you here, a warm HSP welcome to you!
If you are not yet sure whether or not you really are a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), I highly recommend that you first take a moment to visit Dr. Aron's web site, and take her short HSP self test.
Just what is a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)?
According to Dr. Aron's research, high sensitivity is an inborn neutral trait found in 15-20% of the population. Far from being a "weakness" or a "flaw," an HSP simply has a more sensitive central nervous system, and tends to posess a higher sense of awareness than the general population. This type of sensitivity-- which is not a choice-- is also known by the name "Sensory Processing Sensitivity." Because HSPs tend to process more information, and process it more deeply, they also tend to become more easily overwhelmed, overstimulated or stressed out.
A useful way to think of this is that a Highly Sensitive Person will be aware of-- and can process-- a lot of information, but for a shorter time, while others might process less information, but can keep going for a longer time.
Although HSPs tend to share many common traits, high sensitivity can manifest in many different ways-- and HSPs will generally look quite different to an observer, as well as to each other. There are a few common threads, however. HSPs are often introverted-- as many as 70% are-- and frequently come from the Myers-Briggs types INFP, INFJ, INTP and INTJ. However, 30% of HSPs are extraverts; and these are typically of the ENFP and ENFJ Myers-Briggs types.
However, HSPs have wide range of interests, and it would be almost impossible to tell an HSP purely based on their appearance. On her web site, HSP Counselor Jacquelyn Strickland identifies a number of different "HSP Subcultures" which illustrate just some of the differences found in people with the HSP trait.
Some HSPs are "High Sensation Seekers." These are people who are both Highly Sensitive, and seek out varied, novel and intense experiences, while most HSPs seek predictability, peace and quiet. HSS/HSPs face special challenges, because the very experiences they seek out in life are usually also a source of overstimulation for them.
About High Sensitivity
So if I'm an HSP, does that mean I'll be just like other HSPs?
