Highly sensitive? 9 most frequently asked questions

HSP is not something you can become; you are born with it and so have been all your life. Also in many animals, it has been found that about one in five is more vigilant and cautious than the rest. A sensitive disposition could have an important evolutionary function: those who notice danger earlier can not only get themselves to safety in time, but also others.

There is a gene that has been proven to make people vulnerable but also has benefits. It is the short variant of the 5-HTTLPR gene, popularly known as the ‘depression gene’. Danish researchers discovered in 2011 that this gene is more common in HSPs; proof that they have an innate sensitivity to positive and negative environmental influences.

Although high sensitivity is innate, the environment largely determines how an HSP feels and functions. Research shows that HSPs who growing up in a negative environment become extra sensitive to stress and rejection, and that HSPs who feel supported and grow up in a calm, warm environment can actually function better than non-HSPs. Differential susceptibility is called this in the professional literature, or high sensitivity works both ways. That is also exactly what the 5-HTTLPR gene does: it makes one vulnerable to depression and anxiety under negative conditions, but makes one extra talented under positive conditions.

If you are highly sensitive, you don't have a disorder. You are HSP, you cannot ‘have’ it. It does not even have to be a problem if you know how to deal with it. Still, many HSPs have complaints. Because of their sensitivity to environmental stimuli, overstimulation is always lurking in our busy and demanding society. HSPs are more sensitive than others to stress and are more at risk of burnout and other mental and physical complaints when they do not get or take sufficient recovery time. However, those who do manage to take sufficient recovery time can also benefit from that sensitivity.

Researcher Michael Pluess of Queen Mary University in London calls high sensitivity a personality trait ‘of the higher order’, a trait that coexists with other traits and superimposes them. So someone may well be highly sensitive and extroverted at the same time, or highly sensitive and narcissistic. Not every HSP is sweet and shy.

It seems that HSPs process information differently in the brain. Researcher Jadzia Jagielowicz presented a kind of search-the-differences pictures to HSPs in a brain scanner in 2011. It found that brain regions responsible for complex visual processing showed more activity in HSPs than in non-HSPs. Moreover, HSPs were indeed better and faster at finding subtle differences between two images.

US researcher Bianca Acevedo had subjects look at photos of smiling and gloomy faces in 2014; she found that in highly sensitive subjects, the brain regions involved in empathy were more active than those of non-HSPs.

As far as we know, as many highly-sensitive men as women. Sensitivity and sensitivity are more often associated with femininity and perhaps more readily accepted in women; but HSP men are just as perceptive, watchful and sensitive as HSP women.

The terms high sensitivity, high sensitivity and HSP are often used interchangeably. Recently, HSP experts have agreed that high sensitivity and high sensitivity (at least in the Netherlands) are the same thing after all.

Many people - HSP and non-HSP - do not feel addressed by the term high sensitivity because it has a somewhat floaty image. On the internet and in some self-help books on high sensitivity, it is mentioned in the same breath as clairvoyance, new age children and alternative remedies such as Bach flower remedies.
However, high sensitivity has nothing to do with supernatural things. Elaine Aron said of this in an earlier interview: ‘It may be that people who think they have psychic abilities are HSP. But it is certainly not the case that all sensitive people are very spiritual. There are also down-to-earth, deep thinkers and atheists among HSPs.’ That highly sensitive people are often good at reading moods and other people's feelings is not because of supernatural gifts, but simply because they perceive more subtleties.

High sensitivity leads you to notice many things earlier than others. This has advantages; for instance, you can take good care of others, you notice details and mistakes that no one else would have seen, you can intensely enjoy music and art, you see through social processes (e.g. in the workplace) and are alert to danger. It goes without saying that these skills can be an asset in various (work) situations. But there is also a downside.

Research by German psychologist Friederike Gerstenberg found that HSPs are faster and make fewer mistakes during a task, but experience more overstimulation and more stress-related symptoms after the task is completed than non-HSPs. Psychologist Elke van Hoof from the Free University of Brussels showed that HSPs who feel good at work are also the people who show ‘extra role behaviour’. That is, they often do just a bit more for an organisation, quickly sense where extra help is needed and go the extra mile to make sure everything runs smoothly. At the same time, people who are highly sensitive are the first to drop out when there are conflicts and tensions at work. They are more likely to suffer burnout, depression and anxiety disorders when they are in an unpleasant (work) environment.

Many HSPs therefore experience the two sides of the coin: intensely enjoying music is wonderful, but you go ‘crazy’ with a blaring radio that is just background noise for others. Empathy is nice, but being constantly dragged into the emotions of others is exhausting. Those who have not learnt to cope with their sensitivity can especially experience its burdens and become chronically overstimulated.

So the trick is to optimise conditions as much as possible and build in plenty of recovery moments. The most important thing is to recover from overstimulation, or even better: avoid overstimulation altogether. HSPs go down faster than others when confronted with negativity, but positive influences also affect them more than others.

If you are highly sensitive, surround yourself with people and things that make you happy; take enough time every day to recharge; and where possible, change things in your work or home situation so that you can function as optimally as possible. Then you can high sensitivity truly as a talent going to experience.