Are you a highly sensitive person (HSP)?

Originally posted by seagrass
They will become ill and scurry out of the room, ne'er to bother thee henceforth.

sounds like one of those sonic spider deterrents. lmao.
I need some manic.....

I guess where I am going is that extremely sensitive people require defensive skills other than retreat in order to avoid being taken advantage of by unscrupulous types. The world should know that sensitivity and kindness is not weakness but a source of great strength that the unkind and insensitive cannot subdue or use for selfish gain.

Just like water is the strongest element. It puts out fire, turns air to mist and steam, and floods the earth. It can work its way into the tiniest of cracks to freeze and break iron and stone. But in it's natural calm state it is serene and beautiful and life giving.

Originally posted by EnlightenUp
The world should know that sensitivity and kindness is not weakness but a source of great strength that the unkind and insensitive cannot subdue or use for selfish gain.

I agree and this is largely a misconception that correlates kindness, gentleness and sensitivity with gullibility.

Wanting people to like you and doing what you think is going to get them to like you is weakness, in it's way.

Caring about people and doing for them what you feel you can and they need is strength, in it's way.

Unfortunately this doesn't gratify their sickly egos of the sadistic/macho/power hungry who not only get what they want materially from force and violence and cruelty, but also what they want emotionally in fear and subservience.

It's part of the idea behind my recent thread, linked in my signature for the curious. My apologies for the shameless self-promotion

Yes I am totally Emo and in my delusion I find truth.

reply to post by Heatburger


If you know anything about acoustics, the sound in the corner is just about as loud as the sound on the front row... so you were correct in choosing the back row/corner seat!

Originally posted by justsomeboreddude
I scored a 3.. i guess that makes me a USP-under sensitive person. Wow, I feel sorry by people afflicted with this. You must be miserable on a daily basis. Hey did you guys ever think that maybe you are Indigo Children or aliens or something. It seems like some of these questions coincide with things I read on a thread here about some people really being aliens.

[edit on 6/3/2009 by justsomeboreddude]

I guess you changed your tune a little since this thread...over-sensitive people

After reading this thread and some of the posts on here i wanted to say that this really describes me as well. I have for years considered myself to be highly sensitive to things around me. I never knew what to call it. I used to say i had some weird form of psychic ability but not able to develop it. Like Psychic Lite or something. Sometimes i know things, dont know how i just know them and i blurt them out and they happen. Other times i am so attuned to the people around me i know what they are feeling and sometimes intuitive to what they are thinking. I say things a few seconds ahead of my girlfriend that she was thinking or i bring up topics of conversation or even do things that she was just thinking.
She gets creeped out by it all the time.

I used to wonder from when i was a teenager if i was picking up on others thoughts and feelings or was i projecting mine into them. I always just pondered this as a mystery and something kinda kewl i can do but left it at that. One example is i will be thinking of a song in my head and turn on the radio and boom here it is, or the classic phone ringing thing where i know its about to ring. Once when i was a dental assistant i told the doctor after looking at her list of patients, that the last 2 wont show. She said how do you know? and i just said i dont know how i know i just know. She laughed and thought i was nuts or just kidding and hell to tell ya the truth i wasnt convinced of it myself i just blurted it out without knowing why i did. Well it happened exactly as i said.

Other times i just feel things. I feel them intensely. Emotions dont run middle of the road for me or they used to not. If i experienced any emotion it was extreme. Anger was off the charts but so was love. And being hurt by someone was very very easy. I took everything very personal and experienced tremendous pain and loss over loosing people in my life due to walking out or death. I always know when someone is lying to me. My girlfriend absolutely hates this about me. She cannot embelish or try and cover up her feelings cause i see right through it. The funny thing is i am like this with everyone including people i have been around for 5 minutes. I get a "feeling" about someone immediately from being around them. I knwo if i can trust them or not. I know if they are good or bad i guess if you want to break it down to such simple terms athough it isnt so simple to describe. I just know somehow. The sad thing is.. i have met very very few people i feel good about. So i have the alienated thing going on for me as well. I keep people at a distance and i am fond for saying most people cannot be trusted.

I want very much to be able to have the kind of blind faith in people my exwife has but she is so trusting to the point of gullibility. Anyways not to diverge but all this in my life has led me to be just like another poster is, i have managed to turn off my feelings in order to coexist. I try not to feel anything highly anymore and as a result my sensitivity also has all but vanished. At times it pops up when i dont want it to. Personally i agree that we are all this way or could be. Some of us for somereason or another were just born this was with the ability already heightened but seeing as i have managed to control my emotions and my enviroment it has enabled me to turn it down but not off so i think the oopposite should also be true. When i want to be more perceptive i just listen. Listen to everything around me. Its like i can just feel myself opening up to experience something. Then without warning i just start feeling things again. I prefer the simple life and no excitement and my girlfriend is one who loves confrontation. I usually let her have her way because its easier this way. It keeps my life calm and ordered and i know what to expect.
Anyways thanks for this thread. I see alot of people out there are like me as well and it makes me feel better knowing it.

Peace to you all!!

reply to post by btyoung21


Hello, btyoung21

The question isn't an easy on to answer, though I can tell you that I experience the same issues. Precisely. I can identify with the HSP concept, though if this is provable and not just theory, I suppose I would have to submit to testing to find out for sure. And I believe you would too.

The thing I'd like to stress is that the label doesn't matter. HSP is another link to understanding a phenomenon that is growing among the populace. At one time people such as ourselves would be shamans or witches or medicine men. In modern society, we don't have much of an equivalent for position, but we do have names like crystal children, indigos, empaths, and so on.

Why is it growing? Why are there more of us? There is no definitive answer, but I would call it evolution.

Regardless of all the barking dogs here at ATS who would rather marginalize anyone who thinks the universe isn't as neat and orderly and understood as they do, it is real to those who experience. And therefore as real as reality.

Ya that's definitely me.

I find this "hypersensitivity" interesting.
Its relieving to find an accurate portrayal of my person which doesn't involve strange alien conspiracies or "indigo" children or something of that sort, I must say.
I didn't even think about it until I read it in the OP, but I spend almost all of my down time near running water. I wonder why that is?
Anyway, good post. And goodnight.

Most of these questions made me think of someone with a high prey drive.

I scored 13. Things like sensitivity to pain etc do not apply as I have sat down and stitched myself and even branded myself with an ink covered Chinese dragon when I was strange teen. Hey it is three dimensional unlike a tattoo!

I do prefer solitude and can read off people though. If a person is a hateful thing I know across the room whether it is posture, facial expression or what I do not know. Interesting thanks!

reply to post by seagrass


Ahh not really. I just didnt have time to fight with everybody today.

Over-sensitve people still bug the crap out of me, but I guess roughing you guys up a bit just makes you worse. Its a loose-loose situation. So I guess I will just let you all enjoy your oversenstivity for the day, and work each other up into a hypersensitivity frenzy until you decide it is great and you are all special. I hope you guys enjoy civilization because if we stilll lived by the rules of evolution you would have already been devoured.

It is amazing how much this thread parallels the one about people thinking they are aliens because they have social inadequecies. You know the one.. Many of you are aliens.

[edit on 6/4/2009 by justsomeboreddude]

Originally posted by justsomeboreddude
reply to post by seagrass

 

Ahh not really. I just didnt have time to fight with everybody today.

Over-sensitve people still bug the crap out of me, but I guess roughing you guys up a bit just makes you worse. Its a loose-loose situation. So I guess I will just let you all enjoy your oversenstivity for the day. I hope you guys enjoy civilization because if we stilll lived by the rules of evolution you would have already been devoured.

Somehow I already knew that. Funny, if there weren't sensitive people like us, we might not let certain people back in the cave. Both kinds are needed. Edited to say were needed.

[edit on 4-6-2009 by seagrass]

Originally posted by justsomeboreddude
reply to post by seagrass

 

Ahh not really. I just didnt have time to fight with everybody today.

It is a new day now by my clock with 22h 23m remaining.

Over-sensitve people still bug the crap out of me, but I guess roughing you guys up a bit just makes you worse. Its a loose-loose situation. So I guess I will just let you all enjoy your oversenstivity for the day.

And you can just go back to hitting on every prospective ATS female with a good sense of satire.

I hope you guys enjoy civilization because if we stilll lived by the rules of evolution you would have already been devoured.

The rules are about to change. You are about to be overruled and it is because of that sort of thinking that things have become such a disaster and history such a bloody mess.

reply to post by seagrass


LOL, its alright if you didnt let us back in the cave, we would just drag you out, barbeque you, and make a nice dinner out of it. But we would be glad you made the cave a nice environment, so we could relax after a good meal.


Wow, I wonder why I even scored a 3 on that test.

reply to post by EnlightenUp

The rules are about to change. You are about to be overruled and it is because of that sort of thinking that things have become such a disaster and history such a bloody mess.

The sad thing for you is that it will never change. The unsensitive will always rule. What are you guys going to do to change things, whine until we cant take it anymore and give up.

And you can just go back to hitting on every prospective ATS female with a good sense of satire.

I am just curious by this. Why did you say this? Who have you seen me hit on?

[edit on 6/4/2009 by justsomeboreddude]

Originally posted by justsomeboreddude
The sad thing for you is that it will never change. The unsensitive will always rule. What are you guys going to do to change things, whine until we cant take it anymore and give up.

No, we'll just wait until you "unsensitive" types devour yourselves in fits of fear induced insecurity. Which you all have been doing an excellent job at, so keep it up.

It takes time, but as well as being sensitive, we're also extremely patient

reply to post by TravelerintheDark


It is not about fear, it is about reality. We live in a universe that is the product of evolution. If evolution teaches us anything, it is that the strong survive and the weak fall into the abyss. Eat or be eaten. I dont really care if people are insensitive, until you get one too close and you have to walk on eggshells in fear of hurting their feelings. You cant even tell a good joke anymore without someone running off crying trying to get someone to protect them. People can be as sensitive as they want until they start making it everyone elses problem by thinking the rest of us should alter our behavior to spare their feelings.

I know you think you are right that ultimately you will win. This is only because we live in a country where he who whines the loudest wins. Eventually though, the rest of us will have had enough and then there will be a quick end to the problem.

[edit on 6/4/2009 by justsomeboreddude]

[edit on 6/4/2009 by justsomeboreddude]

...methinks the topic has turned to mass-cannibalism, lol.
See, this is what happens when we discuss our feelings; we eat each other alive. Nothing ever really changes; at least, the important things don't change. At the end of the day, people are still animals with more intelligence than they can readily handle. More so for the sensitive types, I think; have you ever noticed that us hypersensitive people tend to be more self-destructive? Most of the suicides, addicts, and drunks I've known were highly sensitive people, usually with vivid imaginations and a hightened sense of spirituality. I think the weight of intelligence is just too much for most of mankind.
The solution, then? Lobotomies for everyone!
Or is nature doing that for us? Some studies show that the average IQ is dropping rapidly, you know; I wonder sometimes if thats evolution kicking in to keep us from going extinct.
Anyhow, I'm rambling. I'll probably pop in later.

reply to post by Malfeitor


You are probably right that IQ's are falling fast. It is easily explained by the fact that many governments hand money out to stupid people that breed, while the rest of the responsible people have to limit the amount of children they have to make ends meet and to pay the ever increasing tax bill to support those that do not have the mental faculties to be responsible.

[edit on 6/4/2009 by justsomeboreddude]