Understanding the Highly Sensitive Person
People are finding relief in a personality trait that explains their extreme sensitivity (myself included)
Whenever there’s a thunderstorm, I reflexively reach to cover my ears. I’m 29, and this is something I’m generally embarrassed by. It’s also the only life I’ve known. My parents say that a tropical storm rolled through the region during my first birthday party, and I howled the whole way through. I was a sensitive kid, and though I’m less reserved now, I am also a sensitive adult: I flinch at sudden noise, avoid horror movies, and soak up the energy of people’s moods around me with an intensity that overwhelms and distracts me from anything else I’m trying to focus on.
I discovered psychologist Elaine Aron’s 1996 book The Highly Sensitive Person when I was in college, and in internet parlance, I had never felt so seen. The highly sensitive person as a psychological concept was first introduced to the general public through the book before most clinical psychologists had heard of it. The 27-part questionnaire Aron created determines your level of sensitivity with questions that range from specific (“Do you make a point to avoid violent movies and TV shows?”) to broad (“Are you conscientious?”).
