The 5 Main Characteristics Of Highly Sensitive People
In Psychology there are a whole series of concepts that serve to describe patterns of behavior and predispositions when thinking and feeling.
We have a clear example of this in the personality traits proposed in models such as the Big Five, in which five dimensions are proposed through which to explain in general terms how people behave: some have a tendency towards neuroticism, others are open to new experiences, etc.
However, the concepts formulated by Psychology do not have to be limited to expressing in words the most general aspects of human behavior and the way in which people adopt one lifestyle or another.
There are also some that serve, specifically, to understand how some people process the information that comes to them from the outside, their way of experiencing stimuli. This is the case of the concept of “highly sensitive people”, associated with the concept of Sensitivity to Sensory Processing.
In this article you will find a summary about the characteristics of highly sensitive people
The nervous system is, above all, a set of organs that have evolved to help us adapt to changing situations and new challenges. That is why The only life forms that have a nervous system have the ability to move while those that do not move because they tend to remain fixed in one place, such as plants or fungi, do not have it.
Now, having a nervous system implies having the ability to react relatively quickly to certain events that occur around us. Thus, in this type of body structures, neurons serve, among other things, to associate the capture of certain signals with the emission of certain behaviors. Thus, the nervous system develops sensitivity thresholds: if a stimulus is intense enough, it will activate a certain reaction, and if it is not, it will not.
These kinds of mechanisms are actually more complex than this simple explanatory scheme, but they generally apply to all living beings with a nervous system, including humans. Yeah; Although we may have the most complex brain in the animal kingdom and we have the ability to voluntarily repress certain impulses, it is still true that When a stimulus exceeds our sensitivity threshold, our nervous system begins to function in a different way for a few moments, even if that is barely reflected in our externally observable behavior.
Thus, the phenomenon of sensitivity has a facet related to thoughts and emotions, that is, related to psychology: it is not a mechanism that is studied only by the sciences of Neurology or Physiology.
Taking that into account, it is easier to understand that there are what are known as highly sensitive people. These are individuals with an extraordinarily low sensitivity threshold that is, with a great predisposition to enter a different physiological and psychological state from a stimulus that in other people would not cause any reaction.
Almost all psychological traits have a normal distribution in the population, with cases of people in whom they are highly developed and others in which they are very poorly developed, and the majority of individuals with a degree of development of that trait that is close to average. It is part of the functioning of genetics and biological evolution, which does not imply that people at the extremes of that Gaussian bell will necessarily have mental health problems. This also happens with sensitivity to stimuli.
What are the characteristics of highly sensitive people?
As we have seen, highly sensitive people are characterized by their predisposition to feel with significant intensity those experiences linked to sensory stimuli that other people would find very subtle or barely noticeable.
However, His sensitivity is not limited only to the purely sensory (sounds, images, tactile sensations…) but goes a little further and also includes relatively complex thoughts. For example, those that have to do with empathy: the fact of very vividly imagining the emotional state of another person, to the point of feeling something very similar to them.
Thus, the characteristics of highly sensitive people are the following.
1. Predisposition to feel emotionally saturated
One of the characteristics of highly sensitive people that most affects their daily lives is your tendency to feel that your emotions are overwhelming you, needing a moment to compose yourself
This occurs, for example, when working under pressure or managing complex personal relationships.
2. Predisposition to empathy
As we have seen, empathy plays an important role in the lives of highly sensitive people: They are “infected” by sadness, happiness, anxiety and other emotional states more easily and intensity, regardless of their will. That is why they are generally more willing to help and collaborate.
3. They experience moments of marked introspection
Highly sensitive people generally have a tendency toward moments of introspection, in the sense that they focus on their thoughts, taking their attention away from the world around them, to try to organize and manage their feelings.
However, This does not imply that they are introverted people in general ; They can be extraverted, but with moments of a marked need to focus on their thoughts and nothing else, in solitude.
4. Tendency towards creativity
Like highly sensitive people They pick up many nuances in what they see around them they have a lot of “raw material” with which to be creative, even spontaneously and without intending to.
Do they require psychological treatment?
It is perfectly possible to be a highly sensitive person and have good mental health and a fulfilling life
Now, it is true that they are more exposed to certain risks and emotional problems than the rest of the population. For example: emotional instability in the face of a crisis, complicated grief following the death of a family member, post-traumatic stress…
These are psychological alterations that arise when personal predispositions are combined with certain life events. In cases like this, it is important to seek professional help in therapy.
Do you want to have professional psychotherapeutic support?
If you are considering improving your emotional well-being by attending psychological therapy, we invite you to contact our team of professionals.
In Cepsim Psychological Center We have more than two decades of experience working in the field of mental health, and we can help you with problems such as poor management of emotions, trauma, anxiety disorders, depression, and other forms of psychological disorders that wear you down. quality of life. You can find us in Madrid, and we also offer online therapy.
