What....

...defines a person as a HSP??

You see, I have always been majoryly sensitive - I mean, the slighteset thing will upset me, or make me angry.

I cry on a regular basis - weather its something on telly, or something I'm reading - even something someone has written can set me off (ie, on forums, emails etc) And I can't stop this.

I'm just wondering if I would be classed as a HSP - I mean, I feel like I am, but I'm not sure.

Thanks for listening

xxx

Wonderful question, Mel!

I have to agree with Rae'ya. If you feel that you are an HSP, then chances are you probably are one.

If you would like to know more about what 'defines' an HSP, then please have a look here:

Highly Sensitive People - Attributes and Characteristics

ooooh this sounds so like me to I'd never given it a second thought until now
after reading the attributes and characteristics of Highly Sensitive People.
I didn't even know it had a name.

One new thing learned today

Blessings
Aleia

I found a psychiatric self test online today - after taking this I am now sure I am a HSP.

I'm just so glad it has a name, and I'm not crazy!! lol!!

Thanks for this part of the forum Hun, means alot to finally know I'm not crazy!!

Love Ya

xxx

WOOT! I am so glad that Asphodel actually shed light on HSPs for me! I had no clue before she mentioned it that it even existed! It would probably be quite shocking to know just how many people qualify as an HSP!

And there really is no reason to ever feel crazy or abnormal for being this way! I often think that HSPs are the epitome of human, in fact. Feeling things as we are meant to feel them. The emotional beings that we are...I say embrace your nature and celebrate that you are not robotic and desensitized to all that stirs the feelings. *HUGS*

My word -

just like Aleia, I read the attributes and nodded at each section... it's me!!

There's a name for being so upset all the time!!!

And, for having an ultra sensitive sense of smell...

so many things just clunked into place!

Like Aleia and Dethas it sounds just like me, I'm very easily upset, although now I suppress my emotions unfotunately, I've learned to blank it out, to be honest I'd rather be able to cry

*HUGS* I'm sorry to hear that, Georgie!

I think that we often times feel 'abnormal' and so we see it as the lesser of two 'evils' to just block out our emotions in order to fit in with the rest of society (who usually see sensitivity as a flaw).

Unlearning that 'blocking out' is just as hard as learning to do it! But it can be done. Fortunately, there is now a greater awareness of HSPs and sensitive people in general...and so the stigma of 'being sensitive is bad' has begun to vanish.

I think that you'll find people less apt (today) to say that you're being emotional, hyper-sensitive (or even hormonal) and dramatic. People are starting to accept that our highly-developed feelings and emotions (though not human-specific) are a huge part of what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom!

The best advice that I can give you (and anyone) would be to consciously make an effort to embrace your emotions more often. If you get upset, (and this is not encouragement to make yourself ill with it, just to acknowledge it) take a moment of quiet time to be alone and allow yourself to feel 'upset'. Be conscious of how your physical body feels when you cry...how your head may pound or even how salty that your tears taste. Then give yourself conscious permission to feel this way...'it's okay to cry...it's okay for me to feel bad'.

You don't have to dwell on an emotion to embrace it. It's just that when we begin to deny ourselves permission to 'feel' in fear of being seen as 'hyper-sensitive' that we start to loose the capacity to feel anything at all.

*HUGS* I hope that this helps.

*HUGE HUGS* I'm proud of you, hun. It's sometimes hard to find 'yet another' thing that we 'are'...lol I know that it can seem like heaping on another ton of soil when there's already a mountain on our backs...but in reality, it's just another facet of what makes us 'us'.

I think that there are many many many more HSPs in the world than would readily admit it, too. I know a lot of jocks who used to go to my school were so often seemingly untouchable and protected by that ever-present hard exterior...but so many of them...you could watch their faces when something seeming inconsequential happened and you could see the hurt and the effort that it took for them to hide it.

I think, for me, it's hard on us (especially these days) to allow ourselves to feel. It's all about what we should do for our fellow man and anything directed towards ourselves...even a simple thing such as taking the time to get away from what stresses us...can be seen as selfish.

HSPs are fragile people and should take care of themselves first. Other people won't do it, that's for sure.

*HUGS* You rock. All of you do.

Mad Jack wrote:

HSPs are fragile people and should take care of themselves first.

True, but we're all here to support each other...

and if there's a problem, I'll sniff it out!