YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Greetings all:

I'm starting this new thread in response to another conversation http://mentalpod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=11795.

For anyone not familiar with the term Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), aka Sensory Processing Sensitivity, here's a brief definition from Wikipedia:

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a personality trait characterized by a high level of sensitivity to external stimuli. The trait tends to correlate with a greater depth of cognitive processing and high emotional reactivity. A human with a particularly high measure of SPS is considered to be a highly sensitive person (HSP). The terms SPS and HSP were coined in the mid-1990s by psychologists Elaine Aron and husband Arthur Aron, with SPS being measured by Aron's Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS) questionnaire. Other researchers have applied various other terms to denote this responsiveness to stimuli that is evidenced in humans and other species.

According to the Arons and colleagues, people with high SPS make up about 15–20% of the population and are thought to process sensory data more deeply due to the nature of their central nervous system. Although many researchers consistently related high SPS to negative outcomes, Aron and colleagues state that high SPS is a personality trait and not a disorder; other researchers have associated it with increased responsiveness to both positive and negative influences

Think you or someone you know might be HSP? Take the test here: http://hsperson.com/test/highly-sensitive-test/

Hi, not ready yet!
I actually just stumbled across this topic while researching ADHD and really identify with both ADHD and HSP. My story is dramatic right from the beginning. Very emotional. I am now 27 and just starting therapy so I'm new to the mental health awareness community.
As a kid, everything made me cry. I took everything personally and always felt there was something wrong with me. I had periods of depression mixed in from as early as I can remember. To be honest, I can identify with a bunch of mental illnesses and am yet to be diagnosed. Bipolar 2, (definitely don't experience full mania), ADHD, Aspergers, and for a time I thought maybe borderline. I also have misophonia and have sensory issues with things like lights and smells.
I am curious how HSP links up with other issues, like aspergers.
To try to sum up how whatever I do have affects me today, I can recall an instance at work when I was talking to my boss. He has a dry sense of humor and likes to poke fun at people (it's his normal behavior and I KNOW he actually cares about me and doesn't mean harm). He teased me one day the same way he usually does and I went home and cried for two hours straight, and it took a few days to come out of that depression. I knew it was an overreaction but felt powerless to control it. I wonder if any of what I said makes sense to you or if I just rambled a bunch of nonsense. How about you, what's your story?

I thought of another instance of how being highly sensitive appears in my daily life. So I work third shift alone and sometimes I will walk to the glass entry door at my shop to peek around and see if there's a bunny eating the corn I put out for it. If I do see one I get extremely excited, try to control my flapping so he doesn't see me, and if he does see me and hops away I am devastated and I try to tell him that I won't hurt him and to come back. I love animals so much

Loud noises - leaf blowers, horn honking, motorcycles, bus air brakes, subway screeches, unwanted TV audio all really get to me.

Been keeping soft earplugs in various pockets, in the car and around the house for when they're needed. Takes the edge off and gives a little control over the situation.

So, I just saw the "Sensitive" documentary last night, and it's very well done. I see myself in much of this. And it's interesting to note that it's not a syndrome or a problem, but it's a biological characteristic shared by about 20% of the population, and also found in animals.
Good to know!

Web Page
https://sensitivethemovie.com/

Trailer and scenes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXlOyGuvfVE&t=63s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxMDmLEOWkQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZunaxAu5AxU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qep36Vy_0pE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csccAWGILDU