A highly sensitive person (HSP) is a person having the innate trait of high sensitivity (or innate sensitiveness as Carl Gustav Jung originally coined it). According to Elaine N. Aron and colleagues as well as other researchers, highly sensitive people, which would represent about a fifth of the population, process sensory data much more deeply and thoroughly due to a biological difference in their nervous systems. This is a specific trait with key consequences that in the past has often been confused with innate shyness, inhibitedness, innate fearfulness, introversion, and so on. The existence of the trait of innate sensitivity was demonstrated using a test that was shown to have both internal and external validity.

According to this article, there are 22 signs you are a highly sensitive person. The most interesting part of this read is that not long ago, highly sensitive people were considered shy, introvert and/or fearful. It’s fascinating how science has the ability to change our perspectives on things and even on people. Someone who continuously feels overwhelmed by the world, or by his/her life used to be thought of (and is still thought of by some people) as shy, weird, a loner or innately introvert but thanks to new research the behavioral signs of HSP are no longer interpreted as sure signs of psychological or social problems.

Is anyone reading this a HSP?