Are you Highly Sensitive?

Discover all the keys

Manuela Pérez Chacón

Antonio Chacón

Juan Moisés de la Serna

Translated by Nicoleta Nagy

Tektime Editorial

2021

“Are you Highly Sensitive? Discover all the keys”

Written by Manuela Pérez Chacón, Antonio Chacón and Juan Moisés de la Serna

Translated by Nicoleta Nagy

1st Edition: August 2021

Juan Moisés de la Serna, 2021

© Tektime Editions, 2021

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About the authors:

Manuela Pérez Chacón

Manuela Pérez Chacón, Degree in Psychology, PhD Interuniversity Program in Human Resources Psychology University of Seville, and University of Valencia. Specialist in Clinical Psychology. Specialist in Industrial Psychology. University Specialist in Special Education: Therapeutic Pedagogy. Professional expert in psychological disorders in children and adolescents. Master’s Degree in Occupational Risk Prevention, Safety, Hygiene, Ergonomics and Psychosociology.

Psychology professional with more than 10 years of experience in the area of health and prevention of psychosocial risks. Specialized in clinical therapeutic intervention and work psychology. Expert in Children and Youth Psychological Disorders. Founding member of the Infant-Juvenile Mental Health Unit of Puerta del Sur Hospital (USMIJ - Jerez Clinic). Gold Medal for Professional Merit awarded by the General Council of Industrial Relations and Labour Sciences, PREVER Awards 2018, for her research in the field of Psychosocial Risks in Organizations. Collegiate member of the Official College of Psychologists of Western Andalusia number AN-06014.

President of the Spanish Association of High Sensitivity Professionals (HSP Spain). Psychologist specialized in HSP (highly sensitive people) and referenced in Spain as an expert in High Sensitivity. Disseminator and lecturer specialized in Child Psychology and Sensory Processing Sensitivity in children. First Spanish person certified as a specialized psychologist in High Sensitivity. (Acknowledged Professional by Elaine Aron). She has had interviews with well-known media such as Cadena SER, La1 of RTVE and El País.

Antonio Chacón

Expert in psychosocial risks with 15 years of experience in Third Party Prevention Services (SPA). PhD in Human Resources Psychology (University of Seville). Assistant Professor in the Master’s Degree Program for Occupational Risk Prevention and in the Master’s Degree Program for Integrated Systems (Universidad International de La Rioja – UNIR).

Founder of the Association of Psychologists and Professionals of High Sensitivity (PAS Spain). Awarded with the Cross of Honor by Safety and Health at Work and with the Gold Medal by the Europe Forum for Professional Prestige. Disseminator of the Trait of High Sensitivity in Organizations.

Juan Moisés de la Serna

PhD in Psychology and Master’s Degree in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. University professor.

Now his research focuses on the potential factors influencing with COVID-19 and on the short and long term psychological and neurological complications after being infected with SARS-CoV-2, in humans.

According to researchgate.net the most widely read author in Spain in 2020.

Scientific disseminator with more than thirty published books on Psychology and Neuroscience topics including AD; PS; ASD; ADHD; EQ; MSD; HIQ.

PROLOGUE

If you suspect that you may be a highly sensitive person, these pages will clear your doubts. This book is meant to be informative and support those of us who work “helping” others, as well as a call to parents, bosses or educators who interact with highly sensitive people.

First of all, we need to clarify that we all are sensitive, to a greater or lesser degree, but there is also a percentage of people who are highly sensitive, a factor that needs to be taken into consideration when educating, dealing with others, and living together.

The book is intended to make it easier for you to identify whether you possess the trait of high sensitivity, it is also essential to identify this trait in others since you could be a mother, father or brother of a highly sensitive person, or husband, teacher, or co-worker.

Contents

About the authors:

PROLOGUE

Chapter 1 Introduction to High Sensitivity

1.1. Defining High Sensitivity.

1.2. The Profile of the Highly Sensitive Person

» Angela, 38-year-old employee

1.3. Is there a genetic component in high sensitivity?

References

Chapter 2. Identifying High Sensitivity

2.1. Differences and similarities between High Sensitivity and High Capacity

2.2. The brain development in the High Sensitivity

» Leo, 40 years old retired

2.3. Emotional processing in High Sensitivity

References

Chapter 3. How to be Highly Sensitive and not die trying

3.1. Self-Esteem and High Sensitivity

3.2. Decision-making and High Sensitivity

» Marcos, 17-years old student

3.3. Shyness and High Sensitivity

3.4. Self-criticism and High Sensitivity

» Gabriela 7-year-old student

3.5. Social relations and High Sensitivity

References

Conclusions

Chapter 1 Introduction to High Sensitivity

With these pages the authors hope that you will be able to identify the traits of high sensitivity as well as the psychological consequences. In this book you will find valuable experiences, studies, and scientific bases.

The experiences of highly sensitive people are without a doubt very useful examples to increase awareness among those interested in high sensitivity, for the importance of going to professionals specialized in this subject, whether psychologists, counsellors, pediatricians, and psychiatrists trained in High Sensitivity who will be able to offer solutions to the problems that may arise.

The reader should keep in mind that being highly sensitive is not similar to having a disorder, although it may be accompanied by certain difficulties which must be addressed properly.

Becoming aware of the existence of the High Sensitivity Trait among the people around us is as important as knowing who to turn to when we want or need solutions.

1.1. Defining High Sensitivity.

While the highly sensitive person is currently considered to possess an underlying innate trait, based on several characteristics that encompass a special cognitive ability to process information, awareness of subtle stimuli, emotional reactivity and easily over-stimulated, this concept has changed over time.

It should be noted that it has not been until the emergence of psychology as a science in which knowledge about the cognitive characteristics of the person begins to be studied and systematized.

Once knowledge evolved it began to be concerned with the particular cases not present throughout the entire population, while knowledge about psychopathology evolved and it was effectively intervened.

One of the best-known advances was the emergence of the concept of IQ, a measure of the ability to resolve a series of tests, designed and prepared by psychologists, which follow strict control standards, established by psychometry so that the results are valid and reliable for the population to which they are applied.

It can predict the level of academic success, and thus also the professional future of the students, long before they are able to be aware of their skills; it is also used in staff selection, to find the ideal candidate for the position, who does not have to be the best qualified, nor the one with the most experience.

While the IQ has been equated to the very concept of intelligence, it has been questioned over time, understanding that it is not a unitary thing but that there are various intelligences such as spatial intelligence, verbal intelligence, mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, …

The evolution of the concept of intelligence has allowed to analyze different aspects of the human being that until then had not been contemplated such as the least or the greatest stimuli processing capacity.

Thus, during the first half of the twentieth century Dabrowski (1948) developed the Theory of Emotional Development to explain qualitatively different levels of human development, which he called The Theory of Positive Disintegration.

This theory tries to explain certain differentiating cognitive characteristics, such as hypersensitivity or the high level of concentration and abstraction demonstrated by certain people, establishing five levels: primary integration, one level disintegration, spontaneous multilevel disintegration, organized multilevel disintegration, and finally secondary integration.

The concept of over-excitability which refers to the inherited trait continues to be used from this theory, therefor the greater the over-excitability the greater the capacity and the power of development.

The author indicates that over-excitability can be seen in five areas: psychomotor, emotional, intellectual, sensitive, and imaginative, that is to say, these are the areas where it could stand out.

1.2. The Profile of the Highly Sensitive Person

At the present moment, a lot of research supports the existence of a particular way of feeling, thinking and interacting, thus it has been estimated that High Sensitivity is present in approximately 20% of the population (Aron and Aron, 1997), the highly sensitive person being given the acronym HSP and highly sensitive children HSC, who have a peculiar way of processing information and are also very creative, but as a counterpoint can experience high levels of stress very easily so sometimes they avoid certain social activities.

Among the characteristics of these people, it is found that they are good observers, they look even at the most subtle details, they also feel more bothered than the rest in the face of high levels of stimulation, such as noise and crowds, showing strong emotional responses, in addition approximately 70% are introverted.

As for gender there are as many sensitive men as there are women (Aron,1996), and although the presence of testosterone can have some later effect, the culture in which they live is the one that will make a difference in their sensitivity, since in some cultures men are forced to hide their sensitivity to look more like a typical man and avoid social problems.

While high sensitivity has so far been talked about as if it were a unique feature, some research has suggested that within this group it is possible to distinguish three groups of environmental sensitivity evidenced by the highly sensitive child scale and identification of sensitivity groups, published in Developmental Psychology (Pluess, 2017).

This instrument distinguishes the highly sensitive population, approximately 25 to 35%, from those with an intermediate sensitivity, between 41 and 47%; and those with low sensitivity between 20 and 35%.

It should be noted that there are many qualities that are visible and latent in a highly sensitive person, for example, they possess artistic talent linked to the creativity they manifest. Professionals or amateurs, the HSP demonstrate passion for some kind of art, whether musical, architectural, pictorial, etc., so it is common that they express themselves with phrases such as, “I could not live without my paintings” or “I am deeply in love with jazz since I was very young”.

Their social relationships can also be fruitful if they want, since highly sensitive people are more aware of the thoughts and emotions of others, thus obtaining more information from the nonverbal language of the other person and become more intuitive, being able to guess what the other thinks or feels at a given time. This gives them the virtue of understanding the other person or knowing if they are lying for example, this is evidenced by phrases like “I fully understand how my child feels” or “What happened hurts me as much as it hurts them”.

Any personal relationship can be very fruitful for a HSP since they are thoughtful and act more attentively and conscientiously, evaluating future causes and consequences and they not only care about others and society, but they also care about the environment. The mind of a HSP analyzes the process of how things came to be how they are, what will happen depending on the action, so they have reflections like, “what will happen if I do not approve everything in June” or “what would happen if everyone had electric cars”.

HSP are usually considerate people, due to their great empathy, because they learn naturally to understand how the other feels and develop a considerate and sometimes suggestive way of addressing others, being able to express themselves with phrases such as, “Is it okay if we do so?” or “I suggest everyone give their opinion”.

Other qualities of highly sensitive people are the harmony with nature, animals, the beach, or plants. Highly sensitive people discover that nature has an effect on them that transmits them calm and relaxation.

The High Sensitivity or Sensitivity of Sensory Processing is expressed as an awareness of the subtleties of stimuli, and the excess of stimuli manifests in their behaviour. This extreme sensitivity can be associated with perfectionism, the intense and excessive way to generate ideas and vulnerability to noises, smells, or textures. We can relate it to creativity, the ability to understand others and feel what others feel, the sense of justice, and respect for the other person.

Dabrowski observed how creative people showed higher levels of empathy, moral responsibility, self-reflection, and sensitivity. During times of crisis, they show symptoms related to internal conflict, feelings of inferiority, guilt, anxiety, or hopelessness.

Other more current research (Aron, Aron and Jagiellowicz, 2012) has shown that what we previously thought was introversion, shyness, empathy, hyperactivity, creativity, and other behavioural factors, when they come together in the same person and are shown to have been born with them, form a trait that has been called the Trait of the highly sensitive person. Although people born with this trait have a lot in common, each one also has their uniqueness and above all, each forms their personality depending on the life that they live.

The main characteristics of the highly sensitive person, present from birth and lasting throughout the existence of the individual, affecting in turn all areas of their life are as follows (Aron, 2010):

1. Depth of cognitive processing. It is the most peculiar trait of the HSP, although it cannot be directly observed it is inferred from their behavior, and inferred from their thinking.

An indicator of this appears as a deep and intense reflection on each new situation in the subject’s life, collecting a lot of information from around them and thinking about it deeply before acting, which leads them to arduous decision-making and requires more reaction time for each task.

This reflection leads to a stronger emotional reaction, where everything else affects them, they also manage to generate unusual and creative ideas due to this passionate and underlying way of processing information. They can also show a surprising degree of knowledge about themselves or others, a sense of long-term consequences and a great capacity for cognitive interpretation in the face of conversations or tasks.

2. Over-stimulation. For the HSP the high level of stimulation leads them to high levels of arousal, so at the environmental level, they feel more stressed by noise, chaotic situations, meeting deadlines, etc.

Regarding social stimulation, they feel more emotionally affected by perceiving more the details of the environment, which manifests itself by showing unusual nervousness, ongoing complaints, or problems with changes.

In cases where very high levels of arousal occur, this will be reflected in an increase in the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, generating a fight-flight response and thus causing discomfort and poor performance, since cognitive ability decreases generating confusion or affecting short-term memory, which can occur for example when doing tests, speaking in public, talking to strangers, playing sports, or are observed during a workout.

3. Emotional reactivity. Highly sensitive people have a greater ability to respond emotionally to every event in life, i.e., they feel more intensely positive and negative emotions, as well as being characterized by their inevitable feeling of empathy for others.

HSP are very sentimental people, who are excited about many things, and can present nostalgia of the past, feel compassion for the most disadvantaged, or cry more easily of joy, sadness or simply gratitude, they can also be more tending to be affectionate, to laughter, to subtle irony or to find in some kind of artistic creation the meaning of many things.

Emotional intensity as an indication of high sensitivity can be observed in exaggerated behaviours, in which the person appears to be at the end of the emotion generated, manifesting an eye-catching or “antisocial” lack of emotional regulation.

4. Sensory Sensitivity. Highly sensitive people notice subtle details that other people overlook, such as signs of nonverbal communication or small changes in a place, so sensory sensitivity arises from the processing of stimuli, not from the sense organs themselves, and such sensitivity is expressed in such a way that the individual is more impacted by the entry of sensory stimuli, such as annoying lights, intense odours, unforeseen noises, or rough textures.

In certain cases, it can also manifest itself as a low sensory threshold, with the ability to differentiate subtle sensations or with a low tolerance to the entry of sensory stimuli. It should be noted that when talking about perceived sensory stimuli, we mean both positive and negative. An individual may not tolerate the smell of a certain perfume, be able to distinguish the ingredients when trying a new food, or always wear sunglasses to protect themselves from the light they consider intense.

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