Are you a highly sensitive person? Take the test below and see, then continue reading.
A Highly Sensitve Self-Test
Answer each question according to the way you personally feel.
Check each statement if it is at least somewhat true for you; leave unchecked if it is not very true or not at all true for you.
| I seem to be aware of subtleties in my environment. | |
| Other people’s moods affect me. | |
| I find myself needing to withdraw during busy days, into bed or into a darkened room or any place where I can have some privacy. | |
| I am particularly sensitive to the effects of caffeine. | |
| I am easily overwhelmed by things like bright lights, strong smells, coarse fabrics, or sirens close by. | |
| I have a rich, complex inner life. | |
| I am deeply moved by the arts or music. | |
| My nervous system sometimes feels so frazzled that I just have to go off by myself. | |
| I have a strong intuition. | |
| I get rattled when I have a lot to do in a short amount of time. | |
| I tend to know what needs to be done to make people comfortable (like changing the lighting or the seating). | |
| I am annoyed when people try to get me to do too many things at once. | |
| I try hard to avoid making mistakes or forgetting things. | |
| I make a point to avoid violent movies and TV shows. | |
| I become unpleasantly aroused when a lot is going on around me. | |
| I find it unpleasant to have a lot going on at once. | |
| I feel other peoples feelings and take them on as my own | |
| As a child, I was labeled sensitive or shy |
Growing up as a highly sensitive child you may find yourself today feeling less than as an adult because
those around you as a child didn’t understand you and from their comments you believed something must be wrong with you.
You couldn’t explain yourself to them or yourself because you didn’t understand why you were so deeply affected
by your environment.
As a HS child, feeling different you might decide that you are not measuring up
to the rest of the people around you and therefore something must be wrong with you.
You try to fit in with your peers, your culture, your family, only ending up making yourself feel worse,
because now you don’t like the way you are and you can’t be like them. You try not to be so upset about injustice,
the news, someone close to you feeling pain or the overwhelm of to much inner or outer stimulation.
Some cultures aren’t always about honoring sensitivity, so you may feel
weaker and less stable than those around you who appear to be handling life events better.
Notice I said “appear” in the previous sentence.
I am a highly sensitive person who felt different and less than her whole childhood and into some of my adulthood.
I kept thinking, why am I not like them?. How can I be like them?
I laugh now writing this thinking about this screwball perspective I had and yet, know I didn’t know better.
No one around me knew about HSP and those who were HSP didn’t want to be different, so they wouldn’t say anything.
As an adult life coach and with knowledge of HSP I see how individual sensitivities has hurt many children’s self
esteem, confidence, sense of security, sense of well-being and ability to feel successful in their life as children and adults.
I see HSPs who self medicate in order to not feel their pain (self hatred, weakness/fear, abandonment, unworthiness…)and order to fit in.
I see HSPs who become perfectionist trying to live up to everyone else’s expectations find and feel needed and loved.
I see HSPs who are depressed, closed off from the world, feeling safer alone but painfully lonely and feeling unworthy or unloveable.
I have grown to appreciate and honor my sensitivities as I hope you will with knowledge
and gain compassion for yourself and those who did’nt know better.
A LOT of the children who have been being born around 1980 and on are HSP.
The truth is we process things more deeply than others who are not highly sensitive.
Some of the ways we contribute:
We are the counter balance to the development of a society that doesn’t take into account feelings.
We are strongly intuitive and creative adding richness to our societies, culture and planet.
We are great humanitarians, healers & visionaries.
We are very fast at reading other peoples and environmental energy.
Once you understand yourself as a HSP and how to take care of yourself you will
feel empowered and in alignment with who you really are, building your self-confidence,
self-esteem, values, contributions and release the old negative, disempowering beliefs you
held about yourself from childhood.
You will be amazed at how many other HSPs there are in the world.
I am a passionate highly functioning HSP living an exciting, happy, loving and fulfilling life and you can be one too!
Let me know how I can help you further understand this topic.
Resources:
Life Mastery Coach & HSP
Marilyn O’Malley, CPCC 805 275-4153 CoachMarilyn@yahoo.com
Elaine Aron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person and The Highly Sensitive Child,
as well as The Highly Sensitive Person Workbook and …
www.hsperson.com/
