Top 5 characteristics of highly sensitive people

These are the most important distinguishing characteristics of highly sensitive people.

In psychology there are a whole series of concepts that serve to describe patterns of behavior and predispositions when it comes to thinking and feeling.

A clear example of this can be found in the personality traits proposed in models such as the Big Five, in which five dimensions are proposed to explain in general terms how people behave: some have a tendency towards neuroticism, others are open to new experiences, and so on.

However, the concepts formulated by psychology need not be limited to putting into words the most general aspects of human behavior and the way in which people adopt one lifestyle or another.

There are also some that serve, specifically, to understand how some people process the information that reaches them from the outside, their way of experiencing stimuli. This is the case of the concept of "highly sensitive people", associated with Sensory Processing Sensitivity.

In this article you will find a summary of the characteristics of highly sensitive people.

What is sensitivity in psychology?

The nervous system is, above all, a set of organs that have evolved to help us adapt to changing situations and new challenges. That is why the only forms of life that possess a nervous system have the capacity to moveThe nervous system is not present in plants, while those that do not move because they tend to remain fixed in one place, such as plants or fungi, do not have one.

However, the fact of having a nervous system implies having the capacity to react relatively quickly to certain events that occur around us. Thus, in this type of structures of the organism, neurons serve, among other things, to associate the uptake of certain signals with the emission of certain behaviors. Thus, the nervous system develops sensitivity thresholds: if a stimulus is sufficiently intense, it will trigger a certain reaction, and if it is not, it will not.

These kinds of mechanisms are actually more complex than this simple explanatory scheme, but they are generally found in all living beings with a nervous system, including humans. Yes, as much as we have possibly the most complex brain in the animal kingdom and the ability to voluntarily repress certain impulses, it is still true that when a stimulus exceeds our threshold of sensitivity, our nervous system starts to function differently. when a stimulus exceeds our threshold of sensitivity, our nervous system starts to function in a different way for a few moments, even if this is hardly reflected in our observable behavior. for a few moments, even if this is hardly reflected in our externally observable behavior.

Thus, the phenomenon of sensitivity has a facet related to thoughts and emotions, that is, related to psychology: it is not a mechanism that is studied only by the sciences of neurology or physiology.

Taking this into account, it is easier to understand that there are what are known as highly sensitive people. These are individuals with an extraordinarily low sensitivity threshold.The trait of a person with a high predisposition to enter into a different physiological and psychological state from a stimulus that in other people would not cause any reaction.

Almost all psychological traits have a normal distribution in the population, with cases of people in which they are highly developed and others in which they are very poorly developed, and the majority of individuals with a degree of development of that trait that is close to the average. It is part of the workings of genetics and Biological evolution, which does not imply that people at the extremes of this Gaussian bell will necessarily have mental health problems. This is also true of sensitivity to stimuli.

What are the characteristics of highly sensitive people?

As we have seen, highly sensitive people are characterized by their predisposition to feel with significant intensity those experiences linked to sensory stimuli that other people would find very subtle or barely noticeable.

However, their sensitivity is not limited to the purely sensory (sounds, images, tactile sensations, etc.). (sounds, images, tactile sensations...) but goes beyond that and also includes relatively complex thoughts. For example, those that have to do with empathy: the fact of imagining very vividly the emotional state of another person, to the point of feeling something very similar to it.

Thus, the characteristics of highly sensitive people are as follows.

1. Predisposition to feel emotionally saturated

One of the characteristics of highly sensitive people that most affects their day-to-day lives is their tendency to feel that their emotions are getting the better of them, needing a moment to compose themselves..

This occurs, for example, when working under pressure or managing complex personal relationships.

2. Predisposition to empathy

As we have seen, empathy plays an important role in the lives of highly sensitive people: they are "infected" by sadness, joy, anxiety, and other emotional states with greater ease and intensity, regardless of their will. That is why they are generally more predisposed to help and collaborate.

3. They experience moments of marked introspection.

Highly sensitive people generally have a tendency to moments of introspection, in the sense that they focus on their thoughts, turning their attention away from the world around them in an attempt to organize and manage their feelings.

However, this does not imply that they are introverted, this does not imply that they are introverted people in general.They can be extraverted, but with moments of a marked need to focus on their thoughts and nothing else, in solitude.

4. Tendency to creativity

As highly sensitive people pick up on many nuances in what they see around them, they have a lot of "raw material" with which to work.They have a lot of "raw material" with which to be creative, even spontaneously and unintentionally.

Do they require psychological treatment?

It is perfectly possible to be a highly sensitive person and have a good mental health and a satisfying life..

However, it is true that they are more exposed to certain risks and emotional problems than the rest of the population. For example: emotional instability in a crisis, complicated bereavement after the death of a family member, post-traumatic stress...

These are psychological alterations that arise when combining personal predispositions with certain life events. In such cases, it is important to seek professional help in therapy.

Do you want to have professional psychotherapeutic support?

If you are considering improving your emotional well-being by attending psychological therapy, we invite you to contact our team of professionals.

At Psychological Center Cepsim we have more than two decades of experience working in the field of mental health, and we can help you with problems such as poor management of emotions, trauma, anxiety disorders, depression, and other forms of psychological disorders that wear down the quality of life. You can find us in Madrid, and we also offer online therapy.