What It Means to Be a Highly Sensitive Person
Do crowds drain you? Do you tear up the second someone else does? In this ShrinkChicks episode, Em and Jen explain what it means to be a highly sensitive person (HSP), how it differs from being an empath, and how to stop fighting your sensitivity and start working with it.
Listen to the episode
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube
Watch the video
In this episode
- A working definition of a highly sensitive person
- HSP vs. empath: sensitivity to the environment vs. absorbing others' emotions
- How overstimulation can look like social anxiety
- Telling the difference between someone else's feelings and what they bring up in you
- Balancing outward attunement with inward attunement to prevent burnout
- How to share your sensitivity without asking others to tiptoe around you
HSP vs. empath
The hosts explain that highly sensitive people have a heightened awareness of the stimuli around them. They may be bothered by violence, become overwhelmed easily, and need more time to take in information. They are often creative and deeply empathetic. Empaths share many of these qualities but may have stronger intuition and tend to absorb other people's emotions "like sponges."
What it looks like
A loud, crowded room can leave an HSP agitated or shut down. A long social event can feel like social anxiety when it is really overstimulation. Without understanding that about yourself, it is easy to feel "other" and to judge yourself for struggling with things that seem easy for everyone else.
Working with your sensitivity, not against it
Jen describes how accepting her sensitivity changed things: letting herself tear up instead of fighting it, and naming it to the people close to her. A former therapist's advice stayed with her: notice the difference between someone else's emotion and what it is stirring up in you.
The antidote to emotional burnout is balance. If you are naturally tuned in to everything outside of you, practice tuning in to what is happening inside, then set boundaries based on what you find, whether that is stepping away for a few minutes or building in recovery time after a big event.
Sensitivity is not a rule for everyone else
Being highly sensitive is worth communicating, but it does not mean others must tiptoe around you. You can say, "That hurt, and I need time to process," and still take responsibility for caring for that part of yourself.
Video chapters
- 3:50 Why we're talking about sensitivity
- 4:10 Highly sensitive person vs. empath
- 6:40 What being an HSP looks like day to day
- 8:55 Is being an empath real?
- 10:10 Can I change how easily I cry?
- 13:25 Emotional burnout from feeling everything
- 18:35 When a parent is highly sensitive
Frequently asked questions
What is a highly sensitive person?
A highly sensitive person has a heightened awareness of sensory and emotional input, can become overstimulated more easily, and often processes information deeply. It is a trait, not a diagnosis.
What is the difference between an HSP and an empath?
HSPs are especially sensitive to their environment and social input. Empaths share that sensitivity and also tend to strongly absorb other people's emotions.
How do highly sensitive people avoid burnout?
By paying as much attention to their own internal state as they do to their surroundings, building in breaks and recovery time, and setting boundaries around overstimulating situations.
Want support with this?
Em and Jen founded The Therapy Group, a relational therapy practice offering in-person therapy in Philadelphia and West Chester, PA, plus virtual sessions. Our team personally matches you with a therapist who fits what you are working on, for individuals, couples, and families.
Related episodes
- What Is High-Functioning Codependency? with Terri Cole
- The Fawn Response: When People-Pleasing Is a Trauma Response
ShrinkChicks is for education and entertainment and is not a substitute for therapy or medical advice. If you are in crisis in the U.S., call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.