The psychological community and the medical community are starting to understand that particularly sensitive people formulate trauma different, meaning; what might create trauma in a very highly sensitive person does not necessarily do that with a non-sensitive person.
Highly sensitive people (HSPs) are becoming more understood, more mainstream. HSPs make up a pretty large piece of the population, 20% and rising, world wide.
Trauma therapy and highly sensitive people:
Highly sensitive people tend to formulate or feel so many experiences as traumatic.
If you grew up in a family that did not understand this trait, certain experiences can feel traumatic, because there was no safety net. There was no understanding of you and how your process events:
Noise
Everyone else’s energy
Loss
Even the loss of a childhood friend due to just children not maintaining friendships can be devastating to a highly sensitive person. It’s sort of a collection of little traumas that happened all throughout childhood and teenage years. A highly sensitive person going to a large high school can be traumatic because it is too much stimulation. They are overwhelmed all day, so they start to develop digestion problems, anxiety disorders, depression, because they don’t know how to deal with all of that stimulation. On the outside, they had a normal high school experience, but on the inside it was something very different. These little traumas continue into adulthood if there is no understanding of this trait and how to manage it.
Yes, highly sensitive people have issues. Yes, they have past problems with relationships, but a big majority of the suffering with highly sensitive people is due to everyday things that they just don’t understand.
I specialize with women who are highly sensitive. I help shine a light on how this trait impacts women who are highly functioning and highly sensitive, living in an overstimulated world.
Are you a highly sensitive person?