Depressive thinking can accompany being a high sensitivity personality
Intuitive HSPs go to dark places
In her article Growing Up Gifted Is Not Easy, Elaine Aron, PhD [left] talks about this dark aspect of sensitivity.
“Early in my research on sensitivity — while I was studying its relationship to introversion and the four Jungian functions of sensing, thinking, feeling, and intuition — I discovered several studies reporting that intuitive types are the most likely to have suicidal thoughts when they are depressed,” she writes.
“This makes great sense–intuitive types tend to take things to their full conclusion, often without knowing the steps of reasoning that got them there. HSPs are often intuitive types (or else introverts, who tend to do the same thing–to me, Jung never fully clarified the difference between introversion and intuition).
“Hence when they begin to think about themselves or the state of their relationships or the state of the world, or all three at once, they can often come to very dark conclusions.”
Reasons for HSPs to go on
But being sensitive can also help us engage with the pleasures and beauties of life, as Dr. Aron notes: “Family, friends, falling in love, service, beauty, nature, spiritual insights, laughter, satisfying work, curiosity about how humanity will handle the next few decades, dark as they may seem, and the awareness of the wrenching blow dealt to those left behind when one of us falls into the darkness–these are pretty good reasons to live.”
> related article: Creativity and Depression – by Douglas Eby
> related section: Depression and Creativity
Elaine Aron, depression, highly sensitive
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