Category: Uncategorized

Psychiatrist Judith Orloff on coping with emotional overload

highly sensitive personality, highly sensitive books, emotional overload, highly sensitive people Excerpts from new book “Emotional Freedom” by Judith Orloff, MD In my book, I emphasize the importance of learning how to stay centered in a stressful, highly emotionally charged world. Since emotions such as fear, anger, and frustration are energies, you can potentially “catch” [...]

Jenna Forrest on sensitivity

highly sensitive personality, highly sensitive people, empowering sensitivity .. .. Author and success consultant Jenna Forrest writes in her memoir Help Is On Its Way about growing up with the trait of high sensitivity. In our recent podcast interview, she talks about empowering and transcending sensitivity. From the interview: “Millions of highly sensitive people right [...]

Genes and the startle response

New research on the neuroscience of anxiety explains more about the genetics of high sensitivity, even why we may experience shyness meeting people. This is from a press release: Scientists in Germany and the United States have reported evidence linking genes to anxious behavior. The findings appear in the August issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, published [...]

Shy monkeys and anxious temperament

From a PhysOrg.com Medicine & Health / Research news article: New research indicates that the brains of those suffering from anxiety and severe shyness in social situations consistently respond more strongly to stress, and show signs of being anxious even in situations that others find safe. The UW Department of Psychiatry and HealthEmotions Research Institute [...]

Getting beyond our fears and anxiety

News story about Cinders the pig: “You can’t get much happier than a pig in muck, or so we are told. But when this little piggy arrived in the farmyard she showed a marked reluctance to get her trotters dirty. “While her six brothers and sisters messed around in the mire, she stayed on the [...]

Oxytocin and Social Phobia – relief of social anxiety

Excerpts from article Oxytocin and Social Phobia : Social phobia or social anxiety disorder is characterized by extreme and persistent anxiety associated with social or performance situations. Scientists believe that the amygdala is responsible for the symptoms of social phobia as it is the central site in the brain that controls fear responses and produces [...]

Video: Elaine Aron on the trait of high sensitivity

The author of The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D., summarizes the trait of high sensitivity. Also see the Self-Test on her site [link opens in new tab or window]. high sensitivity personality, highly sensitive people, highly sensitive books, high sensitivity resources

Is it a disorder, or just shyness?

“As a child, I was very shy. Painfully, excruciatingly shy. I hid a lot in my room. I was so terrified to read out loud in school that I had to have my mother ask my reading teacher not to call on me in class.” – Kim Basinger Many of us were shy as children, [...]

Lost in our reactions – the high sensitivity personality

“If the dimension of presence or awareness is missing, then you are lost in the reaction. Then you become the reaction, and you don’t know who you are.” Eckhart Tolle High sensitivity can make our life much richer, but it can also be a distressing and disorienting experience. Probably starting when we were too young [...]

Is shyness an illness?

Excerpts from article Is being shy an illness? Most of us are shy to some degree.. So when is being shy an illness? The problem was first recognised as a mental health condition in 1980 and some professionals believe it’s one of the most under-recognised and under-treated mental health problems of the modern age. Others [...]

Sarah Dolliver on better boundaries for inner-directed individuals

Sarah Dolliver is the Founder of InnerVantage, the “online community for inner-directed individuals (those who focus inward to restore).” In her article Build Better Boundaries, she writes: * Have you ever agreed to do something that you knew you would rather not do? * Have you not given yourself enough time to do the things [...]

Jenna Avery on dealing with overwhelm

In an article of hers, Jenna Avery affirms, “As a sensitive soul, it’s easy to get overstimulated. With stimulation all around, it’s not surprising. “Our urgency-addicted culture and mainstream work ethic is overstimulating. “Sound bites, billboards, spam, and constant advertisements surround us. “Other people’s energy and emotions affect us. Too much light, noise, color, texture, [...]

Learning to live with social anxiety

According to a news story, “Shyness was an ongoing problem for Chris Cooper… While studying at the University of Missouri, he vowed to get ‘unblocked.’ “Taking dance classes at nearby Stephens College, he was one of only three men amid a roomful of women… Acting was another means of expression — ‘theater, as therapy,’ he [...]

Being inner-directed: the high sensitivity personality

“Sometimes because I am very shy, when I meet a director and they are shy too, we just sort of sit there.” Actor Sigourney Weaver continued in an interview, “I remember when I met Ang Lee and we were left alone — we were supposed to have tea with each other.. I was so shy [...]

Too sensitive for what? Accepting our high sensitivity personality

“I’m too sensitive to watch most of the reality shows. It’s so painful for me.” Amy Brenneman We may have thoughts that are based on irrational beliefs about how life is, or how we “should be” – and those thoughts can become habitual responses, and be too broad or inaccurate to serve our personal growth. [...]

Sensitive and suffering as a teen: Claire Danes on being shy and high achieving

“You were very sensitive as a child; family and school problems, childhood illnesses, and the like all affected you more than others. Furthermore, you were different from other kids and almost surely suffered for that.” Elaine Aron, PhD “I did not perform well socially in junior high. I was a strange girl and I was [...]

Sensitive to others but staying safe

Elaine Aron, PhD notes high sensitivity means “you are aware of subtleties in your surroundings” and also that you are “more easily overwhelmed when you have been out in a highly stimulating environment for too long.” In addition to other sources of sensation and input, a highly stimulating environment may be one or more other [...]

Jenna Forrest on having a sensitive childhood

A number of people claim to have had an idyllic or happy early life, the sort evoked by this photo: The Walk to Paradise Garden [1946] by W. Eugene Smith [from the page The child self / playing.] But for many of us who have been highly sensitive all our lives, and had challenging experiences [...]