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 has published a new study on brain activity, anxious behaviour, and stress hormones in adolescent rhesus monkeys, which have long been used as a model to understand anxious temperament in human children.

Continued in Once a shy monkey, always a shy monkey?

DiFranco: “The difference is solitude. I have it in my life now…”

In a new Psychology Today article, the author writes about Miina Matsuoka who “lives by herself in New York City. She owns two cats and routinely screens her calls.

“But before you jump to conclusions, note that she is comfortable hobnobbing in any of five languages for her job as business manager at an international lighting-design firm.

“She just strongly prefers not to socialize, opting instead for long baths, DVDs, and immersion in her art projects.”

Continued on main site: Talent Development Resources
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high sensitivity personality, creative personality type, creativity in solitude

[Rolling Stone magazine: People have mentioned a period in the Nineties where you were depressed. Was that just a dark patch in your life, or does it continue?]

Hugh Laurie: I have continued on and off to see a therapist, as lots of people do. And I do feel like for the most part it’s behind me. But I have some very, very black days on this show, very black days. But a lot of that has to do with just finding the situation I’m in overwhelming. There are days when I feel very exposed and very lonely and vulnerable.

[Do you mean overwhelmed and exposed in the sense that there's too much attention on you and every movement you make?]

Hugh Laurie: That sort of stuff, yeah. And there is no escape from it. It never stops. I can never just say, “I need a couple of hours to just go walk in the park and stare at a tree.” There’s always someone rapping on the door of the trailer saying, “The camera is ready.” It’s just relentless. Whatever mood you’re in, however you feel physically, whatever situation you’re experiencing, the machine goes on.

[A cautionary note to the reader: In print, Laurie's words sound darker, more depressed, more self-pitying than they do in person. So imagine, in these passages, not the negative monotone of House but, instead, a voice with a charming British accent, a loopy smile, a self-deprecating sense of humor and a neurotic tendency to overthink everything.]

[Have you found that playing House has affected your personality and made you more cynical or misanthropic?]

Hugh Laurie: No, though I suppose being on television has changed my life. I feel very self-conscious and I feel like I can’t go out. I hate being looked at. I hate being photographed. I have this weird superstition about the camera stealing part of your soul. I sort of believe in that, actually… And the idea that any image of you will be looked at and distributed and pored over and commented on is depressing. You feel intruded upon. Most people would say, quite rightly, “That’s the price you pay.”

[What do you want to do next, considering that you also write books, screenplays, music?]

Hugh Laurie: Well, being the sort of general malcontent that I am, I always want to be doing what I’m not doing. So I’m here, actually, and the idea of sitting at home writing a novel appeals to me. But of course if I was sitting at home writing a novel, I would love to be playing music. I’m always wanting to be doing something else. That’s a definite defect. A flaw in the character.

From interview article Dr. Feelbad, by Neil Strauss, Rolling Stone
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Hugh Laurie, feeling emotionally overwhelmed, dealing with fame, acting and therapy

She discovered her passion for acting in the mid-1950s while studying with famed drama coach Lee Strasberg, who told her she was special and had real talent: “It was like the top of my head came off and birds flew out and the sun came out and my life changed.”

But, she admits, “I didn’t get over my shyness until I was about sixty.” ["Private Screenings," Turner Classic Movies interview by Robert Osborne, Mar 29 2007]

Jane Fonda’s autobiography is My Life So Far

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“I used to not even be able to order pizza on the phone because I was just so shy.

“I think that’s why so much comes out on-screen, because that’s my time to let go in a safe place. When you’re doing that, it’s all written down on paper and it’s total fiction.”

Evan Rachel Wood [imdb.com]

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“It was very natural for me to want to disappear into dark theater, I am really very shy.

“That is something that people never seem to fully grasp because, when you are an actor, you are meant to be an exhibitionist.”

Nicole Kidman [imdb.com]

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“Western civilization today is dominated by the extravert viewpoint. This is because extraverts outnumber introverts 3 to 1, are more vocal than introverts and are more understandable than introverts. However, while introverts are a minority group in society, they form the majority of gifted people.” From article The Gifted Introvert, By Lesley Sword

“When shy people encounter a frightening or unfamiliar situation – meeting someone new, for example – a brain region responsible for negative emotions goes into overdrive. But new research indicates that shy people may be more sensitive to all sorts of stimuli, not just frightening ones.” From article The Rewards of Being Shy, By Michael Hochman (ScienceNOW Daily News)

Many other actors – and other people of course – describe themselves as shy -
see the pages introversion / shyness and Introversion resources articles sites books
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actor book, gifted adult information, gifted and shy, entertainment psychology

She says, “The idea of acting versus reacting is so important for highly sensitive people, because we do take in so much from our environment. I like to use the idea of mindfulness…

“Be aware of ways in which we can be overstimulated.. it’s not that overstimulation is a consistently bad thing; it’s like, what is that optimal level of arousal? If we’re understimulated, we’re bored; if we’re overstimulated, we get too much cortisol in our system…”

She also talks about Dabrowski and excitabilities versus high sensitivity, and how HSPs can empower themselves, including connecting with others, such as at the HSP gatherings co-created by Jacquelyn Strickland with Dr. Elaine Aron.
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Jacquelyn Strickland, high sensitivity personality, overxcitability, overstimulation and sensitivity

Like a number of other dynamic and creative musicians and actors, Gwen Stefani admits being highly sensitive: “I’m really emotional. I don’t fight with people – like, I can barely fight with my husband because I’ll just start crying instead. I’ve learnt not to do that.” [imdb.com]

A musicomh.com interview article says about creating one of her albums “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.” that her insecurities are depicted in the exuberant video What You Waiting For, “where Gwen plays Alice chasing around the rabbit, symbolizing inspiration, in Wonderland.

“Stefani was working for the first time with former 4 Non-Blondes leader Linda Perry, the woman behind hit songs by Pink and Christina Aguilera: ‘I’d never worked with the woman before. I went in the studio the first day and cried. Linda was so magic, driven, inspiring and beautiful. She was saying: ‘What you waiting for, Gwen? C’mon! I know you got it in you!’”

Her video Wind It Up is a kind of homage to her favorite film The Sound of Music
One of her latest CDs is The Sweet Escape
Photo: as Jean Harlow in The Aviator (2004)

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HSPs intense relationships

Stefani’s relationship with her husband may be a very stable and happy one, but as Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D. comments on the site for her book The Highly Sensitive Person In Love, “on the average HSPs’ relationships in general are less happy.. at least for the HSP.

“Why? HSPs have nervous systems that pick up more on subtleties in the world and reflect on them deeply. That means, for starters, that they will tend to demand more depth in their relationships in order to be satisfied; see more threatening consequences in their partners’ flaws or behaviors; reflect more and, if the signs indicate it, worry about how things are going.

“Because HSPs are picking up on so much, they are also more prone to overstimulation, quicker to feel stress – including the stimulation and stress that can arise in any intense, intimate interactions. They need more down time, which can cause a partner to feel left out. They find different things enjoyable compared to others.”
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Gwen Stefani, highly sensitive books, feeling emotionally overwhelmed, highly sensitive relationships

On the tv series “Heroes” she plays an assertive FBI agent, and has garnered acclaim for her dynamic acting in the series Carnivale, and many films including 21 Grams, The Laramie Project, and Girl, Interrupted – but Clea DuVall is candid about being introverted and sensitive:

“I’m an only child and I’m just a real loner kind of person, and yeah, kinda dark. But I’m happy. Not sad. I’m just shy and nervous.” [imdb.com]

In an interview [in 2000] about doing publicity for her films But I’m A Cheerleader, and Committed, Clea DuVall admitted, “That was my first photo shoot and I was so nervous. I was just nervous and shy and Matthew Lillard and Mary McCormick are just so outgoing and Brad Rowe and everybody else was getting along so well and I was just shy. I was just watching. I feel like I’ve gotten better and I’m not as in my shell as I used to be. I’ve gotten better at not making people feel uncomfortable with my shyness.” [28th Street, January 2000, posted on CleaDuVall.net]

And she has also said, “I was a loner in high school. I keep to myself, but I love life.” [tv.gen interview, unknown date]

Self-test for high sensitivity

On her site The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine Aron [listed on the page High sensitivity resources] has a self-test for high sensitivity, which includes a number of items that Duvall and many other talented actors might agree with, such as:

* I have a rich,complex inner life.
* My nervous system sometimes feels so frazzled that I just have to go off by myself.
* I am conscientious.
* I startle easily.
* I notice and enjoy delicate or fine scents, tastes, sounds, works of art.
* I am bothered by intense stimuli, like loud noises or chaotic scenes.
* When I was a child, my parents or teachers seemed to see me as sensitive or shy.

A number of these characteristics seem to be common for many of us who are sensitive – but they are also qualities that can be real assets for actors and other artists.

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Technorati tags: gifted adults . acting . Clea DuVall . highly sensitive . anxiety



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Clea DuVall, actors and shyness, high sensitivity personality, high sensitivity resources

Musician Keith Urban recently checked himself into a rehab center for alcohol abuse, with support from his wife, actor Nicole Kidman.

A number of other stars have sought treatment for drug or alcohol problems, including Haley Joel Osment (star of The Sixth Sense), Mel Gibson, Robin Williams, Robert Downey Jr., and soprano Andrea Gruber, who sang with the Metropolitan Opera.

Many talented actors and performers can be identified as unusually sensitive, and sometimes use drugs or alcohol to dampen that sensitivity.

Awareness can be overwhelming

Psychologist Elaine Aron identifies The Highly Sensitive Person [the title of one of her books] as someone having an uncommonly sensitive nervous system, and says it is a normal occurrence for about 15 to 20 percent of the population.

“It means you are aware of subtleties in your surroundings, a great advantage in many situations,” she notes. “It also means you are more easily overwhelmed when you have been out in a highly stimulating environment for too long, bombarded by sights and sounds until you are exhausted.”

A strategy gone awry

Johnny Depp has blamed his previous alcohol addiction in his early movie career on his needing to block his discomfort. “I’d go to functions and back in those days I literally had to be drunk to be able to speak and get through it,” he said in a magazine interview. “I guess I was trying not to feel anything. My drug of choice back then was alcohol more than anything.”

Beverly Hills addiction psychologist Marc F. Kern, Ph.D., notes that altering one’s state of consciousness is normal and that a destructive habit or addiction is “mostly an unconscious strategy” and “simply an adaptation that has gone awry.”

The alternatives

In their article A Bioanthropological Overview of Addiction, Doris F. Jonas, Ph.D. and A. David Jonas, M.D. write people sensitive to perceiving the minutest changes in their environment can become overwhelmed.

Those with less sensitive nervous systems are, they write, “better adapted to our more crowded living conditions. The more sensitive can only attempt to ease their discomfort by blunting their perceptions with alcohol or depressive drugs or, alternatively, by using consciousness-altering drugs to transport their senses from the dysphoric world in which they live to private worlds of their own.”

Fortunately, many gifted and talented actors, musicians and others have been able to stay healthy and use their high sensitivity to give us the pleasure of their outstanding performances.

Photo from new Keith Urban album Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing

Related articles:

Growing Up Gifted Is Not Easy by Elaine Aron, PhD

Gifted, Talented, Addicted by Douglas Eby
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high sensitivity personality, sensitivity and drugs, highly sensitive books, feeling emotionally overwhelmed