High Sensitive Person (HSP): Born Sensitive or Made Sensitive?
Chapter 2/3: What If You Were Never “Too Sensitive”?
Let me start with a brief history lesson, because I’ve always been fascinated by good history stories. It was one of my favourite subjects at school for a reason. One question that kept me busy for a long time was: how was high sensitivity discovered? I mean, someone must have decided at some point to conduct serious research on it. So I decided to dive into it. What I learned is that being a highly sensitive person is not a modern wellness trend, even though it may sometimes look like one when you go online. It is a hot topic, especially among younger generations.
“High sensitivity is a normal temperament trait found in about one out of every five people. It is not a disorder, but a different way of processing the world.” — Dr. Elaine Aron
The concept of HSP comes from clinical psychology research in the 1990s, when psychologist Dr. Elaine Aron began studying what she called Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS). Through large-scale research, she discovered that about 15 to 20 percent of the population is biologically wired to process sensory and emotional information more deeply than average. That’s 1 in 5 people! This means that at work, in your classroom, in your sports team or within your friends group, there is a high chance that at least one person is highly sensitive. Maybe it’s you… who knows?
And there’s no need to be afraid of that, because it’s not a diagnosis or a disorder. It’s a natural personality trait. It appears across different cultures and is even present in various animal species. And I may be repeating myself here, but that alone tells us something important: sensitivity is not a weakness of modern life. It is part of nature. An evolutionary strategy. It’s needed to survive certain circumstances.
“In evolutionary terms, having a minority of highly sensitive individuals in a population increases the chances of survival for the whole group.”
— Dr. Michael Pluess (Professor of Developmental Psychology)
High Sensitivity in the Brain
Later on, brain imaging research confirmed what many sensitive people had already felt their whole lives. In fMRI studies led by neuroscientist Bianca Acevedo, high sensitive people showed stronger activation in brain areas related to awareness, empathy and sensory integration when exposed to emotional or visual stimuli. In simple terms: the HSP brain doesn’t just notice more, it actually processes more. When I first read this, something in me finally softened. It explained why my senses always feel “on.” I don’t scan my environment because I’m anxious. I scan because my nervous system is built to register subtleties automatically. Since then, it no longer feels like a flaw, it feels like a newly discovered quality. So what happens when a brain built for depth is placed into a world designed for constant stimulation? Interesting question right…
“The sensitive brain is not overstimulated by life, it is more fully engaged with it.” — Dr. Elaine N. Aron (Clinical Psychologist, HSP researcher)
