It’s Not a Weakness or a Diagnosis. So What Does “Highly Sensitive” Mean?

Sensitivity is a genetic trait (like introversion or extroversion) that runs on a continuum. Put simply, a highly sensitive person or HSP has a nervous system that takes in extra information. After years of research, Psychotherapist Elaine Aron, PhD coined the term “highly sensitive person” (HSP) and proposed the acronym DOES to sum up our defining characteristics. As you may have guessed, nature and nurture both affect how our high sensitivity shows up. Brain imaging studies have even revealed that highly sensitive brains differ in four important ways. Heightened sensitivity can help us to thrive, especially when our needs are respected. However, our fast-paced society can make it tricky to carve out time to recharge and easy to compare ourselves to others who are wired differently. Yet once we know about our sensitivity, we can use it to mitigate our challenges and build on our strengths.