School has always been a nightmare for me. Being around people for so long and always expected to be doing something was too much and I hated it. I cried multiple times a day from the first day to the last. I'm in university now and although it's not stress free, it's great that I can do everything alone in my room and my nervous system can get a bit of a break.

I'm graduating in 2 years and I know I should be getting my first job soon, but I keep putting it off because I'm afraid it'll be a nightmare. It's going to be the same thing as school. Constant interactions and expectations with no time to breathe or recover. I'm afraid that no matter what kind of job I'll get it will eventually overwhelm me to the point where I will kill myself.

I know this isn't just an HSP thing, I also have anxiety and depression (formally diagnosed), but I think being HSP is the root of all my mental health issues and I hope someone here can give me some advice. I'm starting therapy in a month or so but I'm not sure if that's enough. I don't know what to do, how do I protect myself from the outside world without isolating myself completely?

Tense situation- cry
Unexpected tense situation- the whole week is ruined
Boyfriend makes a mean joke- how do I tell him that I want to be alone for the next 48 hours now
Person percieved as authority is being direct- cry
A man is giving constructive critisism- cry because men are a little scary
Mean customer service worker- why does this person hate me specifically, I feel hurt (I know they’re probably tired)

EXHAUSTING. It has been like this since preschool.

I’m 18F ever since I could remember my RBF has always made people misunderstand me at first it started when I was like 11 years old and people would give me weird looks or act weird towards me I thought maybe I was too ugly but prior to that that kind of thing never happened.

Until people started asking me why I look angry all the time and it made me sad cause i genuinely wasn’t even when I tried to smile or soften my expression it barely made any difference and I’ve recently adopted a mindset that most people are too shallow to see beyond the surface but I can’t stop thinking about all the opportunities or experiences I could have had if I didn’t come off as stuck up or angry all the time.

I would like to hear anybody else’s experience with this if you can relate

I run my hands through the sand. This soft, gentle, fine sand that feels warm to the touch. This sand that came from hard, unyielding, firm rocks and slowly grinded over months, years. This same sand that we then heat up and turn into glass. That we blow into, shape, cut, rub into windows, lenses, glasses, into tinted pieces that we then turn into art. Our world makes no sense without it, a window into the beautiful, a gazing into the real using the rocks that inhabit our world. We live inside of it and it lives inside of us.

I lean back on my chair on the sweet delicious night and my arm outstretches across the sky attempting to grasp the beautiful little white dots that spread out across it. Giant balls of fire, gods we called them, we gave them human faces, we gave animal faces, we described their rotation as it caressed our surface with its gentle rays as a fight, an endless struggle between good and evil, as a stance between the death of night and the birth of life. It is so massive, our blue marble fights with all its strength to survive one more day, one more moment in its presence, in its warmth, in its light. If not, only darkness and silence remains. As it holds and caress with one hand, it also aims to destroy, to purge, to exterminate relentlessly, involuntarily, anything that stands in its way and isnt ready for it. It blasts eruptions into space scorching surfaces, blasting planets without their consent, vaporizing oceans, eating atmospheres, blasting radiation without warning poisoning everything in sight. And we fight back, as the blasts echoes across our surface we watch the resulting green strips of light across the sky and gaze at the beauty.

I look into my telescope, I stare into the emptiness, cold of space. This is where we originate... perhaps an icy rock from the kuiper belt, perhaps a piece of mars that collided with us. It matters not. Every single one of us. Every microbe, every insect, every jellyfish, every human originated from... out there... out from the cruel void of space. And we found home perhaps by chance, perhaps by circumstances, we evolved... slowly... survived the world catastrophes, to be here today. What a beautiful thought to be here, now, every one of us a testament to our resilience, to our refusal to let it end.

I lay my body across the grass and I feel her... i feel her heart beating beneath my feet, in the warmth of the soil, the gentle grazing of the grass she allowed to grow, to thrive for us, for all of us. As i walk bare foot in the soil, in the roots of the tr⁰ees, i feel her voice reach into my heart and guide me step by step, piece by piece. She is our mother and we are her children. We ve hurt her, cut her, made holes in her, took her for granted, and she continues shielding us, keeping us safe where everything wants us dead.

I want to say thank you mother for giving us such a chance to be alive now... maybe not forever, maybe just for a little while. For us to see, feel, taste, smell this beautiful little alcove that we needed. A beautiful world... just for me, just for you, just for all of us.

I’d love someone to chat with during the day. Just a few messages here and there to get to know one another and vent about our existences. I’m a 33F in Europe, the Netherlands. If anyone is interested, let me know!

Hey y’all! As a newly identified HSP, I wanted to see if anyone else had this type of experience before. I’ve always been very sensitive to textures, scents, and noises; recently, I had a huge panic attack and couldn’t think straight after getting nail glue on my fingers because the feeling just freaked me out so much. I know that physical sensitivity is a part of HSP, but I wasn’t sure if this was something normal ish given that it seems like a lot of what people talk about is more sensory overload in loud/chaotic environments (which to be fair, I also understand lol). Lmk what y’all think!

A Lighter Way

I cannot carry
every heart.

The weight
would stop us both.

But perhaps
I can leave
a small lantern

beside the road.

A thought.

A poem.

A gentler way
to see.

Then each traveler

may set down
one unnecessary stone,

and continue

a little lighter

than before.

Why does it feel like no one else out there gets it? I wish I could clone myself and be my own best friend and happy forever!

It was remote , paid decent and good benefits but I only lasted a few weeks. There’s a certain way I learn things. I CANT be bombarded with info and once you teach me something YOU HAVE TO LEAVE ME ALONE TO PROCESS THE INFO. I spent so many hours on phone calls with my coworker that I started fizzling out. I kept reminding myself that “it’ll only be like this in the beginning” and once I learn it everything will be ok and I’ll stabilize. I need frequent mental breaks while digesting new information or else I’m going to make mistakes and that’s EXACTLY what happened. There were times where I snuck on at night just to complete the work under the radar because I knew no one was on or would call me (guys these unscheduled calls would last over 2 hrs). But I didn’t last….i quit. Im a bit sad but the feeling of the mental load being lifted outweighs it.

I can’t be stuck to my chair staring at a computer screen for 8 hrs either. We wouldn’t want our kids being on an iPad for more than an hour so why are we programmed to think this is normal?

I am so sensitive person, I get overwhelmed so easily and cry. I can't even handle loud voices, if someone shouts at me I cry and break. I don't want to be like this but I am like this, I try hard not to cry but I can't control it. Even there are situation when I don't want to cry, but tears flow.

People think I am seeking attention but I am not. I can't even argue or keep my point. Though I have tried to change and became the better version of myself, I still struggle with this.

Does anyone feel the same or how do u cope?

I'm looking for more things to do than just doing what I have to and being on social media. I really struggle with social media addiction while at the same time being so painfully aware of how many other cool things I could do. I wanted to ask fellow HSP people what yall like to do for fun, what makes you forget your phone exists with no pressure.

Hey everyone, new here. 37 year old HSP man; I've been hyper-emotionally sensitive all my life. Always overanalyzing social interactions, overstimulated, and reading between every line. I've always cared way too much about what people thought about me, but I've noticed as I age I seem to not give a fuck more and more, and it feels great. Do any other HSP's feel this way, or am I just finally losing my mind?

People talk about it all the time but big brother has the diversity.

I just think love island accentuates an already very superficial societal outlook that glamorizes stereotypical surface good looks???

I personally know two people who have been on the show and they represent a minority of people in terms of looks. I just mourn the loss reality shows that celebrate everyone and not a very small percentage of the population who have to have that look firsthand foremost as a foundation before discoing their personality.

Or am I being highly sensitive here??

I’m happy for the two people I know who went on it but I just feel like I can’t watch that show at all without getting extreme body dysmorthia. Yet I used to loveeeee big brother and now everyone talks about love island did u see it?? No I don’t wanna talk about a super glamorized version of a tiny percentage of society…

Or am I being highly sensitive here I dunno

Which have made life pretty inconvenient (to say politely )

I have no idea if I'm an HSP, but I've been looking into it recently, and some of the comments I've seen really feel like me, so here are a few things that I've noticed about myself that I think might fit me into this category:

- my mind is constantly on and overthinks and doesn't stop and often drives me insane

- cry every time I open up about my feelings

- cried as a child when my dad trapped a squirrel that was pestering our garden, and it died from heat in the cage. I felt so guilty that I didn't release it earlier when I warned him that it might die, even though I knew he wouldn't have let me

- feel sad when people don't win or succeed in something (such as a sports match - I'll feel bad for the other team) or even if I beat someone to something

- music significantly alters my mood and can make me extremely happy or in tears

- gets overwhelmed easily from too many things going on or people talking over each other

- will cry or become distressed when someone I love is going through a hard time or is distressed themselves

- will cry if I see a crime documentary or news of a death that feels personal or if they were in a horrible condition

- overanalyze my thoughts and feelings and responses to almost every situation I've been in

- love very easily and very deeply

- cannot stand when my lips are dry or chapped

- cannot stand harsh lighting; I always use ambient lighting

- my feelings are very intense: sadness is like depression and happiness feels euphoric

- seeing struggling businesses or people selling on the road makes me very uncomfortable when I have to avoid their gaze or say no to buying it

- sets things down slowly or carefully in order to make the least sound possible (such as turning the knob of a door before closing it so as not to hear the sound of the lockset clicking into place)

- if I don't get enough sleep the night before, like 3 hours maybe, then every small inconvenience that evening will make me cry

- if I am in an argument with someone I care about, I will be very anxious to the point of feeling nauseous until it is resolved.

- always been searching for some kind of diagnosis or condition to be labeled with so I could justify feeling like something was wrong with me

- was overly clingy to my mother as a baby and demanded her full attention constantly

- as a child, never spoke to any of my family friends or new people and was coined as very shy until my teenage years

- as a child, took me days to warm up to family or friends I hadn't seen in a long time, even if we were very close before

- will reclude after a lot of stimulation or negative feelings to cry somewhere as a child and even now

The list could probably go on, but this is what I can round up for now. The only reason I feel like the book doesn't entirely resonate with me is that it describes a troubled childhood or one where the hsp was often called too sensitive. I never really struggled with that as a child and was just called shy more than anything else.

My theory is that I never was able to truly express myself to my family and would usually hide my sensitivity until I had a safe space for an outlet, which resulted in family describing me as insensitive or detached or uncaring, creating a lot of internal conflict in my mind of what I truly was. Otherwise, I've had a pretty great and comfortable childhood and never had issues making friends. I've only had social anxiety but I was never bullied or anything like that.