In my first blog on the life and times of the Highly-Sensitive Person (HSP) I discussed the unique challenges facing those who fall on the extra-sensitive side of the sensitivity spectrum. If you are an HSP it may be difficult to get a handle on the challenges of your sensitivity.  You must learn to soothe and protect your nervous system.  Important skills to develop include:

1 - Setting emotional boundaries:  You can easily pick up on the feelings of others and can become confused about whether your feelings are your own.  Think of yourself as a psychic sponge, soaking up the mental and emotional energy of those around you.  Use your creative ability to visualize a protective shield around you that can filter out some of the stimulus.

2 - Saying no:   This is tough for you because you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.  Yet, when you take on more than you can handle you can build resentment that often leads to pulling away from others, so that you find yourself bouncing from one extreme to another.  While saying no may be awkward in the short term, it can help save your relationships in the long term.  ​

How many of you have heard the comment “oh...you’re just too sensitive”?   Maybe you feel hurt when people say that and think there is something wrong with you.   According to Elaine Aron, Ph.D in The Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), approximately 20 ­percent of the population has a highly sensitive nervous system.   For these individuals (myself included), it's as if they wear their nerves on the outside of their skin.  In the first part of this series on sensitivity I will discuss those who find themselves on the highly sensitive side of the HSP spectrum.

If you’re an HSP, you can experience external and internal stimulation rather quickly and with more intensity and duration.  It’s as though your nervous system is an antenna running through your mind and body—always on and picking up signals from everything around you.   As an HSP, you can become overstimulated and this “noise” or “static” can result in a variety of mental and physical complaints that may be difficult to diagnose.  

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), popularized through films like Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Welcome to Me (2014), is a diagnosis many patient's fear because of the overwhelming  stigma associated with it.

​A tell­tale sign of BPD is a person's erratic and unstable relationships, caused by outsized reactivity when feeling threatened and/or rejected.