Suicide and Sensitivity - Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)

Suicide and Sensitivity - Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)

 

What high sensitivity is and isn’t.

Whether or not you believe yourself to be highly sensitive, there is one thing to remember: High sensitivity is not a disorder, a disease, or a diagnosis. It is not a value statement or a scale of “rightness vs. wrongness.”

 

High sensitivity, also called sensory processing sensitivity, is simply a lower neurological threshold of perceptibility to internal and external stimuli.

 

Simply put, a Highly Sensitive Person senses and feels things more quickly and deeply than about 80-85% of the population.

  

Depth of processing means the HSP is always thinking.  

The HSP is in her element when she is dissecting layer after layer of incoming information. Those less familiar with the trait may jump to the “overthinking” conclusion. But the HSP is simply assimilating layers of information most of the world misses.

As a gift, depth of processing is the stuff of which great inventors, creators, and problem-solvers are made.

 

As a death by suicide risk factor, however, it can also lead the Highly Sensitive Person to more contemplative ideation. And suicidal ideation, remember, is one of the events that makes death by suicide risk “multi-factorial.”

 

 

Propensity for overwhelm can make the HSP want to jump off the Earth.

Our world isn’t set up to prioritize, let alone cater to, the highly sensitive soul.

To the HSP, life in this realm usually feels too fast, too superficial, too cold, too uncaring, too much. And “too much” can be a slippery slope to “I just can’t.”

Consider, for example, that HSPs are especially prone to burnout and often struggle financially.

 

First of all, they need regular intervals of downtime to recharge neurologically — not just a quarterly mini-vacation. That need isn’t part of most employers’ employee care manuals.

 

Second, HSPs tend to feel uneasy with high-pressure marketing strategies, despite often wanting to be in business for themselves.

 

High emotional sensitivity (empathy) means the HSP is always feeling other people’s emotions. 

When it comes to the possibility that Highly Sensitive People have a higher risk of suicide, this deep emotional sensitivity may actually, ironically, be a saving grace.

On the one hand, absorbing the emotions of everyone in the HSP’s life and vicinity is exhausting.

The inability to not perceive, feel, and empathize means the HSP has to develop clear boundaries. Her self-care and -preservation depend on it

  

Sensory overload can rattle the HSP’s sense of cohesiveness and ability to manage the qualities of high sensitivity.

 

We all have a breaking point. Too much noise, too many bright lights, binding clothes, kids grabbing at your arms and pant legs, insane traffic.

 

Some people seem to sail through the sensory overload with nonchalance.

 

But HSPs can feel unglued at a much lower threshold of stimulation. Suddenly their external world is mocking and disrupting their internal world, which is where they essentially live.

And this sensory assault can lead to problems like heightened irritability and anxiety and diminished sleep.

 

Throw those debilitating naysayers into the cauldron with a deep-thinking, overwhelmed brain and tender heart, and the mix can be dangerous.

 

The HSP is prone to perfectionism.

Here’s the reality that makes perfectionism and high sensitivity difficult to separate: HSPs are good at so many things!

 

And their proficiency actually extends to giftedness. As a matter of fact, research has found that almost all gifted adults are also highly sensitive.

 

So you have a person who is good at so many things, in part because she perceives so many layers of details. And she mentally analyzes them and makes creative connections between them and her life experiences and memories.

 

And then she sets about applying them to her daily life. Naturally she will recognize mistakes and flaws and want to correct and improve upon them. After all, isn’t that what the gift of recognition is for? To become more aware, more knowledgeable, more accurate…more…perfect?

 

 

The HSP gets tired of being bullied and/or misunderstood.

As I said earlier, we all have a breaking point.

 

For the HSP, the world can feel very antagonistic when all the incoming sound bites are negative, judgmental, unaccommodating, or unappreciative. Even when the HSP has learned to manage high sensitivity and is able to interrupt the suicide ideation pathway, feeling misunderstood takes a toll.

 

Source:

https://drelaynedaniels.com/6-reasons-hsps-have-a-higher-risk-of-suicide/