Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)

MissA I didnt find it easy either

I found it easier once I gave up hope.
Now I just live with odd socks, boxes of wires, spanners, piles of washing, and seethe inwardly.

Sensory overload, also known as flooding or hypersensitivity, is one of the after effects of brain injury. Some examples. I struggle in large groups of people as I can’t handle lots of conversations going on around me. I can’t listen to loud or discordant noises, they literally make my brain hurt. Flashing lights are the pits. I have an increased startle reflex, even the doorbell ringing makes me jump out of my skin. My left arm and leg will jump violently when touched, which is interesting during medical appointments . It makes life interesting…

I also hate the summer and am quite happy to pulll the curtains and live in the dim light when it is hot sun and heat.

I find when the sun is bright it confuses me and disorientateds me,

I am learning a lot about myself,from reading others stories.
I find lots of contact with people drain my batteries.

I think I'm HIP

I do know an HSP though and her life is quite traumatic. She has no friends now and is totally alone
It's very sad. But nobody has been able to help her

I scored 27

My girl would sometimes ask me what was wrong, as my neighbour drives me to distraction with her constant, overbearing ways.
It makes me feel really unwell sometimes, and tearful.
I often post on here about the neighbour and I do try to be kind...

MissA my ex is severely dyslexic and was very chaotic and marched to his own drum,and my DGD is not without her issues,many times I could be found hiding in my car i some supermarkets furthest corner with a takeaway tea and my book when I was all peopled out

MissA, can you move? It really sounds like she is making you unwell

I really can't move.
I'm not well enough or rich enough.
I could, I suppose, but I've been here 30 odd years, and it would mean moving into another ex council place, on an estate, with possibly more issues than I currently have.

Blossoming I share lots of those problems you describe too. I think the term for loud noise actually causing pain is 'recruitment' as explained by an ENT consultant. To do with the littke hair things inside the ear being worn down.
Childrens high pitched screams are unbearable.

I hate that trapped feeling of having someone in my space,and have all doors open so I can escape.I couldnt cope with your neighbour MissA
I totally understand how that would have me in tears too.

I just don't wear my hearing aids, and tootle about growing plants, and pretending I live in a cottage in the middle of nowhere.

Oh my goodness, this is me! I scored 25 on the test and share so many of the feelings and experiences other posters describe.

I can't stand any kind of violence or cruelty to people or animals at all. It's as though I 'feel' the suffering of others.

People who stand too close make me feel uncomfortable to the extent that if I'm in a cafe and people queue at the counter near my table I will have to leave.

I can tell the atmosphere in a room the moment I enter. Sometimes I can even tell what people have done before they tell me and can often almost 'see' what will happen next and predict the future. Do other people have that or is it just me?

Mizuna I used to sit in the hedge to avoid going into the house too! I really thought I was the only one who did this. I loved the quiet, isolation and being able to watch the wildlife up close. Those were some of the happiest moments of my childhood as in the house I was constantly described as over sensitive.

MissA I have just this minute put my hearing aid in, first time fir over a year because I read simethimg about a 10% increase rusk of dementia! My new echoey voice is already driving me a bit nuts.

I am on the high functioning end of the spectrum, so quite capable but a little 'different'. I'm sensitive to noise, crowds, travel, enclosed spaces - and uncomfortable clothes. It's more difficult as I get older, too. I'm quite easily overwhelmed and need some time alone. My friend has quite severe epilepsy, so couldn't drive or work as a class teacher. He had to move out from his lovely flat, too, when they painted the common hallway and stairwell a shade of lime green - as it triggered his fits.

RichmondPark1 I can tell the atmosphere in a room the moment I enter. Sometimes I can even tell what people have done before they tell me and can often almost 'see' what will happen next and predict the future. Do other people have that or is it just me?

No, it's not just you. I'm the same,

I worked in the British Legion bar for a while when I was younger, and would chat with the customers.
Some of the males were very friendly, and would jokingly flirt, seeing as they'd not had a youngish barmaid for ages.
One really nice older man and I used to chat, and it turned out that he and his late wife had lived in the flat below my parents, when I was a baby/toddler .

He said "You were the most miserable kid I've ever met!!!! Your mum was always asking me to get off me motorbike at the top of the road and walk it down, because the noise upset you, you miserable swine!"
He spent the rest of the night telling everyone how horrible and 'sensitive' I'd been.

Oldnproud There have been occasions when people have said, 'You'll never guess what' and I have been able to tell them exactly before they tell me. Several times people have said they think I'm a witch....I am sure they meant in a good way!

I think it's because I am very sensitive to patterns and can extrapolate to the next thing but maybe it is more than that.

Yes I’m one. I am exactly as you describe OP.

JaneJudge

I scored 27

Me too, so no surprises there!

The only question that I had issue with was the ‘hungry’ one.
I do often prefer to be hungry, because if I eat anything I really want to go to sleep
(I don’t know if that’s anything to do with being HS, or having a buggered up metabolism)

I don't think I'm HSP but did the quiz out of interest and scored 6- not in HSP range. However, I think my father was and also somewhat autistic. My mother used to have to warn him if she was going to use the food processor so he could leave the room - he couldn't bear the noise.

MissAdventure, I've often pretended to be hearing impaired - just to cut short or avoid interacting with certain people. I've learned a bit of signing and it's useful (to drive most people away). Sometimes I'm 'Late for the dentist so sorry, can't stop!' too. As a child I was deemed different/awkward/sulky, the one who hated family trips anywhere or 'going for a drive' - the one with the constant company of a sick bucket. Still, I was happy enough on a solitary walk or cycle ride, fine with just one friend, but overwhelmed by crowds.

I've often said that I have no friends.
I loathe the thought of going out shopping, or dancing, or soul weekenders.

I would like a friend to slouch around, and eat toast, and do nothing in particular with.

I've just looked at those questions and I'm not going to do it. I refuse to be classified as this or that. Yes some (quite a lot) of those things apply. My DSs are excellent at monitoring TV and films for me and warning me about violence. I love time alone. I can browse art galleries alone for hours. I regularly jump out of my skin at something. But I'm very argumentative, love discussion and meeting friends. I'm also a great public speaker (someone told me so recently) and I've done public performances. I am in short a complicated and many faceted human being as are most people. I don't want to be categorised as anything and I refuse to categorise others.
If someone behaves differently because of autism or some. other condition I just accept their behaviour as them. I don't need to label them to accept them.