The Highly Sensitive Person

Over the years, I have noticed things about myself that have baffled and confused me. 

A simple situation such as a conversation with an authoritative figure, or a prayer meeting would cause my heart to beat faster, my skin to feel tight and pressure to build up in my head. Whenever I travel with friends or when friends come to visit me for longer than a day or two, I wind up getting very irritable, tired and sensitive. Being in situations wherein I am surrounded by people that I do not know and trust can give me a tension headache. I need more time in bed than the average person. I get deeply affected by other people's moods and emotions. I am intolerant of pain and barely tolerant of hunger. My moods and level of alertness are strongly affected by light, sound and temperature. I am often anxious, tension filled and highly susceptible to stress. I often get pushed to the point where I need spend days in bed, windows drawn, alone. During periods of stress, I cannot even bring myself to acknowledge my roommate's presence.

I used to toy with the idea that perhaps I was depressed, or had an anxiety disorder. However, I knew that my self-diagnosis was wrong. Today, I was reading up about Introverts (which I also decided that I was), when I chanced upon the highly sensitive trait, also known as high sensory-processing sensitivity. Everything fell into place. 

I now know why I am, how I am.

I am a Highly Sensitive Person. A HSP is highly aroused by new or prolonged stimulation, strongly reactive to external stimuli like noise and light, susceptible to stress-related and psychosomatic illnesses. HSPs are more easily overwhelmed. They are deeply affected by other people's moods and emotions and more aware of subtleties. They are highly intuitive, able to concentrate deeply, right brained and less liner than non-HSPs; they are highly conscientious and excellent at spotting and avoiding errors.

According to Dr. Elaine Aron who pioneered research on HSPs, 'HSPs have an uncommonly sensitive nervous system. Sensitivity is an inherited trait, that tends to be a disadvantage only at high levels of stimulation. Everything is magnified for HSPs. What is moderately arousing for most people is highly arousing for the HSP, and what is highly arousing for others is off the charts for the HSPs, who reach a shutdown point once they attain a certain arousal level.'

For me personally, the most enlightening feature of HSPs, is that HSPs process information differently from non-HSPs; HSPs process information more deeply. I have always been accused of 'thinking too much', 'being in my head', 'worrying too much' and 'overanalysing'. My roommate even has a nickname for me called '多多' because she thinks that I think too much. I have always felt criticised and shamed for thinking the way I do. Now, I know that it is natural for me to analyse and ponder. It is how my brain is wired. I go inwards. 

I could go on and on about what I have learned. For tonight though, suffice to say, I feel like I understand myself a little bit better.

Hypomania

I thought I was mentally unwell last week. I gave myself the diagnosis of Hypomania.

I had boundless energy, a constant grin on my face, reduced need for sleep, and confidence to surmount all obstacles. I talked to strangers, was quickly irritated and accomplished a large amount of tasks in a short period of time. I felt good, strong, and slightly unhinged.

Today I learnt that periods of Hypomania are a result of excessive dopamine secretions in the brain. Dopamine floods the system and results in increased feelings of pleasure and action seeking to attain rewards. Hypomaniac episodes last 4-6 days and are normally followed by depressed periods due to depleted stores of dopamine in the brain.

As it stands, I don't think I have Hypomania, it was a misdiagnosis. I attribute my elevated mood to the sense of newness and freshness each new school year brings. I attribute my reduced need for sleep to excitement, my confidence to past experience. I attribute my crazed sense of purpose, my commitment to filling up every minute of the day, my increased reliance on god and my increased sociability to a defense mechanism - protecting my brain against thoughts that would undermine my self worth and thoughts that would wipe the smile from my face.

An organized and packed schedule helps. Watch me turn the anger and the self-doubt into something that would shine brighter than the sun.

Iatrogenic

Word of the day: Iatrogenic
Induced in a patient by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy.

An example of Iatrogenic in a sentence would be -

"A common concern among physicians is that asking about the presence of self-injury will have an iatrogenic effect by giving individuals the idea to engage in such behavior when they would otherwise not have thought to do so." (This concern has been proven invalid by recent research)

"Oh #@!$%, everyone's staying! What am I going to do?"

I have to share a paragraph in my Social Psychology textbook. It is too funny.

The passage was about the Alamo. To provide a little context, it was a scene of epic bravery in Texas's war of Independence from Mexico. There were fewer than 200 Texan soldiers garrisoned at the Alamo and they were to go up against 4000 Mexican troops under the command of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Before the battle began, their commander Lieutenant Colonel William Travis offered every soldier the opportunity to leave he did so by drawing a line in the sand and inviting all who wished to join him to cross it. Every single man crossed that line and all of them died.

The psychologist who wrote the passage was at Alamo for a social psychology conference.

Now for the passage!

"There is no denying the heroism of those 200 men. They gave their 'last full measure of devotion' to the cause. But there is something about experiencing the Alamo in the presence of so many social psychologists - people attuned to the importance of the tiniest situational detail- that made it hard to imagine that the event actually occurred in such a storybook fashion. Given what we know about human behavior, it is unlikely that all 200 individuals enthusiastically crossed the line to join Travis. It is much more likely that the most devoted did so, and then a few more crossed the line so as not to be outdone, and then the others only reluctantly did so, after thinking to themselves, "Oh #@!$%, everyone's staying! What am I going to do?""

LOL. Now every textbook should be written like that.

Gilovich, T., Keltner, D. & Nisbett, R.E.(2011).Social Psychology (2nd ed.).New York:W.W. Norton. pp 275-276

Decisions

From an article in the nytimes about decision fatigue. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=general&src=me)

"Part of the resistance against making decisions comes from our fear of giving up options. The word “decide” shares an etymological root with “homicide,” the Latin word “caedere,” meaning “to cut down” or “to kill,” and that loss looms especially large when decision fatigue sets in."

I'm hiding behind this!

Mental Health

Psychology best sellers always claim to know the secret source to all our problems. We often find out after hours spent re-examining our thought processes, that a large percentage of our problems stem from a mixture of unrealistic expectations and cognitive discrepancies. Their solution? Learn that our minds are limited and dismiss the assumption that we are the exception rather than the rule.

I used to think that these authors were equipping us with the tools to achieve happiness, or at least get the ability to understand our emotions in a more scientific manner. However, I finally realise that the ultimate goal for many of these authors is mental health. I think it is now important for me to understand the importance of mental health, and its relationship with the more philosophical interpretation of happiness.

Organised religion and Choice

In Barry Schwartz "The Paradox of Choice", I came upon an extremely interesting passage detailing how choices have affected the American view of religious activities.

"Whereas most of us inherit the religious affiliations of our parents, we are remarkable free to choose exactly the "flavor" of that affiliation that suits us. We are unwilling to regard religious teachings as commandments, about which we have no choice, rather than suggestions, about which we are the ultimate arbiters. We look upon participation in a religious community as an opportunity to choose just the form of community that gives us what we want out of religion. Some of us may be seeking emotional fulfillment. Some may be seeking social connection. Some may be seeking ethical guidance and assistance with specific problems in our lives. Religious institutions then become a market for comfort, tranquility, spirituality, and ethical reflection, and we "religion consumers" shop in that market until we find what we like.

It may seem odd to talk about religious institutions in these kinds of shopping-mall terms, but I think such descriptions reflect what many people want and expect from their religious activities and affiliations. This is not surprising, given the dominance of individual choice and personal satisfaction as values in our culture. Even when people join communities of faith and expect to participate in the life of these communities and embrace (at least some of) the practices of these communities, they simultaneously expect the communities to be responsive to their needs, their tastes and their desires."

I guess this passage hit a spot with me, not merely because of its incredible accuracy, but because ever since I came to HK, I've been using "shopping for churches" as an excuse to be lazy and sleep in on Sundays. Every church that I go to is never the "perfect" one for me.