In our newly-released book, Anxiety... and how to conquer it, we explore the three primary causes of anxiety in addition to six personality types that, by nature, create a fertile context in which anxiety often grows.
In this brief series, I have chosen three of those types from the book to share with you.
We first looked at how a perfectionistic personality naturally creates anxiety. Last week we explored how the thoughts and emotions of a shame-based individual attract anxiety.
And in this post we consider the characteristics of HSPs (Highly Sensitive Persons), why this personality type tends toward anxiety, and how to guard against that enemy using specific Scripture I find to be particularly helpful to HSPs.
In the early 1990s, clinical psychologist Elaine Aron gave us the concept of the Highly Sensitive Person, or HSP.
Dr. Aron’s research suggests that roughly 15-20% of people have a more sensitive nervous system than the rest of the population. Hence HSP.
Let me be quick to say here that there is nothing wrong with the HSP. Nothing more is implied than a personality type. To be clearer still, we are not talking about a disorder or pathology. There is nothing that needs to be fixed.
This construct is simply useful for helping you understand yourself and others, if you are an HSP or have one in your immediate circle.
What is important for the HSP is to learn the basic characteristics of their personality type... and how to protect themselves from the natural responses to life concomitant with being an HSP.
What are some of the characteristics of a Highly Sensitive Person? Here are five:
1. HSPs have a tendency to process cognitively more deeply than others.
What I mean by this is that an HSP tends to consider a matter longer and more intensely than other people. One HSP described it to me as “thinking something to death.”
2. HSPs have a heightened emotional response. This applies to external stimuli but also to their own thoughts.
Not only do HSPs tend to think a matter through longer, they also experience that stimuli more deeply than others. Put simply, HSPs feel more strongly, more intensely as a general rule.
3. HSPs tend to exhibit empathy both easier and deeper than the general population, largely due to #2 above.
If you are going through a rough patch in life, it is good to have an HSP in your circle. You will feel listened to and cared for.
4. HSPs characteristically have a greater awareness of subtleties. They are attuned to nuance. They catch subtle shifts.
This fact can be both good and bad. On the debit side of the ledger, this is why I said earlier the HSP must learn to protect him or herself from the inherent challenges in their personality.
In both sight and sound, they take in more data and data can sometimes be hurtful. A facial expression, a vocal tone will hit the HSP stronger. This means the potential for more hurt, especially when you consider that they will stay with that experience longer than others tend to. (By thinking about it longer and thus feeling it longer... and more deeply.) This leads to our fifth and final point.
5. HSPs have an increased susceptibility to overstimulation. It is easy to see why, once you understand the profile.
Too much stimulation is to an HSP what too much sunshine is to those whose eyes are sensitive to light.
Considering these characteristics, I am sure you can see why the HSP could be a prime candidate for anxiety.
Ongoing rumination and heightened emotional response to those thoughts are a fertile breeding ground in which anxiety can flourish.
By learning these tendencies that are naturally built into their personality, the HSP can build safeguards that will protect them from overstimulation and anxiety.
Refusing to ruminate over experiences is a good start. It is helpful for the HSP to remind themselves that they don’t have to continue thinking over something that has recently happened.
Learning to build healthy boundaries is also crucial for the HSP.
Spiritually, the HSP likely needs to balance their understanding of biblical truths about our God. It is easy for them to focus on the stern aspects of God and dismiss the balancing truths.
Yes, God is righteous. Yes, He loathes sin. But this is not the full picture.
God is compassionate, slow to anger, rich in mercy. He is patient, gentle. He is parental... in the best sense of that word.
In attempting to persuade the rambunctious Corinthians to correct their walk, Paul said to them – [I am] pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.[1]
In that magnificent song of the deliverance God gave to him from the hands of his enemies David says - You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your gentleness has made me great.[2]
We could go on and on, but let me give you just one final passage to consider.
Having been rejected en masse and with Calvary rapidly approaching, Christ says this to the Jerusalem throng – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ... How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing![3]
Even though they rejected Him as their king... even then He tells them He would have gathered them to Himself as tenderly as a mother hen sweeps her chicks under her wings in time of danger.
We must never discount the loving tenderness of our God toward us.
If you are an HSP remember this. You are not weak. You are sensitive. That’s a far different matter.
Take comfort in this, the anxiety you experience as an HSP in not part of your personality. It is the consequence of not having tools adequate for helping you adjust to life as an HSP.
By analogy I would have you think again of the person who is sensitive to sunlight. There is nothing wrong with their eyes. They just needs a good pair of sunglasses!
[1] 2 Corinthians 10:1
[2] 2 Samuel 22:36
[3] Matthew 23:37
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