Highly Sensitive, Intense, Ultra-aware and Gifted – Not Disordered
Being intense and highly sensitive are common experiences for many, if not most, creative and gifted people.
These qualities can sometimes be misdiagnosed as disorders by physicians, mental health professionals - or ourselves - if not well enough informed.
One possible reason is misinterpretation of intensities or excitabilities often experienced by creative people.
These qualities were defined by clinician and theorist Kazimierz Dabrowskil, MD, PhD, and researched and expanded by others, in five areas: emotional, intellectual, psychomotor, imaginational and sensory.
Mary-Elaine Jacobsen comments in an article of hers about the high sensitivity aspect of giftedness. Here are a few excerpts:
“It appears that highly gifted adults may be more finely tuned in to the subtleties of life and more easily aroused than others around them.
“Their attention is drawn to stimuli others seem to ignore, which begins to explain why a highly gifted person might appear fidgety or edgy, adjusting and readjusting the thermostat, a sweater, or couch pillow.
“This kind of ultra-awareness can be a valuable contributing factor to their qualitatively different experience of life in terms of heightened tone and color and meaning, not simply thin-skinned peevishness.”
But, she adds, “the same sensory alertness can render the gifted more vulnerable and uneasy, and may result in stimulation overload.
“The pressure to respond to the slightest shift in barometric pressure, a bright light or loud noise, a pungent aroma, commotion or emotional upheaval, or tiny blips in the way their body is working, can make the life of a gifted adult a rich tapestry of experience.”
From her article Encountering the Gifted Self Again, For the First Time. (Note this is an article from 1999, and published in an old format on one of my sites, but still has information you may find valuable.)
Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, PhD is author of The Gifted Adult - see link in my list of Books for gifted/high ability people.
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Feeling flawed - our unhealthy self-regard
Many high ability and highly sensitive people experience self-criticism as "something wrong with me" or experience impostor feelings or other forms of unhealthy self-esteem or self concept.
Julie Bieland, LMFT is a psychotherapist and author specializing in high sensitivity and neurodiverse people. She identifies herself as both highly sensitive and autistic.
Many, if not most, artists and creative people have the personality trait or temperament of high sensitivity, or sensory processing sensitivity.
In a post on her site, Bjelland explains:
"Low self-esteem is a negative self-evaluation and can create self-defeating behaviors.
“You may become blocked emotionally and have a hard time creating and meeting goals."
She adds, "When you increase the way you feel about yourself, you also have more access to your inner resources and navigation tools. You feel more empowered to make the best choices for yourself."
The image at top is from one of her articles: “The Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) Make up to 50% of Our Clients” (from March 2017) – Find it and many other posts in the Highly Sensitive and Neurodivergent Blog section of her Sensitive Empowerment site, with podcast, free webinars, courses, Community and other resources.
She comments in an episode of her podcast:
"It is hard to change that feeling flawed piece...it's so seeped into your bones because it's your inner child. It's stuff that you learned with a child's brain."
From the original Show Notes: "In this conversation, Julie Bjelland and Willow McIntosh "emphasize the impact of feeling flawed and the power of self-compassion and self-acceptance."
Trauma healing specialist Aimie Apigian, MD talks about another potential source for feeling ‘wrong’:
“Trauma results in this belief that we are different, that we’re not enough, that there’s something about us that pushes people away or that we’re too much for other people."
Cathleen King, DPT, is a "doctor of physical therapy who teaches neuroscience principles, and is a mind-body practitioner.”
She finds in her experience, and "in the research of the psychology of chronic pain, we often see that the pain cycle is ultimately cross wired with some type of underlying core belief such as “I’m not okay, I’m not good enough, I’m unworthy, undeserving, imperfect, unloveable, etc” that has been enmeshed with our core identity."
Listen to podcast episode with these therapists:
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Mihaela Ivan Holtz, Psy.D., LMFT of Creative Minds Psychotherapy comments about judgments and perfectionism interfering with our creativity and emotional health.
She writes about being "in the flow, completely at peace with yourself and what you’re doing" and asks, "So, what takes you out of this emotional authentic space?
"It could be a comment you hear or the look in someone’s eyes as they observe something you’re doing. It might be a memory of someone telling you that you “are doing it wrong,” “ruined something,” “keep breaking things.”
And, she adds, “Your own self doubt can cause the disconnection, especially when your inner voice says things like “I’m afraid I will fail,” “people won’t like me,” or “I can’t do this.”
"These are messages of not being “good enough” keeping you stuck in the quest for perfection.
“The desire to be or do things “perfectly” is a mental space of fear that leaves you caught in anxiety about being wrong, making mistakes, or being flawed."
From her post (source of the image) Transform Perfectionism into Emotional Freedom with EMDR: to Connect, Create, and Achieve.
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More articles:
Too Much to Contain – Intensity and Creativity.
Excitabilities, Intensities and Creative, Gifted People.
Misdiagnosis of gifted adults: Dysfunctions versus aptitudes.
» Some related Creative Mind Videos:
How Sense of Worth Impacts Our Success in Business & Life as a Highly Sensitive Person
Do you need to fix your chronic pain problems to be okay, be loved and worthy? with Dr Cathleen King
Feeling flawed as a neurodivergent child or adult - What can change that?
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