has anybody heard of this?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-13-2003
has anybody heard of this?
7
Sun, 03-28-2004 - 2:45am
Hi everybody,

I posted this message last week but not having any reaction, I'm trying again :-). Perhaps nobody read it :-)

At the moment, my GP is trying different therapies to see which will fit me best. My DH and I saw a touch therapist together during his disease, before that I was seeing a psychologist on my own. Next week I have an appointment with a psychiatrist.

Anyway, I asked the first two, because I know them and they know me, what their opinion was of my mental and emotional state right now, and also what has been wrong with me for the past 33 years? My confusion is not something new, that just appeared as a result of my husband's death. And I have never been so depressed as to perceive the future as hopeless.

Anyway, much questioning later, they've told me I'm a HSP or highly sensitive person. About 20% of all people are, but with some people it takes extreme forms (as with me) and needs to be treated to live a normal life. On top of this I have developed obsessive compulsive disorders (to help me deal with all this stress) and a depression.

Right now, they are talking about life-long psychiatric treatment and medication to 'channel' the overload. I was wondering if any of you have heard of this?

The psychiatrist hasn't seen me yet so I am also quite curious as to what he will have to say. I am a bit apprehensive though, because though I know something's been up all my life, something that separates me from others, it's also where my creativeness and empathy comes from.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
Sun, 03-28-2004 - 7:08am
Hi---I have never heard of HSP---but my pyschiatirst has said I have a very fragile personality. I suppose that's a little like it, just different terminology.

I"m glad you are going to see a pdoc. It will be interesting to see what he has to say. Keep us posted.

Debbie
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-26-2004
Sun, 03-28-2004 - 8:05am

(((((((Ijules1000)))))))), I am so sorry that you didn't get an answer.

AcornLeaves
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2003
Sun, 03-28-2004 - 11:12am
I didn't see your post before. I apologize for that. I don't come on the board every day.

I am study psychology and therapy in a masters program right now. Not only have I never heard of HSP, but it is not in the official diagnostic manual of mental disorders. That means it is not an officially recognized mental disorder of any kind. The American Psychological Association does not recognize this condition they say you have.

It cannot be a diagnosis if it does not exist in the DSM. This may be a new fad description. It may be something that only a few people recognize.

I know the feeling of being a sensitive person. I always have been one myself. In fact, tons of people have told me I'm "too sensitive." As Jewel said in one of her songs, "I'm sensitive, and I'd like to stay that way."

People with depression tend to be sensitive and perfectionistic. We tend to also be all or nothing thinkers.

This kind of sensitivity can be helped tremendously with Cognitive Behavior Therapy. This kind of therapy is short-term, not lifelong. It has the highest success rate in dealing with depression.

CBT helps people to stop thinking in extreme terms. It shows you how to think through the situations in your life and stop dwelling on the negative things that people say or that you interpret in life. It basically teaches you how to put things in perspective.

I highly recommend asking your therapists about this kind of therapy. A lifelong regimen of therapy sounds like someone is selling you a bill of goods. Most therapists nowadays design a short term solution. Even long-term therapy designed to explore your childhood traumas is not a lifelong regimen.

It sounds like you have just been through a horrible experience with your husbands illness and death. The grief of that is something that will take time and guidance from a trusted therapist to work through. I don't know if we ever "get over" a loss like that. I still miss my beloved grandfather, but after ten years I don't ache about it anymore. Of course, losing your spouse is an even more devastating loss. However, over time you can rebuild a new life for yourself that you enjoy.

I'm sorry for all that you've been through. I would seek a different opinion than the one that says you need lifelong therapy. I don't know many therapists that would even tell a Borderline Personality that they needed lifelong therapy. And Borderline Personality is one of the more extreme types of disorders for functional people, mostly because they prefer creating drama to getting better.

Let us know what your psychiatrist says. Ask the other therapists for more info on the highly sensitive person diagnosis. Are there books on this? Where do they get that label? Why do they think you need lifelong therapy? Don't take this extreme diagnosis at face value. It is not a credible diagnosis in the psychological field. Therefore, the recommendation for lifelong therapy is both suspect and unethical. OCD doesn't require lifelong therapy. Only something like Schizophrenia does, where someone has no handle on reality. That's not you!

Hope this helps. Keep us posted.

MariaC

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-02-2003
Sun, 03-28-2004 - 12:29pm
ijules1000-

I too am a HSP. It does interfer with your life at times. Sometimes it gets on my nerves that I am so sensitive. At times I feel my BF is mad at me when he isn't because he may say something that seems to be in a tone of being upset and then I take it personal. At work I have also went through the same thing. If my boss was to say I did "one" thing that needed improvement I felt like a total failure and felt all my work was bad. I am also very sensitive to my environment, the mood of a room will affect me. It is something I am also working on in therapy and with meds. I am also bipolar so that doesn't help either. I wish you luck on your treatment. Keep us posted and hang in there.

Tina~

 
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-13-2003
Mon, 03-29-2004 - 12:41am
Maria,

Thanks for your thorough reply. I have found only a few books about it, all based on one authority (Aron) and otherwise it is an unexplored subject. Aron's books are not much help; they lack the objectivity I need to understand this, though they are full of anecdotes that are very recognizable. She paints a picture of highly sensitive people as gifted yet misunderstood, which is questionable, even if it's nice to be seen as a sort of martyr, lol :-)! It is something that is being explored right now, but I don't think it is seen as a disorder in the field of psychology, though in my country they do tend to take it into account when helping somebody.

I saw a psychologist on Friday - she's taking over from my regular psychologist - and she is in fact a behavioral psychologist. She said they pinpointed this trait a long time ago, and she does see it as a contributing factor but not as a "life sentence." She suggests I go to the psychiatrist and either do all my therapy with him, or combine it with behavioral therapy with her. Obviously there's a lot more going on with me right now, but I do need to find a way to live with the high sensitivity. One of the things tha bothers me most about myself is that I know that I have much more potential than I have been able to se so far. And that is because I've had a history of avoiding situations that became too stressful, too loud or too busy.

I am not making any radical life changes based on this information and I definitely want to know about the therapy. The reason the touch therapist mentioned life-long was because I would need to unload myself of all the sensory overload. I will have to see what the psychiatrist says next week, and see which approach makes the most sense and feels best to me.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2003
Mon, 03-29-2004 - 6:13pm
I have not even heard of HSP in the therapy field. It is definitely not an official diagnosis in the U.S. Barbara told that it's recognized by the APA now, but it's not something that is popularly accepted at this point, from my experiencce.

I know that I'm sensitive to my environment as well. I make sure that control my environment to the best of my ability. That includes not having children, carrying ear plugs with me, listening to Enya, taking lots of hot baths, and avoiding toxic, loud people who create conflict. Of course, not everything in life can be controlled.

I think that emotional sensitivity can be handled pretty well with Cognitive Behavior Techniques. They have helped me a lot.

I stand by the statement that anyone who tells you that you need lifelong therapy is unethical. In the U.S., a therapist who told you this could lose his or her license. This "touch therapist" might believe that her form of therapy will help a sensitive person throughout her life. But to say that you will "need" lifelong therapy to deal with this or get past it will only cause you to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. To tell a sensitive person that is extremely insensitive.

I'm glad that you have the support of a good psychiatrist. Again, I'm sorry for your tremendous loss. My main point is that I encourage you not to let a prescription of "lifelong" therapy make you hopeless about your situation. People who call themselves experts do not have any magical solutions for others. Even if they believe in what they do, their opinion is just their best guess. You have a better sense of yourself than any expert does.

When you are sensitive, one of the best things you can do is treat yourself with tender loving care.

All My Best,

MariaC


Edited 3/29/2004 7:58 pm ET ET by cal70

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-26-2004
Mon, 03-29-2004 - 8:57pm

Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D., whom ijules1000 identifies as the authority who has published about the Highly Sensitive Person, has designed a test to identify people who fall in this category:

AcornLeaves