Highly Sensitive Person

Bunks

Hi all - the group leader at a Zen meditation class I recently went to raised the concept of the Highly Sensitive Person.

We all undertook the test in the link below. I got 11 but the group leader said she ticks every box! She told us she was ecstatic when she discovered this as it answered a lot of questions and confusion she had in her life. My wife is also that way inclined - particularly the noise disturbance and she really struggles when she's hungry.

http://www.hsperson.com/pages/test.htm

Try it out if you get a chance.

person

I got a 13. I'm really sensitive towards people but not really the environment, so like loud noises or busy situations or media don't bother me much.

Nirvana

17! ??? Well as I have hyperacusis and I believe I checked every box that pertains, I'm not concerned.

However, if fault there be, I believe it's not in ourselves but in the world. There's way too much noise and rudeness out there and it's getting worse and worse. Trash "music" and constant chatter on cell-phones is creating more and more. You can't blame a person for wanting to retreat from this manic jungle.

In much the same way that building new roads brings more development and usage so that the roads soon need to be widened to allow for increased traffic, this constant "need" to be in constant touch with whoever by cellphone is creating a new environment which makes the more secluded ways of yesterday unthinkable and unacceptable to the masses.

What a noisy, noisy world.

To be able to deal with it we must sit for a meditation period of at least 30 minutes each day —unless of course we're very busy!

(In which case we must sit for a full hour.)

vinlyn

I was a "12".

Long ago I learned to doubt the efficacy of such tests...at least for me. I realized that since I see myself as a rather middle of the road type of person (not necessarily anything about Buddhism) that I would subconsciously decided to rarely check any extremes in a survey.

Zayl

13. Things like loud noises or chaotic scenes don't even begin to phase me. However I checked boxes like the one where I become nervous if someone observes me performing a task, meaning I do worse than I normally would. And that sometimes I just need to close myself off from everyone, etc.

Seph

Bunks said:

Hi all - the group leader at a Zen meditation class I recently went to raised the concept of the Highly Sensitive Person.

We all undertook the test in the link below. I got 11 but the group leader said she ticks every box! She told us she was ecstatic when she discovered this as it answered a lot of questions and confusion she had in her life. My wife is also that way inclined - particularly the noise disturbance and she really struggles when she's hungry.

http://www.hsperson.com/pages/test.htm

Try it out if you get a chance.

I got 9.

My son's autistic and what's interesting is that a great many items listed could very well be stimulus traits of autism.
Not sure how accurate/legit this test might be...

Shak

I scored a one.

karasti

I get a 9 too, I agree, there are a LOT of things on here that would totally apply to my son (autism spectrum as well) or people with sensory integration disorder.

how

(6) Moderately sensitive here. Yawn!
When Guinea Pigging for Mensa, I was told that neither my left & right brain hemisphere showed enough initiative to be predictable.,
Now that, was insensitive?

Hamsaka

Eww, I scored 21, and that was only because I stopped checking boxes that asked the same questions over again. I don't notice much when I'm hungry but having a headache or backache will do pretty much the same thing.

I tend to score within the autism spectrum on *some* indexes, and have a daughter and grandson with PDD NOS (pervasive developmental disorder, a 'catch all' within the autism spectrum). My daughter and I are 'fully functional' in the big bad world, seek relationships and easily 'read' other people's nonverbals. But we both hide at the end of the day, and if possible, hide ALL DAY in the perfect predictability of our nests.

Part of my journey into practice is finding that Refuge within myself instead of relying upon controlling my environment. Huh, a huge part of my practice.

how

The details that Hamsaka mentioned made me think that I missed something on the test and sure enough..
The "self test" is just the green questions which actually drops my score to 1.
lol To be 1 with everything.

BhikkhuJayasara

I like the quiz "what state should you be living in better..aaah Wyoming.. Bliss.

Anyways how do you score yourself? I dont see anything but if 14 or more your sensitive and a reference to a larger quiz with a 1-7 rating but no link.

Edit: taking hows advice about green only, i have a score of 3, which is good because the rest of the questions seems like someone with high anxiety lol.

karasti

I thought you only counted all the boxes you checked, I don't see anything that says only to count the green? Am I missing something?

Nevermind

Yikes, I scored 18.

Bunks

You should answer them all (27 I believe).

vinlyn

I always enjoy remembering an interaction between a Thai roommate and I many, many years ago. It was a very negative roommate relationship, and years later he admitted it had all been his fault. But while we were still roommates one day he said, "I'm very sensitive." I responded with, "You are half of what being sensitive is. You are sensitive about your own feelings. But you lack any sensitivity toward the feelings of others. One-half of sensitivity equals selfish."

Bunks

vinlyn said:

I always enjoy remembering an interaction between a Thai roommate and I many, many years ago. It was a very negative roommate relationship, and years later he admitted it had all been his fault. But while we were still roommates one day he said, "I'm very sensitive." I responded with, "You are half of what being sensitive is. You are sensitive about your own feelings. But you lack any sensitivity toward the feelings of others. One-half of sensitivity equals selfish."

Harsh but fair by the sounds of it @vinlyn......

It's a good point you raise though. Sometimes we use the word "sensitive" to describe someone who generally has a low self esteem and gets either depressed or defensive if their actions are questioned in any way. I can certainly relate to that when I was growing up!

This test is obviously for a different type of sensitivity though.

misterCope

I scored a nine. I'm also not entirely certain about the efficacy of this test. I feel like admiration of art, discomfort from hunger, and reaction to extreme stimuli are very different things.

Yik_Yis_Yii

I got 17. I probably could have checked a few more boxes, but I started to notice the ridiculousness of the proposed questions... Many of those assumed "sensitivities" can be experienced by most people at any time for a number of reasons. "Cosmo style" quizzes like this are.... silly.

sndymorn

I was checking a lot of boxes but then as I continued I realized the green color of some of questions made me feel confused: like I was being prompted or something. So I had to stop taking the test..... Do I win?

karasti

Every other question is highlighted in green to help the test taker differentiate where they are in the long string of questions. It makes it easier (supposedly) to discern which box goes with which question when they are alternately colored differently.

federica

14.
But a couple of the questions seem a little repetitive, and just couched in different ways....

I am deeply moved by the arts or music.....I notice and enjoy delicate or fine scents, tastes, sounds, works of art.

I startle easily.....I am bothered by intense stimuli, like loud noises or chaotic scenes.

I get rattled when I have a lot to do in a short amount of time.....I am annoyed when people try to get me to do too many things at once.....I find it unpleasant to have a lot going on at once.

Citta

That is a commonly used strategy used in assessment forms compiled by psychologists.
They provide a double -checking mechanism built into the process.

federica

Well, fortunately I'm not going to 'base my life on it' so I'll take it with a relatively moderate pinch of salt.... see... sensitivity to loud sounds can be down to so many different factors, such as hearing problems or previous bad experience, that it leaves more unanswered than explained....

Citta

At best its very much broadbrush..Not very finessed.

Seph

karasti said:

I get a 9 too, I agree, there are a LOT of things on here that would totally apply to my son (autism spectrum as well) or people with sensory integration disorder.

Really? You have a child with autism as well?
Small world, eh?

Bunks

Seph said:

karasti said:

I get a 9 too, I agree, there are a LOT of things on here that would totally apply to my son (autism spectrum as well) or people with sensory integration disorder.

Really? You have a child with autism as well?
Small world, eh?

Not really @Seph.

My (soon to be) 4 year old daughter has just been diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

One of my best mates and his son have mild autism as well.

Fairly common diagnosis these days...

Nirvana

Yikes, there's so many autism-related posts on this thread. I think that may be due in part to the generally overdeveloped auditory cortex of the autistic. I know mine is overdeveloped, but I'm not autistic, just grumpier than I'd like around senselessly noisy adults.