10 Things A Highly Sensitive Person Should Never Have To Deal With

The physical and emotional senses of a highly sensitive person are far more heightened than the average person. Office lighting that is perfectly normal for the average person may induce a migraine in someone that is very sensitive. The light is that much brighter to them. Sounds are that much louder. Colors are more vibrant and emotions are an avalanche that cannot be stopped or delayed. They are typically hyper-aware of the things in their environment and small things most people would tune out or not even notice will drive a sensitive person completely nuts. They live in a much “louder” world than the rest of the population.

Here are ten things that sensitive people just shouldn’t have to deal with…

1. Holding Back

Their emotions are a giant ocean wave. You cannot stop it. All they can do is ride it out and try to stay on the surface. They feel more deeply and more powerfully than the average person. They wear their hearts on their sleeves. They learn early on that it is pointless to try and suppress their emotions, and so they give into them and let them all out.

2. Watching Horror Movies

They cannot fathom why anyone would delight in the pain and torture of another person, even a fictitious one on a movie screen. Even the fake Hollywood re-enactment of a scene of murder or torture is unbelievably twisted and perverse to them. What kind of monster feels good after a horror movie?

3. Criticism

Most people may see constructive criticism as a way to improve a skill or job performance, but to a sensitive person, it feels like an attack on their very person. It isn’t just that they need to improve in that particular area, but that they are flawed personally. Because they feel it much more personally than the average person, they will find ways to avoid criticism.

4. Quick Decisions

They tend to consider everyone when making a decision and can overanalyze a problem into oblivion. They find it difficult to make a hasty decision because they need to account for all of the variables. If they make a decision, even the right one, but end up hurting someone’s feelings in the process, they could find it more difficult to make a decision in the future. They will second guess themselves because they will feel that any decision could wind up adversely affecting someone else.

5. Tattoos

Sensations, whether physical or emotional, are heightened in a sensitive person. They cannot understand why anyone would voluntarily cause themselves pain for hours. Even for a pretty picture on their skin. Being jabbed with a needle at the doctor’s office is bad enough, but to be jabbed a few hundred times a minute is unthinkable for a sensitive person.

6. Rudeness

Because they are sensitive to the feelings of others, they cannot understand how people can be so thoughtless and rude to others. They are very polite, and boorish people might as well be an alien species to them. It doesn’t make sense to them how someone can be so oblivious to other people’s feelings.

7. Group Exercise or Sports

Sensitive people tend to avoid group exercise or sports because they feel like everyone is watching them and waiting for them to screw up. They tend to like bicycling, running, hiking, and other solo activities to ones where they might be judged by other people.

8. Being Overstimulated

Going to a club or concert with loud music and flashing lights is too much stimulation for a sensitive person. Imagine cranking up the volume to twice that and having the lights twice as bright. It would give you a headache really fast. This is how a sensitive person feels when there is too much sensory stimulation. It is physically painful to them and so they seek out quiet and dimly lit places like bookstores and coffee shops.
Related article: Here’s Why Everyone Needs A Sensitive Person In Their Life

9. Annoying Sounds

You may not notice your tapping feet or frenzied pen clicking, but the sensitive person is over there cringing and wishing you would just stop. Just stop already! Repetitive and loud noises drive sensitive people up the wall. You may not notice it, but they certainly do.

10. Open Office Plans

Sensitive people prefer to work in environments where they can control how much stimulation they receive. They prefer to work at home or in a place that has buffers to outside stimuli. An open office where there is no buffer or privacy makes it hard for someone who is hyper aware of their surroundings to concentrate.