What is sensitive behavior? (2023)

Being sensitive is being kind, caring, able to pick up on the feelings of others, and aware of their needs and behaving in a way that helps them feel good. Being sensitive is often a good thing. It helps respond to the environment and people. It helps us being alert of the danger.

If you’re a highly sensitive person, you have a heightened awareness of the stimuli around you, which can be good or bad. HSPs tend to be bothered by violence and can easily be overwhelmed, which leads them to avoid certain situations. Highly sensitive people can also be very creative and have a deep level of empathy.

Highly sensitive people tend to feel deeply moved by the beauty they see around them. They may cry while watching particularly heartwarming videos. You may have close relationships with others. HSPs care deeply about their friends and tend to form deep bonds with people.

There can be many different reasons. Sometimes, we become more emotional when we go through difficult or stressful times. Recent bereavement, trauma, and stress can make us feel more emotional. Some people tend to be emotionally sensitive because it’s a part of their personality.

The introverted (I) intuitive (N) types (“INs”)—INFJ, INFP, INTJ and INTP—are among the most “sensitive” of the personality types. This is especially true of those who are more turbulent than assertive.

Key points. High sensitivity can be defined as acute physical, mental, and emotional responses to external or internal stimuli. A highly sensitive person will likely “feel too much” and “feel too deep.” Signs can include various sensitivities about oneself, others, and one’s environment.

Characteristics of Highly Sensitive People

Are easily overwhelmed by such things as bright lights, strong smells, coarse fabrics, or loud sirens. Feel stressed when they have a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time. Avoid violent movies and TV shows. Withdraw during busy days.

It is a trait linked to giftedness and something we ought to embrace. In fact, according to three decades of research, it’s not only a healthy trait, it also serves as a a powerful asset. As a personality trait, being sensitive means you take in more information from your environment, and you do more with it.

Gaslighting Tell #3: You’re Convinced You’re “Too Sensitive” Gaslighters insist that their victims are paranoid and hyper-sensitive. If you’ve been told that enough times about yourself, odds are you’ll start to believe it. Abusers will often use gaslighting as one of many abuse tactics.

Being sensitive is being kind, caring, able to pick up on the feelings of others, and aware of their needs and behaving in a way that helps them feel good. Being sensitive is often a good thing. It helps respond to the environment and people. It helps us being alert of the danger.

HSPs tend to experience other people’s emotions. HSPs may enter a room and immediately be aware of the mood of the people present. This is because HSPs are sensitive to subtleties such as facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice.

HSPs are typically highly intelligent, and seek out opportunities to do deep work. Many HSPs are academics, artists, researchers, scientists and technicians with high level proficiency. HSPs are deep learners, and so enjoy going deep on their chosen subjects, and often gain proficiency early in life.

According to Dr. Elaine Aaron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person, sensitive people tend to cry more easily than others. “Sensitive people can’t help but express what they’re feeling,” she told the Huffington Post.

Events such as stress, trauma, bereavement, and major life changes can cause you to feel more sensitive. Anxiety disorders also often lead to increased emotional sensitivity.

A slower, simpler pace of life

Because they process information deeply, HSPs may move a little slower than non-HSPs. They may need more time to do certain tasks, like getting out of the house in the morning.

Definitions of insensitive. adjective. deficient in human sensibility; not mentally or morally sensitive.

Take a mental step back and assess the situation before responding. This will help you process the criticism and form space for you to think clearly. You can also choose not to react at all. You might think you’re the one who’s done something wrong but that’s not always the case.

Since highly sensitive people feel things more deeply than most, their feelings often get hurt more quickly than others’. HSPs thrive in relationships where they feel seen, heard, and valued. When a partner validates an HSP’s words and feelings — and without judgment or condescension — it’s very gratifying.

They are able to reflect on their emotions and articulate their thoughts and feelings in sophisticated ways. Because highly sensitive people tend to have advanced emotional skills, they are more likely to be effective in their lives because they can control, understand, and use their emotions productively.

HSPs often struggle with overthinking, feeling like an imposter, and feeling like they are always doing something wrong.

Most highly sensitive people display rare strengths in key areas of emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient (EQ) — the ability to recognize and understand emotions in themselves and others. These strengths including self-awareness and social-awareness.

As a psychotherapist, I have found taking things personally to be a common struggle that many experience. And highly sensitive people (HSPs) have an active inner world and a heightened nervous system, which makes them more prone to these experiences than others may be.

Highly Sensitive People are born with a genetic trait called sensory processing sensitivity. Basically, that means they have a super responsive nervous system. As a result, a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) is, typically, shall we say, well acquainted with anxiety.

INFJ is regarded as the most sensitive personality type. Some estimates suggest that 80 to 90% of people who test as INFJs also test as highly sensitive people, because the traits of the two overlap so much.

She discovered that 87% of gifted people are also highly sensitive.

High sensitivity and hypersensitive, or more generally vulnerable narcissism might have significant overlaps: first, both encompass a heightened sensitivity to external stimuli, which are easily being perceived as too intense and overwhelming.

The reality is that the narcissistic personality is by definition hypersensitive, emotionally dysregulated, and delusional. Telling you that you are too sensitive when you react to being belittled, criticized, or attacked is a classic form of narcissistic projection.

Blaming someone for being too sensitive dismisses their reality as irrational and immediately paints them as a victim. It tells them how they should feel, too. Most importantly, it turns a positive trait into a personality defect.

INFJs are highly sensitive to the words and deeds of those close to them. INFJ is regarded as the most sensitive personality type. Some estimates suggest that 80 to 90% of people who test as INFJs also test as highly sensitive people, because the traits of the two overlap so much.

They are able to reflect on their emotions and articulate their thoughts and feelings in sophisticated ways. Because highly sensitive people tend to have advanced emotional skills, they are more likely to be effective in their lives because they can control, understand, and use their emotions productively.

According to the MBTI® Manual, ISFPs were the type most likely to get upset or angry and show it, as well as the type most likely to get upset or angry and not show it. When I asked ISFPs about this many of them said that they would simply cut off a person who repeatedly made them angry.

1. Jealousy. The dictionary defines jealousy as “feelings of worry over the potential loss of something valuable.” In business, experiencing jealousy is fairly common, but those feelings are amplified if you’re a highly sensitive person.

Which Types Ranked as the Least Happy? Sadly, INFPs ranked the lowest for happiness as well as the lowest for life-satisfaction. According to the third edition of the MBTI® Manual, these types also ranked second highest in dissatisfaction with their marriages and intimate relationships.

Highly sensitive people (HSPs) need daily downtime that is alone, unstructured, and unplugged.

The relationship between highly sensitive people and anger is a much-misunderstood topic. Due to traits of their personality, heightened empathy or childhood conditioning, many highly sensitive people have repressed anger, and do not know how to deal with their emotions healthily.

It is said that highly sensitive women experience a lot more orgasms in their lives than other people. That’s true. But perhaps they do not so much have more orgasms, as researched, but rather a greater ability to have multiple orgasms and to experience any sexual act very intensely.