Is Being A Highly Sensitive Person Connected To Anxiety?
Studies have shown that highly sensitive people (HSPs) are more susceptible to anxiety disorders. This is largely due to the “startle” reflex, but several other factors can contribute to feelings of anxiety for them.
If you’re a highly sensitive person – even if you haven’t officially been diagnosed – it’s important to recognize the possible connection between high sensitivity and anxiety. While the two don’t always go hand-in-hand, being highly sensitive can put you at a greater risk of being anxious.
Let’s take a closer look at that connection, why it’s essential to understand it, and what you can do to fight back against the effects of anxiety, even as an HSP.
Fight-or-Flight Mode
One of the reasons highly sensitive people are more susceptible to anxiety is that their minds are almost constantly in fight-or-flight mode. This typically occurs when your brain perceives a threat and needs to react with a defense mechanism to keep you safe.
However, when there is no real threat and you’re perceiving one anyway, it’s hard to turn that defense mechanism off. You might always feel like you have to be on guard or that you need to protect yourself from whatever might be coming.
As you might expect, that can create a lot of tension in both your mind and body, and lead to anxious thoughts. You’re likely to experience symptoms like:
Rapid breathing
Trembling
Rapid heartbeat
Sweating
Nausea
Difficulty focusing
These symptoms are common for people who struggle with anxiety – especially when they’re dealing with an anxiety attack. If you regularly experience problems like these, it’s time to get to the underlying issues.
Understanding Your Triggers
There are plenty of things that can trigger anxiety in an HSP. Understanding some of the scenarios that can cause you to feel anxious will make it easier to either avoid them or work through them so they don’t seem as overwhelming.
Obviously, those issues are different for everyone. However, some of the most common include feeling rushed into making a decision, having too much to do, or knowing that you’re being watched while you work.
It’s also not uncommon for highly sensitive people to become overwhelmed by the emotions of others. This goes beyond empathy. HSPs don’t just feel for others on a surface level. Rather, someone else’s emotions can really overstimulate a highly sensitive person. If there are people in your life going through a rollercoaster of emotions, you might feel like you’re being pulled in various directions by them.
Speaking of overstimulation, sudden changes can also trigger anxiety in an HSP. Even when that change is good, it can trigger that fight-or-flight mode once more, and leave you feeling uneasy about what’s to come.
What Can You Do?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with being highly sensitive. However, no one wants to deal with the lingering effects of anxiety every day.
One of the best things you can do to manage your anxiety is to recognize and accept that you’re a highly sensitive person. Because of that, you might have more triggers than the average person, and being aware of that will make those triggers easier to deal with.
Once you’ve accepted that, you can start working on anxiety management techniques, like deep breathing, mindfulness, meditation, or even writing in a journal. There are things you can do each day to keep your anxious thoughts in check.
However, if you’re really struggling to manage your anxiety or the fact that you’re highly sensitive is making everything feel too overwhelming, you don’t have to handle all of it alone. anxiety hypnotherapy can help you deal with these worries, contact me to set up an appointment as soon as possible.