Signs You Were A Highly Sensitive Child

Disclaimer. This article is for educational purposes. If you have questions about the topics discussed in this article, reach out to a medical health professional. 

The term highly sensitive was coined in the mid-1990s by psychologists Elaine and Arthur Aron to describe individuals who process events or situations more than others. Unfortunately, the term came with a negative stigma. 

For many years, society perceived highly sensitive people as overthinkers or people who took things too personally. They were perceived as sensitive, touchy, and high maintenance. Many were misdiagnosed as autistic.  

Although individuals with autism and high sensitivity experience sensitivity to their environments, neither condition is the same.  

Here are a few traits many HSP people exhibit or experience. 

• You are quick to notice subtle changes in your environment. 

Highly sensitive people tend to have deeper central nervous systems capable of feeling and processing more information in their environment. Consequently, HSPs react more stress and quickly notice subtle changes in their environment. 

• You are sensitive to sounds. 

As a result, a highly sensitive person is more reactive to environmental stimuli, specifically auditory, so loud noises can be uncomfortable or unbearable. 

This trait, in particular, is also common for those who are autistic. 

The overlaps in sensory processing and sensitivity towards environmental stimuli for those with autism or HSP occur specifically with auditory stimuli. 

However, even though both conditions involve a sensitivity towards sound, the reasons are vastly different. An autistic individual’s neurophysiology may be the cause of auditory sensitivity.   

There has long existed a theory that posits that auditory processing was at the crux of speech and language impediments and sound sensitivity in some autistic patients.  

In the early 2000s, Russo and her team disproved this theory. They, however, did establish measurable differences in auditory pathways, which can be a theory as to why speech or complex sound elicits sensitivity. 

Unlike individuals on the autism spectrum, for those who are HSPs, neural activation occurs in regions associated with empathy, social processing, and reflective thinking. 

In short, an autistic person has a different brain structure compared to that of a highly sensitive person. 

• Your upbringing was in a stressful and unsupportive environment.

According to Rachel Samson M.Psych, HSP is a phenotypic marker of an expansive central nervous system, so it is not a simple genetic occurrence. A person’s environment plays a role in making them highly sensitive. 

Some studies suggest that an unsupportive and stressful early environment may contribute to the development of high sensitivity.  

Our genes and environment contribute to our mental and health development, but they do not define us. 

Citations:

Acevedo, Bianca et al. “The functional highly sensitive brain: a review of the brain circuits underlying sensory processing sensitivity and seemingly related disorders.” Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences vol. 373,1744 (2018): 20170161. doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0161

Acevedo, B. P., Aron, E. N., Aron, A., Sangster, M. D., Collins, N., & Brown, L. L. (2014). The highly sensitive brain: an fMRI study of sensory processing sensitivity and response to others’ emotions. Brain and behavior, 4(4), 580–594. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.242

Marco, E. J., Hinkley, L. B., Hill, S. S., & Nagarajan, S. S. (2011). Sensory processing in autism: a review of neurophysiologic findings. Pediatric research, 69(5 Pt 2), 48R–54R. https://doi.org/10.1203/PDR.0b013e3182130c54

Samson, R. (2021, December 7). No, being autistic is not the same as being highly sensitive. Psychology Today. Retrieved February 10, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-highly-sensitive-child/202112/no-being-autistic-is-not-the-same-being-highly-sensitive 

Sólo, A. (2019, May 28). Do highly sensitive people have autism? Psychology Today. Retrieved February 10, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/highly-sensitive-refuge/201905/do-highly-sensitive-people-have-autism 

Russo, N., Nicol, T., Trommer, B., Zecker, S., & Kraus, N. (2009). Brainstem transcription of speech is disrupted in children with autism spectrum disorders. Developmental science, 12(4), 557–567. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00790.x

Russo, N. M., Skoe, E., Trommer, B., Nicol, T., Zecker, S., Bradlow, A., & Kraus, N. (2008). Deficient brainstem encoding of pitch in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology, 119(8), 1720–1731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2008.01.108