Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the weight of the world? Each new tragedy affects you deeply, sometimes leaving you in tears. It can feel as though everything around you hits close to home, with the pain and injustices too intense to ignore. Perhaps, even from a young age, you felt a strong empathy and a drive to make things better.

If this resonates, you may be a highly sensitive person.

Clinical psychologist Elaine Aron coined the term Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) to describe people with “sensory processing sensitivity”, a trait found in roughly 15–20% of the population. While sensitivity exists on a spectrum, HSPs fall closer to the higher end. Key characteristics include deep empathy, a heightened awareness of subtle details due to depth of processing, a strong reaction to other’s pain, and a tendency to become emotionally overwhelmed, which can often lead to overstimulation.