Sensory Processing Sensitivity in the context of Environmental Sensitivity: A critical review and development of research agenda
Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is a common, heritable and evolutionarily conserved trait describing inter-individual differences in sensitivity to both negative and positive environments. Despite societal interest in SPS, scientific knowledge is lagging behind. Here, we critically discuss how SPS relates to other theories, how to measure SPS, whether SPS is a continuous vs categorical trait, its relation to other temperament and personality traits, the underlying aetiology and neurobiological mechanisms, and relations to both typical and atypical development, including mental and sensory disorders. Drawing on the diverse expertise of the authors, we set an agenda for future research to stimulate the field. We conclude that SPS increases risk for stress-related problems in response to negative environments, but also provides greater benefit from positive and supportive experiences. The field requires more reliable and objective assessment of SPS, and deeper understanding of its mechanisms to differentiate it from other traits. Future research needs to target prevention of adverse effects associated with SPS, and exploitation of its positive potential to improve well-being and mental health.
English
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Cebuano
Chichewa
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Esperanto
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Nepali
Norwegian
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Scottish Gaelic
Serbian
Sesotho
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Sudanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu
Ok..where do I start? Let me just explaine something first.
I grew up in a home where children were to be seen and not heard. My parents were hard nose Germans and my father was part Native American. My dad had a violent temper and we never knew what was going to set him off. So that left me feeling scared ALL of the time.
There was a reason for my dads temper, see he had a liver disease that progressed quite slowely and at the time we didn’t know he was sick. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, he is a good hard working man, he was just sick. Physically and mentally.
Any way, I developed this defense mechenism where I could read the room, as I like to call it. I could walk in the house and I would just let myself feel the energy, because the energy is all around us. I’m extreemely sensitive to the negative. If I picked up on negative waves I would find any excuse to leave the room. If I couldn’t leave the room I would end up feeling physically sick to my stomach. When I got into high school I was the last kid at home, so I was either feeding cows or in the hay fields so I wasn’t around the negative so much, but I was still scared all the time.
I was one of those people that found comfort in drugs and alcohol. I am ADHD and I really didn’t care what they were teaching me in school I just couldn’t adjust, no matter how hard I tried. I did graduate and went on to college, but I had habbits to pay for. So like most people that need money, I sold my drug of choice to pay for my habbit. The people I was dealing with were like no other people I had ever been in contact with in my life. They were down right scary, but I needed my dope so I dealt with them the only way I could. My defences came back. I had to read the room, like I did when I was at home with my parents. I got really good at feeling my way around situations. I knew when i could approach someone or not. It was like someone or something was protecting me. I never got in trouble with the law, I was always one step ahead of them. I got tired of all the drama and cleaned myself up, got married and had 2 beautiful daughters. Life was good until my husband fell in with the wrong crowd and ended up with some of the same people that I had gotten in with.
He wasn’t so lucky he got in trouble with the law. That set me up as a target for not only the dealers but the cops. I spent the next 15 years feeling my way threw nightmare after nightmare. Over time I had to just isolate myself from all the stress of these people coming in and out of my life causing trouble. My husband died in a car accident which broke me completely. I can’t handle stress any more. The amount of stress I endoured and the way I delt with things took its toll.
I found out later in life that my mother was addicted to diet pills which were prescribed to her by our family doctor and she took them when she was pregnant with me, well with all three of her pregnancies, and by the time she was pregnant with me she had a unhealthy addiction, which I believe damaged me on some level. I believe I was born with the ability to read a room, but if I wasn’t subjected to so many negative things I would have probably never developed it into what it turned into.
Today, I know when something bad is going to happen, especially where my daughters and grandchildren are concerned. I can’t ever really put my finger on what is going on, but it prepares me to build up strength to face it head on. My oldest daughters intuition is way more developed than mine, on occasion, she can see it in her head before it happens. She saved her friends from what could have been a horrible car accident. She is truely gifted, but very humble.
I have always been different, my daughters have always been different. We can’t always be around to many people, they seem to cause us to be uncomfortable in our own skin. We are good people but careful not to be caught up in something that isn’t ours to bare.