[NF] NF hypersensitivity

[Celtinfj]

I used to be far more sensitive than I am now, or perhaps I've just adapted to it. When really young, I preferred being alone or with other kids to being with adults; their emotions were too complicated and large for me to understand, and so I was just left with this huge wall of feeling that I couldn't cope with and would eventually internalize. Kids were much easier and simpler. To this day I can not and will not tolerate being around a person who takes their emotions out on others, and if I have to, I am incredibly quick to tell them, do not take your shit out on me, I have nothing to do with it. I also cannot handle toxic situations for long, and will leave a job or relationship very quickly if the people involved can't deal with their emotions in a healthy way.

On the other hand, when it comes to personal relationships, I tend to be incredibly thick, never knowing or realizing someone is interested in me unless they actually say it. I think that's to compensate for the fact that so often people SAY one thing and DO something else. For me, if I feel something, I react in what I feel is a very predictable manner. Many times others don't, though. It made absolutely no sense to me, how they could shut their emotions down like that, and why they would want to. I still wonder, but now I just accept it and realize that if they are so unrealized, I don't really want them around me.

 

[The Third Rider]

Well the way I would describe myself is that sometimes the most minute comments can make me very happy and very mad while other "larger" things don't. I also tend to get emotional charges and discharges.

 

[quietmusician]

I don't think I'm hypersensitive, but some my past actions would probably say otherwise. For example, I can sit through violent movies without having a problem because I know it's fake. On the feeling side of this I can pick up other people's energy, positive or negative. That sucks because sometimes I don't know where exactly the location of the feelings are coming from.

 

[dotdalidot]

2 feet rises and drops in a usually straight lined roller coaster overwhelm me profusely.

So yes, I guess you can say I'm sensitive. Hyper sensitive? Not so much.

 

[placebo]

Yea I'm pretty sensitive. Under stress I'd be considered hypersensitive. It sucks. It kinda feels like being born hypersensitive is the reason I'm an INFP.

 

[Lady_X]

nah...only about a select few things i think.

 

[anii]

I think it's possible to be hypersensitive without being aware of it.

 

[Lady_X]

yeah...maybe.

 

[Tiltyred]

When I answered the question, I was thinking in the sensory way. I'm a Highly Sensitive Person in that way -- bright lights, too much stimulation, easy startle reflex, I can feel every fiber in every piece of clothing, I hear all the machines hum (the printer, the air flow, the fan in my computer) and am conscious of their pitch. People talking on their phones round me, I can hear every conversation. It's hard for me to concentrate after only a couple of hours because I'm burnt out already. Shopping in places where there is loud piped in music, especially if there's more than one song going on at once, I can't stay in there.

I'm also sensitive to the emotional environment and to how other people feel. I pick it up like a sponge. If someone else is insulted or embarrassed, I get the stab in my heart and I blush right along with them. If people I work with are fighting or angry, it's debilitating to me -- it will eventually break me down to tears. If it goes on long enough, it will make my back hurt.

 

[alcea rosea]

Would you call yourself hypersensitive?

Sensitivity implies acute awareness of an entity, so in this case I have in mind an acute awareness of emotion.

Yes, maybe, but not sentimental. Emotional yes but not tender. Easily moved but not gullible.

 

[Lady_X]

When I answered the question, I was thinking in the sensory way. I'm a Highly Sensitive Person in that way -- bright lights, too much stimulation, easy startle reflex, I can feel every fiber in every piece of clothing, I hear all the machines hum (the printer, the air flow, the fan in my computer) and am conscious of their pitch. People talking on their phones round me, I can hear every conversation. It's hard for me to concentrate after only a couple of hours because I'm burnt out already. Shopping in places where there is loud piped in music, especially if there's more than one song going on at once, I can't stay in there.

I'm also sensitive to the emotional environment and to how other people feel. I pick it up like a sponge. If someone else is insulted or embarrassed, I get the stab in my heart and I blush right along with them. If people I work with are fighting or angry, it's debilitating to me -- it will eventually break me down to tears. If it goes on long enough, it will make my back hurt.

oh yeah...me too pretty much...and when i answered i meant do i get my feelings hurt easily?? no...not so much...only by a select few...for a select few reasons...but not usually...but i'm most certainly sensitive to my environment...yep.

 

[Tiltyred]

But not a great whining crying titty baby, right? Me, either. :-D If that's what was meant by "hypersensitive," then No.

 

[placebo]

I'm sensitive to both sensory environments and emotional environments quite a lot. I'm wondering how common it is to be one but not the other...

 

[Amargith]

Please tell me this is normal for NFP? NF? ENFP? Otherwise I will think I am maladjusted.

I'm hypersensitive, meaning I perceive everything around me and all that stimulus hits me like a wall. Or I DON'T perceive or clearly 'see' everything around me, but everything has a vibration that hits me like a tidal wave. TOO MUCH. But it also means I 'see' and feel and know things from first glance.

It makes my hypothalamus gland go nuts. That's why I couldn't live in NYC, I would get too overstimulated and never be able to focus long enough to even tie my shoes. That's also goes into my being "hyper".

I'm also hypersensitive in that I always think someone may be reacting or listening to or talking about or looking at me. When I'm in a calm mood, I don't care about these things and welcome interaction with strangers, when I'm stressed I'm hypersensitive to the point of being paranoid -- someone really IS always watching my every move.

I often catch conversations or interactions in restaurants or parties that no one else does -- in the same token, I'm totally oblivious to things that all my friends have heard or seen.

I really can and do look at people and know exactly what they are about, if they are lying, why they are lying, how they really feel about me, how they really feel about ______, etc.

Or maybe I just THINK I do. Damn arrogant ENFPs.

Also hypersensitive in receptivity -- usually when people throw anger or aggression at me and I really don't understand intellectually or emotionally why.

Hypersensitive to moods -- I cannot be around bitchy and/or queeny people. It is toxic for me and pisses me off. Bad habits rub off on me too quick. I cut these people out of my life. Bad moods and environments really affect me. So does sadness, pain, destitution, etc. but this is also partly what motivates me to work towards social justice.

On the flip, HAPPY MUSIC, good moods, bright lights, etc. hit me very quickly and make me very chipper -- even when friends or coworkers are complaining about how annoying or cheesy something is and don't want to go along with it -- I like it! I can't help but sing along to my favorite songs or even start dancing in my room. My family members basically think I'm spastic.

People normally think I'm pretty tough, I've been told I can be intimidating (especially to men), and I'm very good at masking any emotion (especially at work or when I don't want to give people the satisfaction) but when people don't like me and are basically mean to me and it surprises me, when I think this behavior is unwarranted and unfair and I can't reason with it, even if it seems like a small thing, I feel it cruelly and it seriously makes me want to cry...OR break something.

People know about the wanting to break stuff response, but NOBODY knows when I feel like crying.

Are these normal NF/ENFP traits?

+1

So, probably, yeah

 

[CrystalViolet]

I'm highly sensitive, as Elaine A. Aron defines it. I'm not hypersensitive. I actually go out of my way to temper my emotions, not always very successfully. A co-worker once said to me it was very obvious I felt things deeply. He continued saying it must be hard for me, because I was so controlled about it. At the time, I was working at a company so rife with internal politics, I was doing my very best to appear invisable. I was kinda shocked I was that obvious. My chamelion coat wasn't working!
Anyway, there was a point to that little ditty....oh that's right. I'm sensitive, but I do my damnedest to make sure no-one ever knows, except close friends.

 

[aufs klo]

When I answered the question, I was thinking in the sensory way. I'm a Highly Sensitive Person in that way -- bright lights, too much stimulation, easy startle reflex, I can feel every fiber in every piece of clothing, I hear all the machines hum (the printer, the air flow, the fan in my computer) and am conscious of their pitch. People talking on their phones round me, I can hear every conversation. It's hard for me to concentrate after only a couple of hours because I'm burnt out already. Shopping in places where there is loud piped in music, especially if there's more than one song going on at once, I can't stay in there.

I feel you (ha-ha pun)! It doesn't drive me crazy all the time, but when I get over stimulated it can be debilitating. The worst thing for me is being in the car, or anywhere really, and have the AC blow on my head--triggers some of the wost headaches I can get!

Contrary to what CzeCze said, I love living in a city because it gives me stimuli. When I'm on the train, I can focus in on other people's phone conversations so well that I make up a running dialogue for the person on the other end, and by the end of my ride (or their conversation) I've got both of their personalities down. If the people are interesting or nice, this is a lot of fun, if the people are annoying, stupid, or having an inane conversation, it sucks because it's hard to turn it off.

 

[Gamine]

+57

for the pun aufs klo.


Hypersuperfrustratinglysometimeshilarityenducingsensitive. I can always tell when someone is lying, and I always call them out. I find it very tacky.

Through being more self aware about being so sensitive, I'm turning it into being a tool of awareness. I'm learning more about not allowing my surroundings to affect my emotions or skew my analysis and planning. Through "tuning" myself (like a radio almost) to someone else and putting my focus on them, I (plus these other pretty enfp's in this thread ) can almost feel them, not just through empathy, but something more dynamic and intangible.

It makes for great fun in debates or strategy games with others because I can usually predict their argument directions, embellishments and weaknesses. If my NF values didn't get in my way, I would be an effective asshole and pick on other's weaknesses regularly.

 

[aufs klo]

damn these values!!!

yeah, i'm really good at picking up on the dynamic of interactions as well, pretty handy when it comes to meeting new people

 

[iwakar]

Would you call yourself hypersensitive?

Sensitivity implies acute awareness of an entity, so in this case I have in mind an acute awareness of emotion.

I think every NF has experienced this phenomenon more than once in their life:

"There are moments in my life that give me pause; moments of anger, joy, confusion, surprise, regret, and intense thought. --But my favorite moment of all is remembering; when my body becomes still and indifferent, and all of my most precious memories are gathered to my heart like fragile stars, and I clutch them so tightly within me that the edges begin to blur and the various feelings fuse. I try to rub off the dust that separates them from the present reality; reignite the warmth of life that somewhere still throbs within them until, the overabundance of living, and remembering living, spills from my eyes."

 

[hommefatal]

YES! Dominant Fi and Fe, that's what I call hypersensitive. Both in a positive and a negative way. I am very empathetic but just as moody.