Why You Might Have More Anxiety as a Highly Sensitive Person
As a highly sensitive person (HSP), you may notice you experience anxiety more often or more intensely than those around you. In my last blog post (which you can find HERE), I explored how and why HSPs feel things deeper than others. As a HSP you are prone to be more sensitive to stimuli in your environment and may become easily overwhelmed. This may happen even with subtle stimuli that other people may not notice.
And then there’s our friend anxiety. I talk A LOT about anxiety around here. Anxiety is a common occurrence for everyone and a totally normal feeling. It’s plays an important role in your life; it is what keeps you safe, alerts you to something not in line with your values, and help you get shit done. It starts to become a problem when it gets in the way of daily activities or creates difficulties in your relationships.
If you're highly sensitive--and especially if you have both traits--then there's a higher chance that your anxiety will become chronic and pervasive throughout your life.
What is anxiety?
As a little refresher - JUST IN CASE - anxiety is a feeling of dread, unease and nervousness. It can be triggered by many things, including stress, trauma and depression. Anxiety is also one of many symptoms of mental health diagnoses like PTSD or OCD. There’s a lot to be said about about anxiety, but for the sake of simplicity for this post, we will keep it at that. If you want more in depth info on anxiety disorders check out this post or more information on ways therapy can help anxiety, click here.
Anxiety as a useful emotion
Anxiety is actually a very helpful emotion. Yea, yea - hear me out! It’s the feeling that tells you when something is wrong and needs your attention. Without anxiety, it would be hard to know when something is off in our internal or external world. For example, you might notice your heart racing, changes in breathing, or palm sweating when you’re on the way to the airport. This is anxiety warning you about the uncertainties and lack of control in travel. The anxiety doesn’t mean you need to turn around and go home, rather it is there to alert to being extra careful and cautious to double-check the things that are in your control such as checking our passport and luggage.
So while it can feel like anxiety is getting out of control when it seems like there are unknowns than (which IS normal), know that being highly sensitive means being extra aware of danger—but also extra aware of opportunity as well!
The sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.
Say what? Stay with me a moment and channel your 12th grade anatomy class. In simple terms - the sympathetic and parasymathetic nervous system make up the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is part of the autonomic (automatic) nervous system that is responsible for regulating your bodily functions such as heart rate and digestion. Have you ever had butterflies in your stomach when your nervous or excited? Does your heart start to race when you’re nervous? That’s the vagus nerve at work!
The sympathetic system kicks in when you're in survival (fight or flight) mode. When engaged your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate increase preparing your body to fight or run away from danger.
The parasympathetic system, on the other hand, is the calming center. It calms all systems down once the threat passes. When this happens, you may notice your muscles relaxing, heart rate slowing. and your digestive system slows to process as needed.
These two systems work together as a push-pull balance—one goes up while the other drops down—to help keep us balanced internally even though there's no obvious external threat at hand. This means that highly sensitive people tend to experience heightened levels of both stress (the push), but also relaxation (the pull). HSPs are also more frequently in a state of fight or flight creating physical symptoms of anxiety.
What happens to the body during when experiencing anxiety?
Anxiety is a body based emotion. It’s spicy. Because of this, you KNOW when you’re feeling anxiety. Anxiety is an emotion to be experienced in order for it to be fully processed. The physical symptoms you might experience when feeling anxious includes -
· Difficulty breathing
· Tense muscles
· Sweaty palms
· Trembling
· Rapid heartbeat
· Abdominal issues.
HSPs may feel anxiety more intensely because of their sensitivity. They may be more aware subtle changes in their body - a light heart flutter or slight trembling may be more noticeable to them than others and may experience the sensations more intensely.
That's why it's so important for HSPs—and others who experience anxiety—to understand their physical reactions so they can act accordingly when they feel their anxiety go up a notch or two.
Anxiety can be triggered by stress
You can experience stress in the three areas of your body - physical, mental or emotional. Stress happens with either a single even or compounded by a series events and can be unpredictable if you’re not paying attention. As a HSP, stress is often the result of many smaller difficult moments that are hard to deal with in your day-to-day life as a HSP. These include:
· Having too many responsibilities at work or home
· Lack of sleep (or poor quality sleep) over an extended period of time
· Not setting appropriate boundaries
Stress can become chronic and lead to chronic anxiety
If you’re a HSP, you may experience chronic stress which can make you more prone to chronic anxiety.
There are two types of chronic stress: adaptive (positive) and maladaptive (negative). Adaptive stress is when you learn something new after experiencing a challenge or difficult experience (such as learning a new hobby or bad being in an car accident). Maladaptive stress is when difficulties don't improve over time because they keep being experienced over and over again without opportunity for growth or change, such as persistent work-related pressures.
It’s also helpful to remember that one person might not find an experience stressful while someone else might find it highly stressful. You might notice both of their reactions to the stressor are then different based on their differing perceptions. That's why it's important not only know yourself but also understand other people around us so we can better relate with them instead of judging ourselves according
Why are HSPs more likely to have heightened anxiety?
If you are a highly sensitive person, then you have a lot of interesting and unique complexities about you. But you also probable know that these complexities can be a burden at times.
Being more sensitive means experiencing emotions more intensely than other people do—and this includes ALL emotions. That sad kitten commercial on TV is likely to leave you shedding a few tears sobbing into your pillow for hours – I have to change these immediately! The sound of construction outside your window makes your heart pound because it feels like someone is hammering right through the wall.
You may also be introverted and empathetic, meaning that when other people are feeling down or upset by something they see or hear, it affects you too (even if only subconsciously). Highly sensitive types tend to care deeply about making others happy; this is one reason why many HSPs make great teachers and therapists because they want their students/clients to feel better about themselves after learning from them—it brings them joy!
HSPs also have a hard time asking for what they need and saying “no” because HSPs will feel the disappointment they think someone else feels when they do say “no” leading to potential people pleasing behaviors.
Bottom line
As a highly sensitive person you may notice a higher than average level of sensitivity to your environment. You pick up on things more quickly and feel them more deeply than other people do. This can make it harder for you to manage anxiety because you may be easily triggered by stressful situations. If you are someone who is overly anxious or stressed out all the time, then it may be worth checking further to see if you have the highly sensitive person trait - which can lead to a greater self-understanding and self-compassion!
Therapy can help
If you feel like you’re getting stuck along the way or want more guided support, it may be time to seek a consultation with a therapist. Contact Real Well Therapy here or call 512-686-7009.
Want to learn more about how anxiety therapy can help you? Click here!
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Disclaimer: the information provided in this blog post is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice or a substitute for professional consultation. If you are experiencing emotional distress, please reach out to a qualified mental health professional.
