Highly sensitive person: why you get overstimulated so easily

By mid-afternoon in an open-plan office, a highly sensitive person can feel worn out without having done anything unusual: the hum of conversations, the ringing phones, the bright lights, a colleague’s bad mood two desks away. A sharp remark from a manager replays in their head all evening. A piece of music can move them to tears, and after a lively party they need a quiet day to recover. From an early age they have often been told they are “too sensitive”, as if it were something to fix.

What is high sensitivity?

High sensitivity is a temperament trait, not a disorder or a diagnosis. It was described in 1997 by the American psychologists Elaine and Arthur Aron at Stony Brook University in New York. In a series of seven studies they asked well over a thousand people about their reactions to noise, bright light, strong smells, caffeine, art, other people’s moods and busy days, and found that these reactions hang together. From this they built a questionnaire that is still used today. In research the trait is called sensory processing sensitivity; in everyday language, high sensitivity.

It has four main features. The first is depth of processing: a sensitive person thinks things through carefully, notices consequences and takes longer over decisions. The second is being easily overstimulated: noise, crowds, deadlines and a packed day wear them down faster than others. The third is strong emotional reactions and empathy: they feel both their own emotions and other people’s moods more intensely. The fourth is noticing subtle details, such as a change in someone’s tone of voice, a new picture on the wall or a faint smell. And sensitivity is not only about the unpleasant: such people respond just as strongly to good things, such as beauty, music, kindness and pleasant surroundings.

How common is it?

Sensitivity is not something a person either has or lacks: everyone sits somewhere on a scale. In 2018 Francesca Lionetti, Michael Pluess and colleagues at Queen Mary University of London analysed questionnaires from 906 American students and found that people fall into three groups: about 30% high in sensitivity, 40% in the middle and 30% low. In a further experiment with students in London, the more sensitive a student was, the more a cheerful film clip lifted their mood.

Sensitivity is partly inherited: genes account for roughly half of the differences between people, and the rest is mostly down to each person’s own life experience.

What it feels like from the inside

Overstimulation builds up through the day. In a Belgian study, adults recorded how overloaded they felt five times a day for a week. Overload rose for everyone in the afternoon and around other people, but highly sensitive people felt it more when the sounds around them or what they could see (clutter or harsh light, for example) were unpleasant, when they were tired or in a bad mood. But when there was plenty that was pleasant around them, when they were rested, or when they were in a good mood, they felt less overloaded than others.

From the inside, overload feels like irritability for no obvious reason, tension in the body, difficulty thinking and a strong urge to be alone in silence. This is not unfriendliness: the nervous system simply needs a break. Criticism, too, goes deeper: a sensitive person processes every word, so a single remark can occupy them for hours. Tears come easily, from hurt and from being moved alike.

Why surroundings matter more

The key idea in modern research is that sensitive people react more strongly to their environment in both directions. In harsh conditions they suffer more than others; in supportive ones they gain more than others.

In 2015 Michael Pluess and Ilona Boniwell tested this in a girls’ secondary school in East London. One year group of 11-year-old girls took part in a programme designed to build resilience and prevent depression; the year group above, who had ordinary lessons instead, served as a comparison. In the highly sensitive girls, depressive symptoms fell and were still lower a year later. For girls low in sensitivity, the programme made no difference at all.

Childhood matters in the same way. In American studies, sensitive people who remembered a cold or difficult childhood were more prone to shyness and low mood as adults, while those whose parents had been attentive and caring were no more shy or low in mood than other people. A 2025 review of 33 studies from Queen Mary University of London found that high sensitivity is moderately linked with depression and anxiety; as the studies above show, much depends on the conditions a person lives in.

How it differs from anxiety, introversion and autism

Sensitivity and anxiety often go together but are not the same. With an anxiety disorder, fear or worry is out of proportion to the situation, hard to control, lasts for weeks or months and gets in the way of daily life. Sensitivity in itself means reacting more strongly, not being afraid. Overload and anxiety can feel alike in the body, so they are easily confused, and they can feed each other.

Many sensitive people are introverts, but not all: some love company and simply need more time to recover afterwards. In autism, reactions to sound, light or touch can be heightened, but also dulled, and there are also differences in communication and behaviour; high sensitivity is a normal variation in temperament. Some sensitive people also have ADHD traits, but sensitivity in itself does not mean difficulties with attention or impulsivity. If such questions arise, it is worth discussing them with a GP or another specialist.

What helps

Sensitivity cannot be switched off, but there is no need to: it is simply a feature of the nervous system. But a person can learn to manage the load. It helps to keep notes for a couple of weeks on when overload happens, so as to find one’s own limit, and to plan days around it: tackling demanding tasks in the morning, leaving gaps between meetings and planning recovery after busy days. A quiet room at work, fewer unpleasant sounds and more pleasant ones, sleep and regular meals can all make a real difference. Headphones help in the moment, though shutting out all sound all the time can make ordinary noise harder to bear; pleasant music often works better than silence.

When criticised, it helps to give oneself time to respond. In relationships, it helps to explain to a partner that the need to be alone is about recharging, not about them. In a small Dutch study from 2010, 47 adults whom their doctors had identified as highly sensitive took an eight-week course in meditation and attention to the present moment, and afterwards reported less stress and social anxiety and more self-acceptance.

If anxiety or low mood lasts for several weeks, it is worth seeing a GP. In England, adults can refer themselves to NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression without going through a GP, or see a private psychotherapist. Psychotherapy can also help a person understand their sensitivity better.

High sensitivity is a way of perceiving the world more fully. In harsh surroundings it is a burden; in good ones it gives depth, attentiveness and a stronger response to the good things in life.