We read Jenn Granneman and Andre Solo’s book Sensitive in the last edition of The Highly Sensitive Creative Book Club. One of the things that stood out to me was when they talked about the close intertwining of emotional and physical sensitivity:
“In common usage, sensitive can mean a person has big emotions – crying for joy, bursting with warmth, wilting from critique. It can also be physical; you may be sensitive to temperature or fragrance or sound. A growing body of scientific evidence tells us that these two types of sensitive are real and that they are in fact the same. Physical and emotional sensitivity are so closely linked that if you take Tylenol to numb a headache, research shows you will score lower on an empathy test until the medication wears off.”
How very interesting! If you take a Tylenol for a headache, your emotional sensitivity numbs as well.
That made me think of how important it is to be aware of this.
And my mind jumped to how I respond physically in very different ways, depending on how overwhelmed I am already feeling. I drink once-in-a-long-while, usually something like wine or a cocktail. Sometimes, this really helps me relax, and I totally have that feeling of time slowing down. And I don’t just feel this in the moment, but the effect carries into the next day.
But then, there are other times when a drink does the exact opposite.
For a few hours maybe, it feels relaxing. But then, the next day, I will almost feel depressed. And if I drank after I had already been feeling down, the crash is even worse.
I have to remind myself that alcohol is actually a depressant.
Because I don’t drink a lot, I don’t think about this much. But I have always had this instinctive sense that I need to be really careful around potentially addictive substances. I have written about this before in this post about the push and pull I feel around being an HSP who is also a high-sensation-seeker.
As someone who is really responsive, my highs are high AND my crashes are low.
Letting myself remain aware of this is a way to own who I am and a way to take of myself, instead of judging this about myself or comparing myself to how others react.
Ritu Kaushal is the author of the book The Empath’s Journey.
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