The signs of prejudice against sensitivity are easy enough to spot once you learn to read between the lines, to catch those descriptions of sensitivity as a "syndrome" or that such people are "out of balance" or "frequently lose control" or are "over-reacting" or "unable to perceive accurately" due to bodies with "excessive" this or "abnormal" that.
I stopped [counting the references in which] Kramer expressed his concern about a society in which Prozac was used too freely, making people more bland, self-centered, and insensitive.
Will everyone have to take Prozac, and then Super Prozac, just to have that competitive edge of high stress tolerance?
[Make two columns and divide the list into disadvantages on the left and benefits on the right of your HSP trait.] A much higher total on the left suggests that you might want to keep looking for a helpful medication (or that it is still difficult for you to accept who you are). --E.A. discussing medication and the book, Listening to Prozac
I found this chapter very provocative in terms of the personal and philosophical challenges it reflects on. An HSP, being negatively labeled and disvalued by society, will surely notice this and will likely feel compelled to correct their abnormality. Correcting the abnormality, though, will reduce his or her sensitivity that led to the recognition of this problem of being "over-sensitive." Ironic. And how does someone judge appropriately whether their trait is "excessive" or "abnormal?" A renowned composer obsessed with her latest opus will be granted the freedom to pursue this obsession. A 60-hour-a-week working businessman will be praised for his hard-work and perseverance. A Highly Sensitive Person will be put on medication to correct their "over" sensitivity.
When I was a teenager, I had appointments with both a psychotherapist and a psychiatrist. My diagnosis was "borderline" OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), for which I was prescribed Anafranil. I immediately read the book, The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing, to find out who I was. (In retrospect, I think there was a certain satisfaction I got from learning that I had a recognized condition that explained my weirdness.) The problem was that I did not identify with those behaviors, nor those thoughts. That was right around the time that Elaine's research was being published about the Highly Sensitive Person trait. I didn't learn about this HSP trait until late last year, which was 17 years after that diagnosis.
I am thankful that I had the intuition and courage to refuse medication therapy way back when I was 16. I didn't even have many therapy sessions because my insurance only covered a few. For most of my lifetime, I felt out-of-sync with society at large, whether I was living in the US, France, or Thailand. I liked bits and pieces of each culture, but never felt "at home" in any of them. Coming upon Elaine's book was a huge revelation to me in that it explained so many of my experiences and physical reactivities, from childhood on through to the present day. I wasn't an alien after all, I was just an HSP!
There is something beautiful and "right" about allowing that which is integral to you to just be. It's really hard to know what behaviors and thoughts are just part of a person, and which are imposed or manifested because of wounds and trauma. It is the work of each person, and especially HSPs, to be willing to get messy in the internal world of exploding stars and shark-infested waters. It's hard work. And it's......never, ever, ending.
Elaine is very calm and reasoned about advising HSPs to consider their choices and choose medication if they think it's worth the risk. I am much less impartial and would advise HSPs to choose medication only as a last resort. I know the world is a tough place to survive and thrive in, but perhaps it's our job to make it less so.
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