SENSITIVITY IS A BRAIN DIFFERENCE
The scientific community acknowledges ‘neurodiversity’— the biological reality that human beings are all wired differently, meaning emotional sensitivity is a form of brain variance— an innate trait that makes one different from the normative way of functioning and responding. As an evolutionary advantage emotionally sensitive individuals have a mind that operates outside of society’s norm and is often pushed to the margins.
Being sensitive and intense often points to intelligence, talent, or creativity. However, after years of being misdiagnosed and criticized by health professionals and school authorities, many sensitive people do believe there is something wrong with them. And ironically, low self-esteem and loneliness make them more susceptible to developing an actual mental and personality disorder.
Scientific frameworks have emerged to explain the differences in sensitivity, since the 1990s. Tools like the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) to measure such differences are used by medical professionals and some of the most prominent are sensory processing sensitivity, ‘differential susceptibility theory’, and ‘biological sensitivity to context’ (Lionetti et al., 2018). Results have shown how from birth, human beings differ in their neurological makeup, having their own consciousness spectrum based on how the brain is wired to process, respond or react to external stimuli and sensations. Amongst the first scholars to examine sensitivity as a brain difference, Harvard developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan found that some infants are more aroused and distressed by novel stimuli— a stranger coming into the room, a noxious smell. Any new situation is a potential threat, to these cautious and sensitive infants. When exposed to stress, their brain has different biochemical responses. Their system secretes higher levels of norepinephrine (our brain’s version of adrenaline) and stress hormones like cortisol -they have a fear system that is more active than most. Meaning, that the regions of the brain that receive signals for potential threats are extra reactive, and vulnerable to stress-related disease, chronic pain and fatigue, migraine headaches, and environmental stimuli ranging from smell, sight, and sound to electromagnetic influences.
Sensitivity is like a ‘highly leveraged evolutionary bet’ that carries both high risks and potential rewards’ (Dobbs, 2009). The very sensitive minds that suffer in a precarious childhood environment are the same minds most likely to flourish and prosper. In fact, they have the most capacity to be unusually vital, creative, and successful.
“I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery.