 The term highly sensitive has a deeper definition than what it's become known as in today's society. It was coined in the mid 1990s by psychologists, Elaine and Arthur Aaron, to describe individuals who process events or situations more than others. Unfortunately, the term came with a negative stigma. For many years, society perceived highly sensitive people as over thinkers, or people who took things too personally. They were perceived as sensitive, touchy, high maintenance. Many were diagnosed as autistic when they may not have actually been on the autism spectrum. Although individuals with autism and high sensitivity experience sensitivity to their environments, they aren't interchangeable. Here are a few traits many HSP people exhibit or experience. Notice changes easily. Not everyone's central nervous systems are the same. Highly sensitive people tend to have a greater capacity for feeling and processing more information in their environment. Consequently, HSP's react with more stress and quickly notice subtle changes in their environment. According to Andre Solow from Psychology Today, both though being autistic and having high sensitivity are two different things. Autistic children and HSP's may react in a similar way when they get overwhelmed by a noisy or busy environment. Those with autism shutting down or having tantrums in the HSP child may act the same way if they haven't been taught strategies by their parents, like having time alone and learning to say no to avoid becoming too overwhelmed. Sound sensitivity. Did you ever wonder how on earth Superman kept his sanity? The guy had super hearing and if you are an HSP, you might share his pain. As a result, a highly sensitive person is more reactive to sounds in their environment, so loud noises can be uncomfortable or unbearable. According to researcher Bianca Acevedo and her colleagues, being an HSP is a trait, not a disorder, that 20% of people and many other species have. Studies have shown that highly sensitive people are also affected by other people's moods. This sensitivity is also common for autistic people, but they have a different brain structure compared to highly sensitive people. The overlaps in those with autism or HSP occur with sounds and noises. But even though both conditions involve a sensitivity toward sound, the reasons are different. An autistic person's brain structure may be the cause of the noise sensitivity. Researchers White House and Bishop say it may be due to processes in the brain interfering with encoding and early processing of sound. Either way, being super sensitive to sound means that normally noisy environments, like being in a small or busy downtown center, may make you feel uncomfortable or overwhelmed. There was a theory that processing sounds was at the heart of speech and language learning problems and sound sensitivity in some autistic people. But in the early 2000s, Nicole Russo and her team at the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory disproved this theory and established measurable differences in auditory pathways, which can explain why speech or complex sound causes sensitivity. For HSPs, their brains activate in areas associated with empathy, social processing and reflection. According to Rachel Samson, psychologist, HSP is a marker of an expansive central nervous system. So it's not simply down to genes. Your environment also plays a role and can help determine how it's handled as an adult. Samson writes that studies suggest that an unsupportive and stressful childhood environment may contribute to the development of high sensitivity. They may feel intense emotions or pain more than other children and may not learn how to constructively deal with their issues and end up in a negative cycle of being ostracized or more hurt. On the plus side, if they can learn how to handle their sensitivities, like when to graciously decline an invitation or how to exit a situation when it becomes too much, that can be supportive. Our genes and environment contribute to our mental and health development, but they don't define us. You can find ways to thrive with the right coping mechanisms for you if you are a highly sensitive person.