Yes this is part of being an HSP. I do believe it falls under central sensitization. We can pick up small nuances in our environment like nobody's business; to include picking up changes in a person's tone or body language. I work on using mindfulness to keep me at a good equilibrium along with self-talk. When something comes up I remind myself that people say and do mean and inconsiderate things. Further, most of them don't even know who I really am so I don't let it phase me as it did years ago (I am 59). However, it used to bother me quite a bit and like you keep me upset for a while. So when thoughts pop up I let them go using mindfulness and it makes life much easier. Hope this help:)

Thanks for your reply katzenmother! It makes me feel better to know others have experienced this.

We read between the lines, and we figure out most of the time the real meaning of what has been said. Doing so, we often forgot than we can be wrong in our interpretation and some other times the word said really meant what they were meant to mean.


Any way, it is your call to decide if it was true or not, to improve yourself.
Your family would probably not meant to hurt you, that's a good clue to figure out if it was meant to hurt you or not to start with.

Most of the time, nobody want to upset you, and you probably just misunderstood.
I recently discovered that some people have a personality who is harder to handle due to their behaviour. You cannot change everyone around you, just adapt yourself or make a change in your life.

Yes Andrea,
I experience the same feelings, and of course, I believe it's all HSP related. Out of all the traits of being an HSP, for me, the sensitivity to others comments or actions is definitely the worst of all because people can be very cold and hurtful. I swear half the time people don't even realize what they are saying! I think the other replies you received are excellent, now if I could just apply them to my life, I'd be a whole lot better off. Smh

I definitely can pick up on the subtleties and undertones of other people's words and actions and I suffer from taking most everything personally.

A couple of things that I have been putting into practice lately - First, I tell myself that the other person's words or actions have much more to say about them than than they do about me; Second, I remind myself that most people spend much of their time thinking about themselves, so I assure myself that they aren't doing a lot of thinking about me. They've probably already moved on and I am off the hook!

I can definitely relate to this. I take many things personally and wear my heart on my sleeve. I wish I wasn't that way.