Hmm I don't know if it classifies as the same exercise but in a anxiety support group I had attended we did a bit of role playing with each other. The idea was to partner up with someone and put yourself in a position that gives you panic attacks and anxiety such as driving, attending an event that would have a lot of people, leaving your home or whatever it was that scared you. You would write down the place and all the things that frightened you about being there and what you think might happen to you. The other person would write down what they think you could do in your situation. It was a way to see your fear from another angle as well as getting ideas on how to overcome it. I thought it was quite interesting.

Very interesting...I have to think about this. I'm just not sure at what point the situation becomes a problem of overwhelm. I think it has a lot to do with how trapped I feel.

I have not done that yet but I may. Re-reading "The HSP" book I'm beginning to differentiate between over-stimulation and anxiety, or fear. Before I did not know there was a difference, now I do, so I'll work harder on bringing it to consciousness. Somehow there seems to be a different feeling between anxiety and over-stimulation, where it's easier for me to accept that I'm 'just' over-stimulated rather than anxious. Why? I donno...maybe because I have a valid reason for feeling anxious, a cause: over-arousal. Before I couldn't understand why I was nervous, edgy, and anxious; now I do. That information seems to calm me, sort of like "Oh! That's all it is, I'm being unconsciously over-stimulated! Nothing to fear; just withdraw to a place where I can limit my stimulation".

Not yet but I have several real life situations I would like to overcome that point! Thank you for sharing this!

I havent done this..i think my counselor will try that with me sooner or later..most likely later as im not really in-tune with my body. But it does sound kinda intresting

Over-stimulation and anxiety are a pair of two different shoes in my case. In my case over-stimulation is when my ability to perceive is impaired. I find this unpleasant, and sometimes annoying, but not fearful.

An example is when I have to concentrate on something in particular. I can do multi-tasking up to a certain point, but I am amazed at times at the assumptions of some people. For instance, at work, half the emails I receive are in English, and naturally I answer them in English. But the moment some colleague bursts into my office and asks me a question in German, I won't answer. Sometimes I won't even look up at them, and they find this insulting.

That's because although I am essentially bi-lingual, I cannot think in two different languages which have two completely different syntax structures simultaneously. The languages "live in different parts of my brain" if you will. And being "attacked" with two concentration assignments at once is over-stimulation. My ears usually lose, and if somebody asks me a question in one language, while reading the other, the ears lose over to the eyes. Turning letters into words into speech in my head needs more concentration than listening.

This sense of overwhelming is to a greater extent controllable. It becomes worse when going to a crowded event, not only because of the over-stimulation, from too many conversations going on at once, that I don't understand, but the situation is compounded by their behaviour. For instance, their sense of personal space violates mine. I don't like being jostled, touched, or pushed or shoved by strangers. My therapist wanted me to explore why I feel like this always a personal attack, but I resisted, because I explained that is way I am. Being touched or jostled by strangers is a violation of intimacy for me, and I should have the right to decide who may touch me, and who may not. And it is difficult not to feel animosity towards people who jostle push and bump me without apologising, because it is a lack of personal respect.

In the end it boiled down that I don't like noisy parties full of strangers - especially drunken strangers - because they have lost all respect for your person and your personal space. It upsetting because they believe they have the right to treat you intimately without my permission.

To me a key word here is "respect". I think everyone needs to be respected (whether they are aware of it or not) I choose to respect other people & to honour them.

The only behavior I can't tolerate is cruelty of any kind...but especially cruelty to innocent animals who cannot speak for themselves.

Weissdorn, I am also sensitive to noise. I have a hard time sitting in a group with more than one conversation going on at a time. I cannot even imagine having to sort out another language aswell.

I occassionally have the same problem. An explanation may be our HSP ability to focus intently and in depth, which is natural for us. We have a lot going on in one particular area we're focued on and a request or 'demand' for an immediate change is too sudden to to 're-boot' our thinking to a new depth of concentration. I know there are times when I'm really intent that my environment fades to a low-sensory mode, and if anything needs be be done outside of my concentration it must break that depth of concentration.

Reading the HSP book, the jostling may be from infancy. The human brain typically does not develope memory recall untill the second year when the prefrontal cortex comes 'on-line'. So being held and played with by others as an infant may have been over-stimulating but there is no memory of any specific event. I have the same reaction to crowds and indistinct noises, like the 'many conversations' problem; again it make be the need we have to focus on only one conversation at a time according to our interests.

In my case, I suspect that as an HSP there is that unconscious ability for depth of attention that can almost be obsessive that causes a problem. Extraverts live in a world of breadth instead of depth and will typically 'praddle' on about anything just for the sake of 'noise' for want of a better word. They, for me, tend to jump from topic to topic, gossip to gossip, in their way of showing a need for understanding comformity and 'rules' of society in their 'herd' mentality, or the need to be around others. As an HSP I tend to be a loner and prefer silence and calm, extraverts prefer noise, activity, and being with others which is over-stimulating of course, for us HSP's. The herd mentality for extraverts makes sense for extraverts since they enjoy talking so much. One source on extraverts, possibly Lainey's book, suggested that extraverts can't 'think' unless their they're talking; they need to talk to think. It would explain their need to be in groups to socialize or join a 'herd' or tribe.

I know that my mind is usually spending its time working on some in-depth theoretical problem, staring out into imaginitive space (spaced-out) so when someone, an extravert for example, comes up with their latest 'emergency' to interupt me, it breaks that concentration too suddenly and takes me some time to re-focus, in depth again, on their problem, searching my memory automatically for details of what I may know or understand concerning that problem before I can even decide how responsible I may be for assisting them, or whether I really want to help them at all.

All that being said, one of the things I enjoy about the internet is that I can complete a thought, in detail and depth (somewhat) without being interupted in mid-thought. Of course what I've just written here is typical of my trait: high in theory, low in application.