Huffington Magazine Issue 92-93 | Page 105

Exit cause the emotional reactivity is higher,” Aron explains. 7. They’re extremely detail-oriented. Highly sensitive people are the first ones to notice the details in a room, the new shoes that you’re wearing, or a change in weather. 8. Not all highly sensitive people are introverts. In fact, about 30 percent of highly sensitive people are extroverts, according to Aron. She explains that many times, highly sensitive people who are also extroverts grew up in a close-knit community — whether it be a culde-sac, small town, or with a parent who worked as a minister or rabbi — and thus would interact with a lot of people. 9. They work well in team environments. Because highly sensitive people are such deep thinkers, they make valuable workers and members of teams, Aron says. However, they may be well-suited for positions in teams where they don’t have to make the final decision. For instance, if a highly sensitive person was part of a medical team, he or she would be valuable in analyzing the pros and cons of a patient having surgery, while someone else THE THIRD METRIC HUFFINGTON 03.16-23.14 Even if there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ decision... highly sensitive people will still tend to take longer to choose because they are weighing every possible outcome.” would ultimately make the decision about whether that patient would receive the surgery. 10. They’re more prone to anxiety or depression (but only if they’ve had a lot of past negative experiences). “If you’ve had a fair number of bad experiences, especially early in life, so you don’t feel safe in the world or you don’t feel secure at home or ... at school, your nervous system is set to ‘anxious,’” Aron says. But that’s not to say that all highly sensitive people will go on to have anxiety. Having a supportive environment can go a long way to protecting against this. Parents of highly sensitive children, in particular, need to “realize these are really great kids, but they need to be handled in the right way,” Aron says. “You can’t over-protect them, but you can’t under-protect them, either.” 11. That annoying sound is probably significantly more annoying to a highly sensitive person. While it’s hard to say anyone is a fan of annoying noises, highly sensitive people are