Distinguishing Between Trauma and High Sensitivity

Differentiating Trauma from High Sensitivity – Part 2 of 3

The following table shows how you can distinguish high sensitivity or possible traumatization. Do you also find yourself a lot in the left column, even though you assume you don't have a trauma background? A lot has happened in trauma research in recent years. It has been discovered that there are other possibilities of traumatization. They are not as obvious, but they have much more profound impairments. At the end of this table, we continue to the third and final part. You find more information about possible causes of trauma. Perhaps you are affected without knowing it.

Traumatized people:	Highly sensitive people:
are often permanently on the move. They avoid coming to rest, as this is an unpleasant state for them. They often get sick on vacation because their body then collapses, and it rushes from overstimulation to understimulation.	seek peace. They need time, preferably alone, without input. They enjoy these times. If they don't get these times, they feel uncomfortable. "Time-outs" provide strength.
often suffer from insomnia.	tend to be over-sleepers.
generally appear more nervous or emotionally detached.	are generally rather calm, but emotionally present.
tend to be distrustful.	rather seek connection and the positive.
in many cases have memory gaps. Some can hardly remember their childhood at all.	usually have a very good episodic memory with many memories of very early years of life.
have more of an egocentric empathy that scans for danger. This tends to keep others at a distance.	feel "real" empathy, through which others feel seen and understood.
often have little to no body awareness. They have difficulty perceiving and naming bodily sensations.	possess an extremely good sense of body awareness. They have a pronounced physical early warning system. Highly sensitive women can often feel their ovulation, and many report that they felt the moment of conception and knew they were now pregnant. They perceive sensations in a very differentiated way and can also name them.
tend to self-medicate for calming; for example, with alcohol or medication.	tend to avoid taking even medically prescribed medications and often drink no alcohol or very little.
are also verbally destructive during outbursts of anger.	in their anger tend to withdraw with the motto "Leave me alone!" without verbally abusing.

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With in-depth explanations!

Traumatized people:	Highly sensitive people:
get lost in daydreams.	are generally more down-to-earth and realistic.
often feel alone (partly even in company) with a feeling of loneliness.	like to be alone because they can better come to themselves then.
tend to be more esoteric, if there is a corresponding inclination. Partly "out of touch".	are, with a corresponding inclination, more spiritually connected to life.
have a sense of meaninglessness.	believe in a deeper meaning.
have difficulty forming bonds.	love deep connections in friendship and partnership.
find it hard to tolerate strong positive feelings.	fully experience strong positive emotions. For example, they can become completely absorbed in music, art, or beautiful nature.
rarely or never feel their "gut feeling".	perceive their gut feeling, but unfortunately do not always take it seriously.
tend to perceive heightened sensory perception more in the form of unpleasant sensory stimuli.	experience negative as well as positive sensory stimuli very intensely.
tend to use the term high sensitivity more as a shield and identify too strongly with it (especially those who are "only" traumatized and not actually highly sensitive).	use the term high sensitivity more as a crutch that supports but is not carried around.
have difficulty perceiving their own boundaries and those of others and do not notice that they are crossing the boundaries of others.	have a very fine sense of boundaries. They are very careful to respect the boundaries of others. At the same time, they often have difficulty asserting their own boundaries.
often feel "wrong".	tend to feel "different".

Traumatized HSPs retain many characteristics of high sensitivity

Those were just a few of the characteristics that can be used to distinguish high sensitivity from trauma. In situations where the comfort zone is left, the reactions are identical. Highly sensitive people with a secure attachment and good self-regulation, however, return to their window of tolerance relatively quickly. They pay attention to their body perception and act accordingly. Traumatized people feel completely at the mercy of overstimulation situations. They tend to emotionally "explode" or "implode" (collapse).

People who are traumatized and highly sensitive usually continue to show a high level of empathy. . Most with a high social, ethical, and ecological awareness. Of course, also with the many other characteristics that high sensitivity exhibits. In my experience, HSPs tend to collapse more easily.

Many people don't even know they are traumatized. They assume that trauma is only caused by a terrible event, such as an accident. However, there are other types of traumatization that most people are unaware of. I will go into more detail on two of them in the third and final part.