Highly Sensitive Drinkers
Reflections on drinking as an HSP.
Recently I’ve been reading Elaine N. Aron’s famous book The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You. It came out in 1997 and I know a lot of people who say it changed their life.
I’ve always been a bit skeptical about how much use it could have, which is why I’m so late to the party.
Well, I have to say I’m shocked. It has put a lot of things from my life in perspective, and now I have a theory that highly sensitive people (HSPs) are at a higher risk for alcohol problems than the average person.
I’ll review what an HSP is, give some examples of how it has affected my life, and then describe how this relates to drinking.
Highly Sensitive People
It is estimated that around 15–20% of people have the trait of being highly sensitive. The hypothesis for its origins is that variations in sensitivity evolved so that people would play different important roles necessary for survival.
Low sensitive people would act fearlessly and chase down the hunt. They could stay brave in the face of a roaring lion. This was obviously important for survival. Noticing details and being sensitive to stimuli would only make them worse at their role.
