INTP vs. HSP

[purpleninja]

I found this article on Psychology Today that made me feel seen, empowered, and understood.

Feeling Intensely: The Wounds of Being "Too Much"

Some people feel more than others. They are often told that they are too much, too intense, too sensitive, too emotional, or too dramatic.

www.psychologytoday.com

The article while acknowledging that differences of sensitivity are still being actively researched and not entirely understood, suggests that causes for emotional intensity could be being a highly sensitive person (HSP), being gifted, or suffering from a mental illness such as depression or ADHD.

To me the traits described in the article seemed to dovetail perfectly with the traits of an INTP. So could HSP and INTP be different ways of describing the same mindset?

Some of the traits reminded me of someone I love who's on the spectrum, and I've often wondered if I'm on the spectrum as well. Too bad I won't ever really know if I am; but it makes me wonder if the high end of the autistic spectrum is reflected in these traits as well? And if so what is the nature of the connection?

 

[Black Rose]

Autism is about being sensitive but it is because in autism a person has a build-up of proteins that causes them to metabolize differently in their brain cells. They cannot regulate the flows inside themselves so any signals they receive from the outside are not integrated back into the brain system.

The difference between introversion and extraversion is that introverts block signals out but also reflect on internal signals and extroverts take signals in and do not understand internal signals. Autism is just a build-up of the signal until the internal and external cannot be handled anymore and the person gets a meltdown.

INTP are people who have introverted thinking so they reflect more inside themselves when understanding things. It goes deep inward into what is possible and reasoning things out to the fullest extent. They can be autistic but normally an INTP with no autism just blocks the external signals out so has no meltdowns. INTP with Autism would have bad anxiety when thinking and taking external signals into themselves so would increase thinking of the external signals meaning they would focus all reflections of negative thoughts on why things are bad.

In other words, they would decide that the only thing to do would be to shut down and go deeper into reflection than normal INTP. INTP obliviousness is the stereotype but this would mean they stop functioning all together externally from an outside observer. Thoughts would not be frantic but still reasoned and constructive but focused on getting out of that situation. All options on the table and reasoned out to the fullest detail in shut down mode.

 

[birdsnestfern]

Not all are, I am HSP, INTP, Empath.
The cause of sensitivity is not always HSP, it can be autism or trauma, but whats true is all animals show a variety of sensitivities, some are shy, some are bold, it helps them survive to have the variety of types.

Here is the HSP test, you've probably seen it before:

https://hsperson.com/test/highly-sensitive-test/

 

[purpleninja]

Thank you! I don't think I've taken the HSP quiz. I'll see what I get. Mostly I'm trying to understand myself and make peace with myself, and if I can make some friends who understand me along the way, so much the better. Trauma is definitely a thing. I have CPTSD and I can recognize my triggered responses, but I also tend to just feel everything intensely. I can be joyous and deeply connected and I can be despairing and self-destructive. It's hard to know what to attribute the sensitivity to. If I knew, maybe I could find better tailored solutions. The big question that I want to answer though is "what does normal for me look like?". I can't always tell where mental illness ends and my personality begins.

 

[birdsnestfern]

I have a feeling that what causes empaths to be more sensitive is that they have many more neurons that are detecting information (sensory, chemical, etherial, etc) in 'the field' and environment. The field IS consciousness outside yourself. So this is a good reason to optimize your nervous system, its myelin sheaths and neuron endings, as they are in many of your organs, brain, liver, gut, heart, as information centers. Beets help heal those sheaths.

 

[ZenRaiden]

The big question that I want to answer though is "what does normal for me look like?". I can't always tell where mental illness ends and my personality begins.

Same here.
Yesterday I studied languages, and my mind was thrown into stress response.
I burnout several times, had depressions and constant anxiety all my life.
Now that I got rid of most of my anxiety, I still have random triggers that can cause me to feel out of control.
I decided to pull myself together. Some people as I read comments on CPTSD youtube comment section spend years pulling themselves together.
I decided to do it now, because I did not know I am this screwed up.
Knowing what is me, and what is a trauma triggered pattern is hard.
What is good stress and normal response is hard now that I feel things after lifetime of not feeling stuff.

TLDR> I have no answer for this question yet. Maybe I can only hope to workout what works best.

 

[ZenRaiden]

I have a feeling that what causes empaths to be more sensitive is that they have many more neurons that are detecting information (sensory, chemical, etherial, etc) in 'the field' and environment. The field IS consciousness outside yourself. So this is a good reason to optimize your nervous system, its myelin sheaths and neuron endings, as they are in many of your organs, brain, liver, gut, heart, as information centers. Beets help heal those sheaths.

I have a pet theory that we all have differently primed nervous systems.

I think the easiest way to categorize humans is in four different neuro types.

Specifically to
1) highly reactive - slow burn which is essentially HSP
2) highly reactive - fast burn like super extroverts
3) slow reactive -slow burn which is essentially phlegmatic introverts
4) slow reactive - fast burn

By how reactive we are I mean our natural innate sensitivity of nerve endings.
By slow and fast burn I mean how long the stimulus lasts after it hit the nervous system and how long it takes for the nervous system to process the energy until you get to base line.
I am mostly nervous system type 1. I am highly reactive, and stimuli last forever to get to base line.
4) slow reactive fastburn people have the lightest nervous system that shakes off things faster, but they can still be sensitive in sense their nervous system might be able to work with multifold stimuli at the same time. Like ESTP> who can process quickly 16 different body and mind inputs at the same type, could be said to be fast burn , but slow reactive ergo filter out lot of stuff so it rarely gets over stimulated by lots of data.

Its just semantics, but I would not be surprised if humans have 10s if not 100s of different neuro types.

 

[scorpiomover]

I found this article on Psychology Today that made me feel seen, empowered, and understood.

Feeling Intensely: The Wounds of Being "Too Much"

Some people feel more than others. They are often told that they are too much, too intense, too sensitive, too emotional, or too dramatic.

www.psychologytoday.com

The article lists several traits. I doubt that they are always clustered together.

To me the traits described in the article seemed to dovetail perfectly with the traits of an INTP. So could HSP and INTP be different ways of describing the same mindset?

I suppose. But not necessarily.

Some of the traits reminded me of someone I love who's on the spectrum, and I've often wondered if I'm on the spectrum as well. Too bad I won't ever really know if I am; but it makes me wonder if the high end of the autistic spectrum is reflected in these traits as well? And if so what is the nature of the connection?

Most of the characteristics listed in the article refer to people who don't conform, and are unable to even fake conforming. So I suspect that's the connection.

Alternatively, the traits cluster.