Highly Sensitive Person Diagnosis: How and Why it Matters

“Did you get a highly sensitive person diagnosis by a professional or did you self-diagnose?” is a common question in forums for highly sensitive people (HSP), or parents of highly sensitive children (HSC).

What is a Diagnosis?

According to Merriam Webster:

“Diagnosis: investigation or analysis of the cause or nature of a condition, situation or problem.” or

“the art of act of identifying a disease from its signs and symptoms.”

First thing’s first and I cannot stress this enough. High sensitivity is not an illness, nor a disorder. And it certainly doesn’t always lead to problems – once you understand it.

What is Highly Sensitive?

Being highly sensitive is about how your nervous system picks up and processes sensory information around you. This processing is generally deeper and more intense than non-highly sensitives.

High sensitivity is about personality traits. It’s about how you respond to the information that your system processes. It’s the essence of who you are and why you respond the way you do in different situations.

How Do You Learn You Are Highly Sensitive?

In my experience, many parents come to learn about their child being highly sensitive through a passing comment. Usually from someone who spends a lot of time with their child. This could be teachers, family members or friends.

Or they read an article, or stumble upon a blog post and connect the dots.

Parents are usually set along the highly sensitive path by someone who sees a behaviour or trait in their child that they recognise as a potential highly sensitive characteristic.

In my case it was a pre-school teacher who witnessed my son’s intense separation anxiety that lasted for months. She saw how tears formed in his eyes if another child hurt themselves or felt upset. His teacher saw his caution whilst other children leapt without thinking. She threw the words ‘highly sensitive’ into the air. I scooped them up and ran with them.

I read everything I could read on the topic. Elaine Aron became a huge name in our home. I found Aron’s HSC checklist and decided I was definitely on the right path. Lightbulbs glowed brightly as I read The Highly Sensitive Child (UK link here). So, in our case, it was a self-diagnosis.

Professional Opinion But Unlikely a Highly Sensitive Person Diagnosis

Sometimes that initial nudge onto the highly sensitive path comes from a medical professional or a therapist or psychologist. High sensitivity may explain behaviours or issues. Such as anxiety or being a picky eater, for example.

But even then an official professional diagnosis is unlikely.  Not in the same way a parent may get a diagnosis of autism or ADHD for their child.

High sensitivity is not on a professional’s checklist. And there is a simple reason for this. In Elaine Aron’s words:

“Your trait is normal. It is found in 15 to 20% of the population – too many to be a disorder, but not enough to be well understood by the majority of those around you.” 

A few years back a child therapist relayed to us that my son was indeed probably highly sensitive. She had ruled out everything else on her checklist. She determined that there was nothing wrong with my child (which I of course already knew) and she wrote it in her report. That’s as far as she could go.

A Label Gets You Help

The brutal reality is that a label helps you get the support you need in the education system for specific behaviours or traits that cause issues in school. That’s why many parents understandably seek an official diagnosis.

However, the reality is it’s impossible to get a diagnosis for something that is not an illness or a disorder.

Understanding Your Traits

Being highly sensitive is no reason to hightail it to your doctor or medical professional. Instead, read to develop your understanding of what being highly sensitive means.

There’s a list of reading resources here to help you.

Talk to other parents of highly sensitive children. Or to parents who are highly sensitive themselves. With this in mind you can join the Happy Sensitive Kids Facebook community here.

A ‘self-diagnosis’ of highly sensitive helps you understand yourself or your child better. Understanding puts you in a great place to move forward.

From Understanding to Getting Support

Once you have a good understanding of what highly sensitive is, and how it effects you or your child, there are tools to support you.

If you can not explain problem behaviours or traits with high sensitivity professional advice could be your next step.

A professional can help frame what being highly sensitive means for you or your child. However, professional help is not an automatic requirement.

Note that many medical or mental health professionals do not understand high sensitivity. So you need to do your homework to find the right person to help you.

Self-Diagnosis is a Great First Step

Self-diagnosis is often enough to give you real insight. Self-diagnosis is about self discovery. And it is the first step to parenting differently. Or living your life differently.

Tip: For a follow up to this topic read My Child is Highly Sensitive – Now What?

Over to You

How did you discover your child is highly sensitive? Have you been able to get a highly sensitive person diagnosis in order to get the help you need?