Hyper. Sensitive.

Recently I found an article about hyper sensitivity. Until then I didn’t even know such a thing would exist. But after reading it I’m pretty sure: I must be hyper sensitive too. It would make a lot of sense, because I can tick all the boxes:

• I love going out, but I always feel lost or excluded in a pub or restaurant. It’s impossible for me to follow a group conversation because I see and hear everything and everybody simultanieously, including waitresses, music, that man in the corner and the mobile phone going three tables away. It’s a total mess in my ears. Therefore, I’d miss all the jokes and I’ll zone out after a short while, looking as absent as Ferdinand the bull, enjoying the smell of my drink only.
  
• I can’t work on a plane or in a café. It’s impossible to focus. I’m always way too distracted by everybody and everything that’s going on around me.
  
• I love the word foodgasm because a simple but good taste truly transports me to heaven for a short eternity.
  
• Things like pain or touch I seem to experience more intense or even extreme than many others. A small cut in my finger will torture me, a soft hand on my arm or shoulder will electrify me. It has a lot of good sides too. In bed for instance.
  
• When I give a talk, I can “read” the audience, even bigger ones. I simply sense if people are with me or if I’ve lost them. And that’s not all: I can even distinguish the areas where people are listening or sleeping.
  
• I’ve only been drunk twice in all of my life, and both times it was a foretaste of hell. The second time happened only six months after the first time, because I was still young and stupid. Ever since I know my limits. I can still enjoy a couple of beers or a few glasses of wine, but soon nothing is enjoyable anymore.
  
• All the input I get needs to be processed. I’m thinker. People would call me “profound”. I would be the worst stand-up-comedian because I always have to think it through way too deeply.

Apparently 20% of all human beings are hyper sensitive in some form, according to the mentioned article. That makes my self-given diagnosis more likely to be true. Although I do not like the word diagnosis, for I don’t see it as a disease. To me, it’s a gift. Truly! Because you enjoy every pleasure a little more intense. On he other hand, you also really feel the pain when it hurts. Because you want to avoid suffering you calculate the risk more carefully. Altogether, you live more in the moment of that roller coaster called life, without being distracted about yesterday’s downfall or the physics of the vertical loop ahead of you. Life’s more intense, very intense, and being sensitive just makes me hyper.