Highly Sensitive People (HSPs) are designed to be highly aware of their surroundings. This sensitivity makes them pay attention to the finer details, feel deeply, be wary of consequences, and highly empathic with the emotions and distress of others. If you identify your teenage son or daughter with this short description of highly sensitive people, then you may be interested in this article because treating a highly sensitive teen can be challenging.
The most important thing is to understand the emotions of your son or daughter, from there, the path will be easier. Due to their status as a highly sensitive person, they will be exposed to more difficulties, not only within the family but also socially. Because, it is important that, as parents, you inform yourselves, support them and help them whenever necessary.
Signs that your child has high sensitivity
As parents, you may have noticed some signs that your son or daughter is a very sensitive person. Some of these signs
- Quickly identify sensory stimuli such as noise, sound, light, smell, taste or different textures. These stimuli can become very annoying.
- gets overwhelmed easily before unknown people and crowds.
- Any comment is taken personally., so you feel easily hurt by feeling judged, rejected or criticized.
- Ability to “read” the feelings of others.
- Feeling and storing intense emotions such as anger, sadness or fear. They repress these emotions by isolating themselves or reacting with extremely dramatic behaviors.
- Conclusion more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression.
What problems can a highly sensitive teenager face?
Their characteristic way of feeling the world around them sometimes leads them to experience situations that are unpleasant for them. Because, you have to be alert so that they cannot trigger other problems for your mental health. Let's look at some of these problems faced by a highly sensitive teenager:
- Syndrome of "burned" or Burn out. Very sensitive boys and girls are more vulnerable to stress, because they feel their emotions and those of the people around them very intensely. With societal expectations of being strong and even aggressive, sensitive boys and girls face their greatest challenge: behaving contrary to their true selves. This will cause them to repress that true self and cause them quite a bit of anguish.
- Bullying. When a child or adolescent is perceived as a “cry baby”, or simply different, they can become a target for other boys or girls looking for a victim to bully.
- self esteem issues. In adolescence, being popular is something very important. Teenagers seek acceptance from their peers. However, highly sensitive teens often don't have many friends as they tend to isolate themselves. This situation at this delicate stage of life can cause harmful recurring thoughts, such as that they do not like anyone or that they will never fit into society.
- Psychological problems. When highly sensitive adolescents have to internalize their intense emotions, psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, emotion regulation problems, anger outbursts, or self-destructive behaviors can arise that lead them to self-harm.
Strategies for treating a highly sensitive adolescent
Clearly a highly sensitive adolescent cannot be treated like another who does not perceive emotions as intensely. For this reason, we are going to see some strategies that will help you to have a better understanding and relationship with your highly sensitive son or daughter.
- Understanding and acceptance. If instead of looking at your son or daughter with critical eyes you try to know and understand his vision of the world, that is, you become aware of his high sensitivity, you will discover that he is not as weak, anxious or hysterical as you thought. You will see the beauty that he has inside, his great kindness, his empathy, his honesty, his creativity and his emotional responsiveness. Unconditional love and support will give your son or daughter the confidence they need to face difficult situations. As parents, it is up to you to understand and accept your child instead of trying to mold him so that he is not so sensitive. Teaching him to get up after a failure, to protect himself from bullies, to improve his self-esteem or to learn to manage stress, will help your son to move within society without blocking his high sensitivity.
- Teach positive coping strategies. Typical positive stress management skills might be developing hobbies, journaling, taking walks in nature, read, cry, listen to music, talk to a friend, do yoga, meditation or do puzzles or crosswords. Any activity that you find relaxing needs to be encouraged so that you can use it to manage stress.
- Emotional regulation. It refers to the ability to regulate strong feelings and to react appropriately to situations. Mindfulness and breathing exercises have great effects on stress reduction, personal growth, and self-acceptance. These types of activities will help the adolescent to accept himself. In this way, the parents themselves are also helped not to deny, discredit or teach their child how to feel.