Gertrude, your welcome and isn’t fun to read about them both? I always felt pulled by two competing impulses and it is nice to understand why. I had just learned about highly sensitive people from a comment someone else had posted here about being upset by a movie. I looked it up and took the test but felt confused because even though I got all but one on the highly sensitive person test, I still felt a bit more adventureous that other HSPs, that is why everything made so much more sense when I took the high sensation seeking test. For me, I am very sensitive to lights, sounds, smells, and other sensations as well as to violent or upsetting movies. My husband teases me because I jump out of my chair when anything startling happens in a movie, even when I am bracing myself for it to happen. I also am very sensitive to pain and when I have a stressful or confrontational experience with another person it can stay with me for weeks and even years. On the other hand, I am addicted to travel, I have gone sky diving and I get bored really easily. I am also always looking for new or novel experiences. I thought it was interesting that Elaine suggested that there is a very limited range of stimuli we HSP/HSSs are comfortable with- too much and we’re overwhelmed, too little and were bored.

Do you mind if I ask what you do for a living? I am switching out of my career and trying to find a career that satisfies both aspects of myself. Being HSP, I am very reflective on human nature and I care very much about the deeper questions in life, but being HSS I get bored with routine. I have thought about being a public speaker and author to share what I have learned but I am afraid that being around large groups of people might leave me overstimulated and wiped out. I was just wondering what, if anything, you’ve done to resolve that tension in yourself.