Emotional sensitivity can indeed be considered a serious emotional condition. Someone who finds that their feelings are constantly being hurt easily is an example of this sensitivity. Another example would be someone who is so terrified of failure, or of disappointing others, they don’t even try to do something. Living in a heightened emotional state can also cause relationship difficulties with friends, family members, and certainly with significant others.
Thankfully, there are steps that a person can take to deal with something as complex as emotional sensitivity.
How To Handle Emotional Sensitivity
While it is certainly a good thing to have a strong sense of empathy, and while it is also good to have a direct path to appreciating one’s emotions, there is such a thing as being too sensitive. If you find that your emotional responses to people, situations, and general feelings is interfering with your ability to live your life comfortably, then it is time to develop the tools needed to keep these emotions within the realm of control.
There are a number of things a person can do to avoid constantly living in a state of emotional sensitivity:
1. Learn how to clearly label an emotion: One of the hallmarks of sensitivity is not being able to properly address an emotion. This can lead to a person feeling overwhelmed, which in turn can lead to a person expressing everything at a gut instinct level. Labeling an emotion can go a long way towards helping a person to understand what the proper emotional response should be.
2. Learn how to ask yourself why you feel the way that you do: This is another tactic that involves the ability to give things clear, easily understood labels. Understand why you are responding to something is a useful tool for dealing with the proper response.
3. Learn how to detach yourself for a moment: Imagine for a moment that you had a friend who was struggling against the relentless tide of emotional sensitivity. What would you say to them? How would you lend your support? Try to apply these answers to your own situation.
4. Learn how to tell the difference between something that needs to be dealt with, and something that needs to be let go: Are your feelings really being hurt, or are you simply feeling annoyed?
5. Learn what to say to feel better: For example, remind yourself that everyone makes mistakes.
6. Learn what to do to feel better: Seek out positive, affirming activities.