Highly Sensitive People and Trauma impact on their energy body

Being brought up in a traumatic household as a highly sensitive person can be a special kind of hell. Unstable and homes where there are harsh and loud noises create an emotional turmoil in the sensory organs which are the ears,eyes,skin and tongue. HSP children have an innate sensory processing sensitivity which can make them feel prone to neglect,ignorance and feel shunned when emotional expression is not received well. At a biological level,HSPs are wired to think,feel and experience the world a lot more deeply.

In 1991,a psychologist Elaine Aron coined the term Highly Sensitive People where she found that such persons have an overtly functioning nervous system that keep them in a state of "hyper-arousal" that causes them to disassociate,shut down and isolate when there is an overburden of information in the form of noise,light,intense smell,harsh environments. When the nervous system is in a constant overdrive,the autonomic nervous system of an HSP goes into a fight and flight response(Bartz,2024)

My next segment will be exploring the family dynamics of an HSP child. Most HSP children feel like "the black sheep of the family" or an outsider as they have a fragile and susceptible interpersonal relationship with others. What do I mean by that? HSPs have low self worth which keeps their nervous system in survival mode that automatically,trains the nervous system to go into fight,freeze or flight response under stressful times. Thus,many HSPs turn inwards rather than reaching out for alms and emotional aid.(Judith Orloff,EmotionalFreedom,2009)

HSPs have high trauma present in their body due to years of invalidation faced by them. This activates their sympathetic nervous system that increases emotional stimuli in their amygdala and insula in their brain. When the insula and amygdala are bombarded with constant information and tension, HSPs go into second guessing their own inner reality and rely on external validation.

From a spiritual stand point, HSPs undergo a whole set of psychoanalysis as their inner wisdom and world of reality is under attack. Possessing a high instinctual inner compass,the inner child gets fractured that leads to a "soul sickness" by fighting against social rejection that leads to chronic energetic exhaustion.(Zhang X, Oh YJ, Zhang Y, Zhu J.2025 Seeking validation in the digital age: The impact of validation seeking on self-image and internalized stigma among self- vs. clinically diagnosed individuals on r/ADHD)

Therefore,the energy body of an HSP feels depleted and fatigued as there is no grounding in the base chakra of the soul. Having an unbalanced root chakra as their heightened empathy has overactive higher chakras and an imbalanced root chakra that causes them imbalanced in external environments.(VictoriaStokes,2021)

My next segment will cover the experiences an HSP faces during a spiritual awakening.

#1 Shattering of Ego Structures- Deep grief causes sensory overload that causes a collapse in the ego defenses of an HSP. This collapse includes surrendering over responsibility and shedding people pleasing traits. When an empath undergoes a traumatic spiritual awakening, finding one's ground is the hardest hence,somatic grounding exercises such as nature walks,warm baths aid in energy balancing.

#2 Boundary Confusions- An HSP,largely struggles in distinguishing their own crumbling identity from the collective pain of the world. Many HSPs,when faced by trauma,become 'fixers' of people's emotional baggage,a healthy boundary setting is learnt by them,overtime to maintain their emotional compass.

#3 Rich Inner Processing- A range of profound realizations,both cognitive and energetic,are processed by HSPs during a traumatic awakening as the neural activity in the brain becomes heightened causing difficulty to process fast emotional downloads and shifting from an 'absorbant empath' to a 'sovereign spiritual empath'.

#4 Increased Awareness- There is a Default Network Mode(DNM) manages self reflection and emotional process of the limbic brain function. When an HSP has increased neural activity,there are immediate responses to emotional stimuli that increases self awareness and quiets the inner voice that usually runs on negative rumination of during an awakening. Thus,the switch of the DNM goes into awareness and reasoning mode,which was earlier programmed to be a hyperactive responsive cell.

#5 Impact on Brain Activity- HSPs that undergo excessive trauma situations,tend to have a high functioning Paretial Cortex to create oneness in self,the empathy and reward mechanisms light up when HSPs connect with similar people.The Paretial Cortex are working in overtime processing baseline information that leads to overstimulation of HSPs as the automatic scanning of the environment such as reading body language,actions and physical intentions of others come naturally to them.(Sanusi, T. (2021),medium.com)(Understandable Channel, YouTube 2023)

Furthermore,I would like to explore Dr.Aron's DOES model of the 4 main characteristics of an HSP

Core Traits	HSP Behaviour
D-Depth of Processing	Processes information deeply.Analyzing,reflecting and replaying events long after occurrence. Needing more time to take decisions post weighing outcomes.
O-Overstimulation	Increases in nervous system overload dur to fast inputs. Overstimulation occurs when there are external nuisances such as bright lights,loud noises,chaotic crowds. A lot of solo downtime is needed to recuperate.
E-Emotional Responsiveness and Empathy	Strong reactions to both positive and negative emotional experiences. Naturally absorbs moods and feelings of people around. Deep gratification for music,art,beauty and acts of kindness.
S-Sensing the Subtle	Noticing intricate details that pushes an overload to the nervous system. Picking micro expressions and shifts in a person's tone of voice. Sensing changes in a room or immediate environment.

Pazer,S.(2025)(2AD)The DOES Model of High Sensitivity Explained: Deep Insights (youtube.com)

In my next segment,I would like to discuss the types of HSPs and how each one of them are distinguishably different when they combat trauma. Researcher Dr Elaine Aron had developed an HSP scale which is a self assessment tool to understand "how sensitive a person is".

#1 Super Sensor(Low Sensor Threshold) - You walk into a room and immediately pick up who's angry,who's uncomfortable and who's genuine!! That is the Super sensor empath. When trauma is processed by these empaths, the full body undergoes a visceral experience as their vagus nerve and amygdala do into overdrive causing physical responses such as rapid heart rate,chest tightening or immediate exhaustion.

When these empaths cannot discharge traumatic energy,they experience severe sensory overload that leads to chronic fatigue,autoimmune responses. To survive overwhelming pain,they resort to fawn response and detach from people close to them. Jo Nash, P. (2026)

#2 Super Feeler (Ease of Excitation)- These empaths absorb panic,grief or anger of people around them and push their nervous system to get dysregulated as they do not know how to bifurcate their own feelings from the environment. Their coping mechanism to trauma id internalizing blame and hyper rumination that pushes them to "empathy burnout" as the unprocessed trauma makes them entirely numb or detached. Jo Nash, P. (2026)

#3 The Aesthete (Aesthetic Sensitive)- The Aesthete Sensitive is highly receptive to atmosphere that includes art,nature,music and design. The nervous system of such an empath absorbs moods, tensions and people's energy, regardless of verbal communication. An Aesthete possesses vivid imaginations that make them retreat into solitude to process thoughts, create art to restore inner balance.

Having an aversion to emotional exhaustion,they fluster in high frequency stimuli places as their creativity feels decompressed and resent chaotic environments.

When they undergo traumatic environments,Aesthete Sensitives undergo PTSD due to their photographic memory.Due to their profound emotional depth,their cognitive and sensory processing feels consuming level pain due to being hyper attuned to sensitivity. Jo Nash, P. (2026)

My final segment will contain the discussion of some core regulation techniques for HSPs to dissolve trauma from their energy bodies.

#1 Embracing oneself wholly- A typical HSP come with sensitivity and depth which should be embraced with lot of self compassion. The depth with which HSPS feel should be channeled through purpose-driven initiatives such as creative work,connecting with focus group individuals, community oriented initiatives that provide them with deeper experiences of life.

#2 Spend time in nature- The ultimate reset button!! Nature sounds such as birds chirpings,leaves movements downregulate the sympathetic nervous system that eliminates rumination and anxiety from past traumatic events. Research shows that walking through a forest or nature park reduced the amygdala and soothes the attention restoration.

#3 Avoid excessive screentime- Welcome to sensory overload!! HSPs get emotionally drained by constant notifications of news headlines,text messages and constant bombardment of negative information. The visual and cognitive input causing HSPs to be 'wired and tired'. Limiting screentime is needed for a healthy well being of HSPS.

#4 Choose the friend group wisely- Interacting with multiple personalities or being present in loud groups burnout the energy body of an HSP. HSPs can never indulge in small talk and rather crave deep,authentic and heart space oriented connections.

#5 Practice the art of boundaries- HSPs absorb external energies and have "thin boundaries" that make their energy body porous to become self abandoning.

Trauma can make the mind questions everything. HSPs are programmed to absord,accomodate and survive in environments that make them susceptible to weak boundaries. When HSPs reconnect with their inner child and regulate their nervous system,the fragmented parts slowly return to a whole self. This shifts the HSPs to becoming more discerning and consciously aware.