High Sensitivity, Perfectionism, and Goodism

Are you a highly sensitive person? A perfectionist? A "Goodist" who wants to please and be liked? They are character traits that cause TMS pain for many people.

Do you have a keen imagination and vivid dreams? Is time alone each day as essential to you as food and water? Are you "too shy" or "too sensitive" according to others? Do noise and confusion quickly overwhelm you? If your answers are yes, you may be a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP).

Most of us feel overstimulated every once in a while, but for the HSP it's a way of life. In her groundbreaking book, The Highly Sensitive Person, Dr. Elaine Aron, a psychotherapist, workshop leader and highly sensitive person herself, shows you how to identify this trait in yourself and make the most of it in everyday situations. Drawing on her many years of research and hundreds of interviews, she shows how you can better understand yourself and your trait to create a fuller, richer life.

Aron says that usually the goodist perfectionist traits often come from critical parenting or lack of parenting and therefore such people become sensitized to even what can be quite benign commentary or commentary meant in jest.

The book contains self-assessment tests to help you identify your particular sensitivities. Ways to reframe your past experiences in a positive light and gain greater self-esteem in the process. Insight into how high sensitivity affects both work and personal relationships.

Aron's book could be helpful reading for anyone with TMS.