After reading this, and especially given our experiences, I think this has inspired wanting to get trauma-informed art therapy now. It seems to be helAfter reading this, and especially given our experiences, I think this has inspired wanting to get trauma-informed art therapy now. It seems to be helpful, especially for those of us deprived of a voice (or voices, as plural)....more
Reading this book is interesting as a single person. It’s even more interesting when you have DID and/or are plural.
One of us scored 21, another scoreReading this book is interesting as a single person. It’s even more interesting when you have DID and/or are plural.
One of us scored 21, another scored 3 on the Highly Sensitive Person test. We didn’t know if there had been studies on the correlation between high sensitivity and dissociative identity disorder. We couldn’t find anything on a study about HSPs and DID, but we did find some resources about HSPs and sensitive people having more of an inclination towards dissociation, which the author also very briefly mentions at one point in the book.
Onto the rest, the book does give information about what being an HSP means, how society often enforces an image on who’s normal and who needs personality changes (I.e. HSPs), and others. The book discusses connections between well-being and attachment styles, which can be helpful because everybody comes from a different walk of life.
The book is also kinda biased towards introverted HSPs and shies away a bit more from extroverted HSPs. Which we wish the author talked more about both, because each have their own unique needs, their own unique ways of being, etc. The extroverted HSPs aren’t excluded from the narrative. Just kinda seem to be kept a bit more in the dark than we’d like to read about.
The book is also overly spiritual in some parts, but luckily it’s not exclusively a spiritual book nor does it seem to discriminate against any one religion nor favor one above another. However, people who are neither religious nor spiritual may have difficulties with the overwhelming assumption in this book that all HSPs are spiritual. Would advise taking these parts with a grain of salt if these parts aren’t relatable to you, but not undervaluing the book due to these shorter parts found within the book.
This book is a pretty good self-help guide, as it covers many bases you may encounter. Love, work, recovery,— many of these subtopics find their place within this book so that a reader may educate themselves according to their needs and desires. While the book is lengthy, it is luckily not repetitive about broaching certain topics, which is a fatal flaw many self-help books fall into. So even if you pick up this book just to read the chapters about yourself or a loved one who is an HSP, followed by a chapter you wanted to focus on (I.e. work), you’d be able to skip chapters easily and find the advice you really need. The chapters (at least in the ebook copy of the anniversary edition) have titles that make it easier to navigate and explore what you want or prefer to explore at any given moment.
The book seems to have a leaning-negative stance towards psychological medications, which is something to be forwarded of. The author asserts that HSPs do not need fixing for personality traits. While it is true we live in a society that is very specifically centered on certain groups of people and demeans others, such as HSPs, people may find medications useful for dealing with depression, anxiety, and other health concerns. Something to take with a grain of salt. Although the author states that medications are good for mental health issues, it often felt throughout her piece that there was a “but” lingering in the air. While her recommendations of considering alternatives to medication is good, it is not applicable to all....more