An honest test, not a verdict
The ten questions
- Do noise, bright light and crowds invade you faster than they do other people?
- Do you absorb the emotions of everyone who crosses a room, like a sponge?
- Do criticism and rejection hit you far harder than they seem to hit others?
- Do you need solitude to recover after a party, a meeting, a day among people?
- Do you overthink, long after others have moved on?
- Are you a perfectionist, with a small voice that finds it never quite enough?
- Do you feel the atmosphere, the tensions in a room, before a word is spoken?
- Do home working, a headset, soft light change your life more than your colleagues'?
- Have you ever felt overwhelmed by life itself, to the point of exhaustion?
- And yet: are you the one others come to, for your intuition, your listening, your depth?
What your answers mean
There is no magic score. But if most of these questions sound like you, you are probably what the psychologist Elaine Aron called a highly sensitive person. Hold on first to the tenth question: high sensitivity is a depth of reception before it is a difficulty. The work is not to feel less: it is to be less invaded.
What comes next
To understand it and learn to inhabit it: the essay on the highly sensitive person. When the empathy becomes the burden: hyper-empathy and the mental load. And if you want to talk: a first conversation is confidential and without commitment.
Common questions
Is this highly sensitive person test a diagnosis?
No, and high sensitivity is not an illness anyway: it is a trait, a spectrum, first described by the psychologist Elaine Aron. These ten questions are a tool for reflection drawn from twenty-five years of clinical practice, to help you locate yourself honestly.
What should I do if I recognise myself in this test?
First, hold on to the tenth question: high sensitivity is a depth of reception before it is a difficulty. Then read the full essay on the highly sensitive person, which explains how to inhabit it: the work is not to feel less, but to be less invaded. And if the overwhelm is real, it can be talked about: a first conversation is confidential and without commitment.