I've tried applying several ideas in my head, but only one has stuck: Water balloons. Strange, yes. But bear with me and I'll explain. And, wait until the end of this post, and you'll better understand why I like it so much and believe it to be the best fit.
The water balloons represent the daily stimulations that we all face. These include conversations, emotional responses and other emotional experiences, noises, information, and basically any experience you can think of.
As we go throughout our day, they are thrown at us from all angles - some hit us from the front, others from the back. The water balloons themselves are neutral, but they can represent particularly positive and negative experiences. Some days only a few are thrown; other days, hundreds might be. A day spent at home might mean a few; a loud concert or a party might mean hundreds. And the water balloons thrown at HSP and non-HSPs do not differ - it is our response to them that does.
You see, non-HSPs go about their day with ankle-length rain coats on. Some may even have umbrellas and rain boots. Bottom line is that they barely notice the water balloons. They might feel or notice one, but within seconds the water has splashed off and with minutes they are dry again. At the end of the day, they will feel the same whether they were hit with 3 balloons or 100.
But as an HSP, I feel like I walk around in nothing but a light T-shirt. With each water balloon that is thrown, my shirt gets wetter and wetter. By the end of the day, I am soaked. I can't sleep at night because I'm waiting for my clothes to dry. I feel constantly weighed down by the weight of the water and the burden of the soaked T-shirt on my back.
I instinctively try to avoid any situation where I know or fear I might get wetter. Sometimes throughout the day, I forget to watch out for too many balloons. I don't pay that much attention to my shirt and I feel ok, so I put myself in situations where I know I will get hit. I feel fine at the time. But then I get home. I get to a place where I'm by myself. And then I notice my clothes. Then I can't focus on anything, I can't think.
As a med student, the water balloons are constant. The stimulation is constant throughout my day. Brief conversations with friends, several lectures a day, changes in temperature from inside to outside the building, my hunger for the next meal, a conversation with a professor, an exam, a group project, a graded performance...I could go on. Believe it or not, the more of these encounters I have, the worse I feel at the end of the day. Almost everyday, I feel "sick" with the burden of all the stimulation.
So no wonder HSPs are always advised to avoid the stimulation if possible. We cannot control our responses. We are physiologically incapable of changing out of our T-shirts.
I will expound on this metaphor more through other posts. This is just the start.
Why do I like this metaphor so much? You see, during my worst, lowest times I truly feel like I am drowning in the stimulation. It's like all the water from the balloons and my T-shirt somehow become so overwhelming that they begin to engulf me. That feeling is only one you can understand if you have felt it. That feeling of utter helplessness to control your own emotions and surroundings. You feel like you can't see; like you can't breath. Some people might experience this occasionally as a result of trauma, grief, or loss. As a highly sensitive person, I experience this almost every day.
The only thing that works is time. Given enough time, an ocean will dry, too.
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