Thank you for sharing your website and I honor your passion for spreading the message about neuro-diversity, rather than pathology. I should clarify that I am not personally assigning particular attributes to one temperament identification or another, as I am not trained as either a psychologist or researcher.
I was simply sharing what I know Dr. Aron has learned so far in her research, and I emphatically state, so far. With numerous brain scan studies and over 13,000 qualitative interviews, she has a fairly rigorous background and results scientifically.
I’ve sat in a workshop where she addressed why she does not pursue research into a possible connection with autism or chronic illnesses. It was hard enough to convince the scientific community about high sensitivity and that it is not a pathology, the minute she relates it to something that is currently considered a pathology, her 30 years of self-guided research is for naught and then millions of HSPS will suffer more than they have. She is aware of co-temperament traits and the prevalence of auto-immune, but there’s not enough support yet for her theory to take that risk of undoing everything she’s worked for. She is a very compassionate and caring person, who is simply taking on what she can, within the system she finds herself.
There is more that we do not understand about the human brain and biology than we do.
For example, I specialize in working with extremely sensitive people — empaths. People who can have a direct experience of another’s emotions, physical sensations. People who sense shifts in energy beyond what can observed with our five senses.
Empaths would have many of the characteristics you attribute to high functioning autism — creativity, strong desire to be alone or only with one other person, difficulty with social interactions, feeling awkward or misunderstood, rollercoaster of strong emotions (some mine, others not).
Those traits could also be attributed to a certain type of wiring in our brains, a nervous system that is more reactive to stimuli, being a temperament minority in a world where most people are not as sensitive, empathic or autistic.
What if, what we call HSP or Empath or autism are a cluster of ways of being, like brain cousins, very close together or even overlapping on a neurodiversity circular model? Which I think makes more sense than linear.
A linear model supposes that everyone in the middle is ‘normal’ and anyone on the outside edges is ‘atypical’.
In a circular model, the person would be in the center, with a host of different attributes surrounding. All of the attributes that match you specifically could be connected by lines back and forth, to show your unique strengths. Your mind map and mine would look different, just like my astrology chart and yours look different. Perhaps a more person-centered approach would move us away from ‘labels’ or ‘diagnoses’ and towards individualized lifestyles and care that helped each person be their best?
If you’d like to take my quiz, Are You An Intuitive Empath, you are so welcome. As a point of interest, of the more than 5,000 people who’ve taken this survey, 56% report some type of chronic illness, fibromyalgia, auto-immune. That’s in contrast to 8% of ‘normal’ chronic illness sufferers. A lot of sensitive people hold not only their own pain and strong emotions inside their body, but the energy of others’ pain as well, until we learn how to care for ourselves. Speaking from experience.
We’re all just trying to understand ourselves and that’s a good thing as we collectively enter the Age of Consciousness. I would love to chat more with you and compare notes, my email is tunedin@perceptivesouls.com
