Disappointment

Disappointment is hard for everyone. No one likes it including highly sensitive people. However, disappointment can bring some additional challenges for highly sensitive people since we are so empathetic and feel everything very deeply.

Empathy And Disappointment In Highly Sensitive People

Being empathetic means that you notice everything including the feelings of other people. You can see the disappointment in someone else and feel it like it is your own. Of course, empathy also means that if you disappoint someone else it is especially painful.

For that reason, highly sensitive people can be wonderful friends.

Issues with disappointment have implications for the work environment as well. In a fast-paced overstimulated world that is too fast for most highly sensitive people, the risk of creating disappointment in co-workers is great because HSPs operate differently and think differently.

Highly sensitive people will also notice when the policies, plans, and practices of the people around them are problematic. Their positive valence causes them to try to create the most positive environment possible around them. As a result, sensitive people make wonderful troubleshooters, which is great when that is what is called for. Otherwise, this skill is not always welcome.

When Highly Sensitive People Experience Disappointment

Disappointment is very difficult for highly sensitive people to handle. Often HSPs do not handle it well.

Highly sensitive people experience disappointment in a very deep way in the depths of their being, so it takes them a lot of time to get over it. The greater and more serious the disappointment the longer it takes.

Disappointments are not always small. All forms of child abuse are a kind of disappointment of the basic needs and dignity of another person and are among the most soul-destroying events in a person’s life. Highly sensitive people who have experienced child abuse – and many have – need serious healing work to recover their dignity and self-worth.