loud noises, be it the television or people talking to music or sirens, put me on edge to the point i really freak out inside. i always figured it was some kind of trauma i suffered from growing up in a house with too much shouting. it was really reassuring to know i am just more sensitive to the noise & disturbances! there was a lot of helpful advice on how to take care of yourself. protect your sensitive self from the big bad mean & loud world!

While I must admit that self-help/therapy/psychology manuals kind of make me squirm in a lot of ways, there was a hell of a lot for me to identify with in this book.

It’s probably not very exciting for most members of the general public, but if you are someone, or live with someone, who seems to get overwhelmed by the buffetings of everyday life, or someone who seems unnecessarily plagued by anxiety… consider reading it.

The basic gist of the author’s research is that 15-20 % of the population’s nervous system reaches a point of overload at a much lower threshold than that experienced by everyone else. This is not a character flaw, but simply another way of looking at the world that makes these people slightly more cautious. She posits that, if well managed, this is a trait that balances out the full speed ahead approach that much of the rest of the population has.

It’s given me a lot to think about, and is well written for the most part, though I am sometimes very puzzled by Jung…