Originally Posted by Artana
To be honest, this is a godsend for me. My father, my brother, and I are all people with hypersensitivities. I can't handle loud noises or too much olfactory input, especially when I'm stressed or tired. But, I was never taught to cope. I am very successful, have never had it fully interfere with me doing my job. My only problem is that I avoid. Since I do not know how to handle myself in these stressful situations, I try not to be in them, rather than having learned how to work past it.:/

I also had hypersensitivities but was able to compensate well enough that it didn't affect my job performance. I also found ways to avoid stressful situations.

Now that I am older and life is unavoidably stressful because of a husband who had cancer, a son that has nightmares that his dad will die soon, a mom who is severely disabled but lives next door and a dad who takes care of her but has health issues of his own. I have to focus on homeschooling my son who is twice exceptional but wonders out loud if he shouldn't be teaching me instead of me trying to teach him and asks if I realize that sometimes he just hates me because I make him wear a painful scoliosis brace and I am the one who tightens the straps. I strive for that feeling of equanimity (just learned that word thanks to my son) but can't seem to find it. My son and I read that happy people who don't let stress get to them live longer and my son is a very good comedian, but even still my blood pressure goes up. I wish I had learned to deal with it better when I was young. I want my son to be able to feel that he can deal with anything that life throws at him and still find a way to be happy and calm. I think he was right and I was wrong a few weeks ago when I yelled at him because I was stressed because we were going to be late for a piano lesson. He stopped and hugged his dog. I said we didn't have time. He said "I'll always have time to stop and hug my dog." He is right. There should always be time for hugs. We will make time for that. The world will not end if we are a few minutes late.