Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D. began researching HSP back in 1991. She is the leading authority on it and has written several books on the subject.
Her website: The Highly Sensitive Person
Most people classify being a Highly Sensitive Person, as a character trait.
At Avoidant Personality Research Center, we have only recently become aware of the “Highly Sensitive Person”. Our founder Phillip Dacus, who suffers from Avoidant Personality (AVP), ran across this during his research on the condition. He took the HSP quiz and was amazed at how similar to AVP it is.
Phillip was so intrigued by the similarities that he added it to our research. He then set about sending the HSP quiz to our entire database of people that we know of that have Avoidant Personality.
As we suspected, 100% of people that have taken the quiz for HSP, also have AVP. The only difference has been to the degree that the person with AVP also has HSP. The two seem to be linked and might even be part of the same issue.
For Example, Some Similarities:
HSP-Are highly sensitive to bright lights, strong smells, and other stimulations.
AVP-Being over stimulated is a huge factor
HSP-Find that they need to withdraw during busy days into a dark room, or in some other way need to retreat from others.
AVP- Suffer from severe social anxiety and must self-isolate.
Perhaps being a HSP is the doorway to developing Avoidant Personality or it makes one more susceptible to developing it.
More research is needed, but preliminary results are very promising.