13 Common Triggers for a Highly Sensitive Person And How to Handle Them

Do you get easily annoyed by things like noises, odors, hunger, or a lack of personal time?

If your answer is yes, then you might be a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). HSPs have an acute awareness of their surroundings and possess an intensified sensitivity to stimuli and emotions.

As humans, we all have different levels of sensitivity to the world around us. Some may be able to brush off loud noises or strong scents without a second thought, while others may find these stimuli overwhelming and uncomfortable.

Highly sensitive people (HSPs) fall into the latter category – they possess an innate trait that makes them more responsive to external and internal stimuli.

Being highly sensitive is not a disorder or something to be fixed, but it can present challenges in our daily lives that may cause annoyance and discomfort.

In this article, we’ll explore 13 common things that may annoy highly sensitive people. While each HSP is unique and may have their own specific triggers, these are some general themes that many HSPs can relate to. 

If this sparks your interest, then keep reading!

1. Noises and Distractions

Highly sensitive people (HSPs) are more sensitive to noise due to their deep processing of information, keen observation of subtle details, heightened stimulation, and heightened empathy, which leads to stronger emotional reactions.

While loud or sudden noises can be bothersome to anyone, they tend to provoke stronger reactions in HSPs.

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The heightened sensitivity of HSPs makes them easily overwhelmed by sudden or intense stimuli, unlike those who aren’t highly sensitive.

For example, the sudden sound of a door slamming can startle and annoy highly sensitive people, or even make them angry.

As an introverted HSP, I often find myself lost in my thoughts, and sudden noises jar my sensitive nervous system, triggering intense anger.

Because the startle response in HSPs is more pronounced, it takes them longer to recover from such stimuli. Their brains process these sounds more deeply, and the emotional impact can linger, causing discomfort or irritation.

In addition to loud or abrupt noises, HSPs may also find certain sounds and distractions particularly bothersome.

Personally, I get irritated by various stimuli like phone notifications, snoring, heavy breathing, loud chewing, car horns, and instances when people suddenly raise their voice or speak too loudly.

Irritating noises or distractions can disrupt our internal equilibrium, leading to feelings of overwhelm and a strong desire for solitude.

Tips to cope with noise and distractions:

• If possible, remove yourself from the noise or distraction
• Seek out a quiet place where you can be alone
• Wear earplugs or using noise-canceling headphones

Related Article: 7 Signs You Are a Highly Sensitive Person & How to Cope With It»

2. Strong Smells

HSPs may not have more acute senses, but they often react strongly to potent odors. Certain smells can annoy highly sensitive people, such as:

• Body odor
• Heavy perfume
• Cigarette smoke
• Smoke
• Air fresheners and hairspray
• Chemical odors
• Public restroom smells
• Food odors

As HSPs, our lower threshold for smells due to heightened sensory sensitivity means we perceive odors more intensely than others.

This can lead to annoyance or feeling overwhelmed, especially with strong or unpleasant scents.

In fact, strong smells can cause physical discomfort in HSPs, such as headaches, queasiness, or respiratory irritation. These sensory experiences can even make us feel ‘smangry’ (a term coined by Heather Ream), which means feeling angry because of certain odors. Personally, I get smangry a lot!

Tips to cope with strong smells:

• Seek out well-ventilated spaces
• Use aroma diffusers or light a candle
• Avoid locations with overpowering odors

It’s common for strong smells to annoy highly sensitive people. So, these tips can help enhance overall comfort and effectively mitigate the adverse effects of strong or unpleasant odors on HSPs’ well-being.

3. Sleep Deprivation Makes HSPs Annoyed

Do you become noticeably irritable when you don’t get enough sleep?

If so, you’re not alone. While sleep deprivation affects everyone, it presents unique challenges for highly sensitive individuals. Their deep processing and heightened sensitivity to their surroundings can lead to emotional overwhelm and mental exhaustion.

Therefore, quality sleep is crucial for them to recover from the constant sensory input and emotional responsiveness.

Think of highly sensitive people as emotional sponges, absorbing various stimuli deeply. This is why they require more rest than the average person.

When highly sensitive people don’t get enough sleep or time to unwind, coping with stimulation becomes extremely difficult. Sleep deprivation further amplifies their sensory experiences, making even minor irritations feel overwhelming.

Additionally, lack of sleep can impair cognitive functions such as focus, attention, and decision-making, which is particularly challenging for highly sensitive individuals who already deal with heightened sensory input.

As mentioned before, highly sensitive people often need extra downtime and rest to recharge. Sleep deprivation deprives them of this crucial recovery time, leading to increased irritability and fatigue.

Learn More: How to Build Self-Care Practices Into Your Daily Life»

4. Hunger Annoys Highly Sensitive People

Some people can go for a long time without eating, seemingly unaffected by a lack of energy or irritability. In contrast, others, including myself, feel a noticeable drop in energy and increased irritability when we don’t eat every 3-4 hours.

This prompts the question: Do these individuals truly remain unaffected by irregular eating patterns, or do HSPs detect hunger cues more readily due to their heightened sensitivity?

I believe the latter is true as HSPs are generally very attuned to fluctuations in their blood sugar levels. This is why they must maintain regular meals to sustain their energy and overall well-being.

In fact, regular eating contributes to their happiness, so it’s very important for HSPs.

Related Article: 12 Things Highly Sensitive People Need to Be Happy»

While refined sugar and highly processed foods are detrimental to everyone, their impact is particularly evident in highly sensitive people. Since those types of foods cause spikes in blood sugar levels, they often result in irritation and mood instability. 

We’ve previously discussed that many things annoy highly sensitive people, given their distinctive emotional reactivity and acute awareness of physical sensations. It’s challenging for them to simply brush aside or disregard discomfort. 

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Hunger can exacerbate the state of overstimulation, which is something HSPs already struggle with daily.

So, when they experience hunger, it becomes a prominent focal point for them, making it difficult to divert their attention to other tasks or activities.

To mitigate the adverse effects when hungry, HSPs can take proactive steps to manage their eating routines. This includes incorporating regular, nutritious meals and snacks into their schedule to sustain stable blood sugar levels. It is also important to stay well-hydrated. 

5. Lack of Alone Time can Annoy HSPs

If you’re highly sensitive, you understand the importance of having alone time. As HSPs, we can easily become overwhelmed by external stimuli and emotional input.

Taking time for ourselves allows us to retreat from these pressures and rejuvenate our emotional well-being.

Highly sensitive people experience emotions deeply and benefit from moments of solitude to process and contemplate their feelings. It provides an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of emotions and find effective ways to navigate stress and challenges that arise during social interactions.

Being in the company of others, especially in busy or crowded settings, can lead to sensory overload for HSPs.

Therefore, it’s crucial for them to have alone time to escape overwhelming stimuli and restore inner peace.

Frequent social interactions without sufficient time to recharge can result in chronic stress and increased irritability among HSPs.

Depriving oneself of alone time often leads to mental and emotional exhaustion, making highly sensitive individuals more sensitive to external stimuli.

To ensure enough rest and alone time, highly sensitive people can:

• Recognize and respect the need for solitude.
• Incorporate regular periods of alone time into their routines.
• Set boundaries to avoid overcommitment.
• Learn to say no when necessary to prevent overstimulation.
• Prioritize rest and self-care to reduce emotional exhaustion.
• Avoid taking on more than they can handle comfortably.
• Embrace opportunities for quiet reflection and relaxation.

By acknowledging their need for solitude and incorporating regular alone time, HSPs can maintain a healthier emotional balance and reduce feelings of being overwhelmed. Insufficient alone time is one of the things that highly sensitive people find deeply bothersome.

6. Busy Schedule can Stress Out HSPs

Busy schedules can be a major source of frustration for highly sensitive people (HSPs). Their deep processing style requires enough downtime to effectively process thoughts and emotions.

Feeling overwhelmed by a packed schedule, combined with their heightened sensitivity to external stimuli, can be especially challenging.

While everyone needs time to rest and unwind, HSPs often require even more of it. Busy schedules can leave them with insufficient downtime to recharge their emotional batteries.

Frequent changes and last-minute adjustments in their schedules can be particularly difficult for HSPs, who prefer stability and predictability. Sudden changes can induce stress and deep annoyance.

HSPs experience various effects due to their deep information processing, such as overthinking, losing track of time during deep concentration, and becoming easily overstimulated. Rushing through tasks is something they strongly dislike, as it can lead to mistakes.

Additionally, they need time for processing and reflection, which can become overwhelming without sufficient downtime.

To manage these challenges, highly sensitive people can:

1. Set clear boundaries.
2. Learn to say no when necessary.
3. Prioritize alone time for reflection and rejuvenation.
4. Consider the long-term sustainability of their job or lifestyle if busy schedules consistently affect their well-being.

It’s important to recognize that highly sensitive people have unique needs due to their specific personality traits. Enduring busy schedules for extended periods can potentially lead to mental exhaustion and burnout.

This is why it’s important as an HSP to fully understand and embrace your unique trait, so that you can navigate life’s challenges more effectively.

Related Article: How to Embrace Being a Highly Sensitive Person»

7. Feeling Rushed or Pressured Annoy HSPs

Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is a trait inherent in highly sensitive individuals. It is characterized by their profound depth of processing, which occurs in two ways:

1. Conscious processing: Highly sensitive people carefully analyze problems, taking into consideration their thoughts, feelings, and potential outcomes before making decisions.
2. Subconscious processing: They intuitively pick up on subtle cues in their environment, relying on gut feelings and hunches to guide their actions and choices.

This intricate processing happens at a slower pace, so rushing or pressuring highly sensitive individuals can be bothersome and unsettling.

Given their susceptibility to becoming easily overwhelmed by stimuli, adding rush or pressure further burdens their sensory load, making it challenging for them to process everything efficiently.

Highly sensitive individuals typically have a lower stress threshold, so feeling rushed or pressured elevates their stress levels, resulting in increased irritability and frustration. They highly value thoughtful and deliberate decision-making.

Rushing them or subjecting them to pressure impairs their ability to carefully consider options and diminishes their sense of control, which contradicts their preference for stability and predictability in their surroundings.

Highly sensitive individuals tend to gravitate toward singular-task focus as it allows them to dedicate their full attention instead of dispersing it across multiple tasks. This is why multitasking often poses a challenge for them.

To cope with feelings of being rushed or pressured, highly sensitive individuals can:

• Allocate time for self-care practices to reduce stress and restore emotional balance.
• Communicate their need for personal space and time to process information without feeling rushed.
• Assertively establish boundaries to regain a sense of control.
• Divide tasks into smaller, manageable steps to minimize the risk of becoming overwhelmed.
• Create a structured plan to manage their time and tasks more effectively, reducing the likelihood of feeling rushed.
• Reflect on their triggers and stressors related to pressure, and develop strategies to cope better.

8. Disruptions in Routine can Annoy HSPs

Highly sensitive people (HSPs) can be easily annoyed by disruptions in their daily routines.

They thrive on predictability and order, which gives them a sense of control and stability in their lives. Any disruptions can be overwhelming and unsettling due to their heightened sensitivity to external stimuli.

These disruptions introduce uncertainty and increased stress levels into the lives of HSPs, leading to heightened anxiety. To combat this chaos, they can strive to make their world as predictable and comfortable as possible.

Here are some ways highly sensitive people can deal with disruptions:

1. Practice flexibility by acknowledging that some changes are unavoidable. Gradually adapt to the new situation.
2. Express feelings and needs to those around them. Communicate how disruptions affect them and request support during these times.
3. Whenever possible, prepare for potential disruptions by having a backup plan or contingency measures in place.
4. Engage in self-care practices to reduce stress and anxiety. Techniques such as deep breathing, mindfulness, or meditation can be helpful.
5. After a disruption, slowly reintroduce routine and structure to regain a sense of control and stability.

Sticking to routines or detailed schedules is one of the key ways HSPs regain a sense of control over their world.

This approach acts as a protective barrier, helping them manage what they can control while providing relief to their highly responsive nervous systems.

9. Unresolved Conflicts Annoy Highly Sensitive People

Unresolved conflicts can be particularly bothersome for highly sensitive people (HSPs) due to their heightened emotional responsiveness and aversion to discord.

HSPs possess great empathy and acute sensitivity to the emotions of those around them. As a result, unresolved conflicts can introduce tension within their social circles, which can be challenging for sensitive individuals to witness and process.

Harmony and peaceful interactions hold immense importance for HSPs. Unresolved conflicts disrupt this delicate equilibrium, leading to internal discord and discomfort.

The value they place on harmonious relationships further amplifies the impact of unresolved disputes.

Moreover, HSPs tend to engage in rumination, dwelling on their thoughts and feelings at length. This tendency makes it particularly difficult for them to move past unresolved conflicts. Prolonged rumination often results in deep annoyance and frustration.

However, letting go of negative emotions associated with unresolved disputes can prove to be a challenging task, especially in relationships.

There are other challenges as well that HSPs often face in intimate relationships.

Related Article: 10 Challenges for Highly Sensitive People in Relationships»

In face-to-face conflicts, highly sensitive people may face difficulties due to their need for additional time to process their thoughts and formulate responses. Written forms of communication, such as texts and emails, offer a more comfortable space for them to contemplate their responses.

However, this approach can also lead to overanalyzing words and phrases, potentially causing misunderstandings.

Here are some strategies that HSPs can employ to manage unresolved conflicts effectively:

1. Acknowledge and validate emotions and feelings related to the conflict. It’s completely normal to feel upset by unresolved issues.
2. Take time to compose thoughts and responses in written form, while being mindful of overanalyzing words or phrases to prevent misunderstandings.
3. Engage in activities that help redirect thoughts and focus, avoiding excessive rumination on unresolved conflicts.
4. Address conflicts proactively to find resolutions and maintain emotional equilibrium in the face of discord.

10. Being Misunderstood Annoy HSPs

Misunderstandings can be frustrating for highly sensitive people who long for genuine connections and experience emotions intensely.

When they feel misunderstood, it intensifies their feelings of frustration, sadness, or isolation. This vulnerability can be disheartening, as it dismisses their authentic selves and emotions, often triggering stronger reactions.

In fact, it can give rise to numerous misconceptions about the high sensitivity trait. Indeed, there are several common myths regarding highly sensitive individuals.

Related Article: 9 Common Myths About Highly Sensitive People»

To cope with being misunderstood , highly sensitive individuals may hide their true selves or struggle to accept who they are, leading to isolation.

However, embracing their unique sensitivity is crucial. By fostering open communication, sharing information about their traits, surrounding themselves with understanding individuals, and valuing their sensitivity, they can navigate these challenges and nurture meaningful connections.

If misunderstandings persistently cause emotional distress or interpersonal difficulties, seeking guidance from a therapist or counselor who specializes in supporting highly sensitive individuals is recommended.

Remember, embracing your sensitivity is a strength that can lead to personal growth and emotional well-being.

11. Intrusion of Personal Space Annoy HSPs

Highly sensitive people (HSPs) can feel bothered when others invade their personal space. This is because they have a heightened sensitivity to external stimuli, emotional responsiveness, and sensory processing sensitivity.

They are acutely tuned in to sensory input, including touch and proximity. When their personal space is encroached upon, it can cause physical discomfort and overwhelm their senses.

HSPs greatly value their sense of safety and personal boundaries. When someone invades their personal space, it can make them feel vulnerable and like they have lost control. Personally, I dislike it when people are excessively friendly or intrusive by asking too many personal questions.

Since HSPs are naturally cautious when meeting new people, it takes them time to open up. Therefore, if someone they don’t know becomes too nosy or intrusive, it can make them uncomfortable.

Personal space intrusion is just one of the many things that deeply annoys them.

To cope with personal space intrusions, HSPs can employ the following strategies:

1. Assert their boundaries firmly and communicate their discomfort to others.
2. Seek support from understanding friends or loved ones for emotional validation and reassurance.
3. Take time for self-care and retreat to a calm and private space to regain a sense of balance and reduce emotional impact.
4. Foster an environment that respects personal boundaries.
5. Promote open and empathetic communication to facilitate more supportive and harmonious interactions.

By embracing these strategies, highly sensitive people can effectively navigate the challenges posed by the invasion of their personal space. It empowers them to find balance in a world that sometimes encroaches a bit too closely.

12. Being Treated as Fragile Annoy HSPs

Perceiving highly sensitive people as fragile can be quite bothersome to them. They desire to be acknowledged and treated as capable individuals with unique strengths and sensitivities.

Genuine interactions and authenticity hold immense value for HSPs. When treated as fragile, it may come across as condescending or patronizing, which contradicts their desire for sincere and respectful relationships.

Being highly sensitive does not imply lacking resilience. On the contrary, HSPs possess the ability to handle challenges by leveraging their strengths, such as paying close attention to details, processing information deeply, and noticing subtle nuances.

Their reflective approach allows them to integrate knowledge with past experiences, view situations broadly, analyze them carefully, and accept what cannot be changed while planning for action.

When HSPs are aware of their sensitivity, they can effectively regulate emotions by employing strategies like changing their perspective or finding humor. They can even adapt to tough situations by relying on higher values.

While highly sensitive people may experience emotions intensely, they are not inherently emotionally fragile. They possess a well-developed emotional depth and can exhibit resilience when faced with challenging situations.

HSPs dislike being stereotyped as overly sensitive or fragile, as it perpetuates misconceptions about their personality and abilities.

Sensitive individuals highly value fairness and equality. Being treated as fragile may feel unjust, denying them equal opportunities and respect. Such treatment can lead to feelings of condescension and a reluctance to engage with those who hold this perception.

To address the challenge of being perceived as fragile, highly sensitive people can:

• Assert their capabilities and communicate their preferences to others.
• Engage in self-advocacy and express a desire for respectful and equal treatment.
• Surround themselves with understanding and supportive individuals to reinforce their sense of self-worth and autonomy.
• Educate others about the traits and strengths of highly sensitive people to foster a more accurate understanding and promote respectful interactions.

13. HSPs Find Shallow Conversations Annoying

HSPs highly value authenticity and genuine connections. Superficial exchanges can feel insincere and lacking substance, contradicting their preference for meaningful and candid interactions.

As a result, HSPs actively avoid shallow conversations that don’t stimulate or fulfill them. Instead, they seek deep conversations that explore thoughts, emotions, and ideas.

To cope with shallow conversations, HSPs can:

• Connect with like-minded individuals who appreciate deeper connections.
• Guide conversations towards profound topics or shared interests to foster engaging discussions.
• Engage in activities aligned with their interests, creating opportunities for meaningful interactions.
• Set boundaries around conversations and prioritize interactions that resonate emotionally.

It’s important to note that sensitivity levels can vary among HSPs, so what bothers one person may not affect another in the same way. Each individual’s heightened sensitivity is unique and influenced by personal experiences, upbringing, and genetics.

Remember, while certain traits and sensitivities are common among HSPs, everyone’s experience is different, and specific annoyances or sensitivities can vary widely.