(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Approximately 5 episodes into the new F/X miniseries Fargo - and it's quite good.
Better actually than True Detective (which kept meandering around in circles plot-wise and had no strong female characters to root for or speak of, purely a two-man show), and Orphan Black - which I found to be a bit off in the second season premiere - it may well be a mood thing. I'll come back to it eventually. Rather surprised at how well-written and gripping Fargo has become. Initial reviews were mixed.
Loving the female cop, and Martin Freeman is hilarious.

Caught up with Game of Thrones, well except for this week's episode. But if it is following the books as closely as the last two episodes did...I sort of know what happened. Which may be why I'm putting it off. It's a painful series. Nobody comes out unscathed. That's not really a spoiler - by this point, you probably figured that for yourselves? Or not. I admittedly didn't figure it out til halfway through Dance of Dragons, but since they brought forward a lot of that book - and I'm guessing a pivotal scene at the end of Feast of Crows regarding Brienne, which frankly depressed me in the books, you should figure this out way before I did. As a friend on Facebook recently commented: Again and again he hurts me ... he promises love and passion and glory, gives hints of happiness and things working out ... and then, when things look most promising, he DASHES ALL HOPE! WITH CRUELTY AND SAVAGE HEAD-POPPING!! Every time, I say, "NO MORE!! I AM DONE!!" But he REELS ME BACK IN!!! Oh, George RR Martin, Oh Game of Thrones writers and producers -- WHY DO YOU TREAT ME SO?!?!?!?!?!

Oh and I discovered this also via Facebook, which describes me and my issues quite well, and is actually a better description than "Introvert".

6 Signs that You Could be a Highly Sensitive Person.

1. You were described as sensitive or shy as a child. You were the kid who knew what somebody was about to say before they said it. You reacted strongly to changes in your environment. Maybe you were the one who paused to watch before jumping into the game. Aron emphasizes that while most HSPs have been labeled shy, a full 30 percent have not and would be described as extroverted. She notes that some observers, like Susan Cain in her best-selling book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, may really be talking about sensitivity when they discuss introversion. Being highly reactive to stimuli does not necessarily mean you don’t seek out crowds or new acquaintances, although it often does. The key underlying trait is sensitivity, not inhibition. Some HSPs are actually sensation-seekers — stimuli can bring them intense pleasure as well as discomfort.

2. You pick up subtleties in your environment. The HSP’s brain processes information and reflects on it more deeply. One thing HSPs share is the tendency to notice things others might not pick up on so readily, like the mood of a teacher or the rearrangment of furniture in a room. An artificial sweetener might taste like a chemical experiment, and someone’s slightly off-key singing might sound like a fingernail on a chalkboard. HSPs might also have noticed a tendency to detect when someone is telling a lie, or intuit another person’s feelings.

3. You can easily become overwhelmed. Too much intensity, chaos and noise can wreak havoc on an HSP, which is why they often work better in quiet environments. When they are able to concentrate, HSPs are excellent at work that requires deep thinking and fast turnover. But turn up the volume around them and ask them to do too many things at once and they become overloaded. If you’re the kind of person who feels the need to retreat by yourself after a trip or an outing with friends or a busy day, you might be an HSP. Part of managing life for an HSP (or somebody who is close to one) is understanding and respecting the need for extra time to regroup and making allowances for your particular work style.

4. You fall hard and fast: Aron has devoted an entire book, The Highly Sensitive Person in Love, to the topic of HSPs and their style of loving. When they fall in love, they often feel tremendous ecstasy, and often very quickly, but they also feel anxiety, overstimulation and difficulty processing their intense emotions. Overstimulation and intensity can make intimacy difficult for HSPs, who are also the type of people who naturally seek it out. For HSPs, the risk of heartbreak and unhappy relationships is unfortunately higher than average, but understanding the trait and finding a partner who can be patient with it can increase the odds of success.[Well not of late.]

5. You are conscientious: HSPs tend to be conscientious people who try hard to perform their duties well and execute their work at their very best level. They often have particularly good manners, and notice when others don’t. Rudeness and work that is full of errors drive them nuts. HSPs are often especially concerned with issues of social justice, and will fight hard to right wrongs in the world. [Explains why my work environments often drive me crazy.]

6. You have a vivid imagination: HSPs are often very creative people. They have vivid dreams and can wander off into imaginary realms in their minds. They are also very empathetic and can imagine the thoughts and feelings of others. An interest in art, philosophy and spirituality is common. Carl Jung was one of the early psychologists most interested in HSPs (he used a different term), probably because he himself was one. He thought that people with “innate sensitivity,” as he put it, were more in touch with the unconscious mind and could be especially insightful.

If all of this sounds like you, you might just be a highly sensitive person, equipped with a temperament that requires special skills and knowledge to deal with. As I’m learning more about how this trait works in my own life, I’m grateful that Aron does not pathologize it, but treats it as something that simply is. Even for people who are not HSPs, information on the topic can surely be useful to parents, teachers, partners, and co-workers who have an HSP among them.

I took the selftest - and I pretty much answered all but one question as yes. The one I didn't answer as yes - was "You avoid violent tv shows and movies" - uh, I'm guessing if you watch Game of Thrones, Justified, Fargo, and ahem, Orphan Black, not to mention having enjoyed the last three Batman flicks - you can't really claim that, now, can you?

It also describes my niece quite adeptly, along with various other members of my family. Definite hereditary trait.

Comments

[sophist.livejournal.com]

There's a major "bring forward" this week, but it doesn't involve Brienne. Took book readers by surprise (which was undoubtedly the point).

[local-max.livejournal.com]

A psychiatrist put me onto the Highly Sensitive Person definition a while ago, and I also find I relate to it a lot (and "watching violent movies/reading violent books" is also the main thing in HSP self-quizzes I always definitely answer that I don't, though there are usually a few others I'm on the fence about). I'd say it definitely describes members of my family -- my mother and late grandmother, especially, and definitely my uncle and I think one of my aunts.

[sophist.livejournal.com]

In contrast, I apparently have the emotional sensitivity of Ron Weasley. I can watch GoT, The Wire, or Deadwood with enjoyment.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

Heh :). Well, I can too -- what I meant was that the one Highly Sensitive Person trait I don't have is a reluctance to watch the violent things.

[sophist.livejournal.com]

Welcome to Voyeur-dom. :)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I can do GoT and The Wire...but again, they aren't real. Real depictions of violence bother me more. The Wire did admittedly bug me a little. But I have more troubles with serial killer tv series. Couldn't watch Hannibal for example, also The Walking Dead got to me - which granted is fantasy/horror.

Depends on the violence and how it is depicted. GoT bugged me in Dance of Dragons (every chapter included tortured and graphic death scenes in that book).

[sophist.livejournal.com]

I've never watched Hannibal or anything similar, so I don't know how they'd affect me. I do know that I saw the early Friday 13th and similar movies, but they don't affect me much. I don't have much of a startle reflex -- my kids used to jump out at me, but I don't scare.

If you haven't seen Deadwood, you should watch it. Really well done.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I startle easily - people at work enjoy making me yelp, until I plugged in ipod which reduced the tendency. Also can't do caffeine, and too much violence makes me crazy (I don't know about Deadwood - feeding people to the pigs, will possibly bug me. And as you know, I had to give up on Dance of Dragons finally.)

Yep, highly sensitive person - explains so much. LOL!

[sophist.livejournal.com]

The pigs aren't too graphic. There are a couple of worse scenes. Probably no worse than GoT, though that's a low bar.

Lots of swearing, though.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Eh, swearing doesn't bother me. I've heard far worse walking around NYC, at work, and in the subway.

[sophist.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you've heard worse. The swearing on Deadwood is at a whole new level. It makes the "fuck" scene from the Wire look tame.

But I don't actually care about swearing. I'm just impressed.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I was discussing it over the phone tonight with a friend, who made a good point - tv shows and movies aren't real - so you can sort of distance yourself from them.

I can't for example watch Hannibal, most serial killer procedurals, or torture porn. Also war documentaries, violent news broadcasts, etc which are real bug me.

But comic book movies, fantasy shows, The Wire, or Justified - not that much of a problem - not real. Depends.

Am admittedly on the fence about a few items myself - such as "isolated loud noises don't bother me" but I do have issues with rock concerts, although depends on the concert and degree of stimulation. Peter Gabriel concert I loved, but a lot of others - such as Pink Floyd, I found difficult to see live.

[I was put on to it by my therapist in August. And yep, quite a few members of my family including both parents, my grandmother, my niece and to a degree my brother. Along with two cousins, and an aunt.]

[local-max.livejournal.com]

Hope you don't mind the delay in response, I have been flitting in and off lj for the past few days.

I do think a lot of the sensitivity does come down to mood and situation, as well, in general but also specifically when it comes to tv. Certain news stories I find very difficult to bear. And I think if something is presented in just the wrong way it can get me anxious very easily. The Ontario provincial elections are next week, and I find myself tensing up at all the political debates and advertisements, especially living as I do right now with my mother, with whom I disagree on politics in quite a few ways. Some of it is just wisely avoiding contentious topics where there's no point in either swaying the other. But some of it is the recognition that there are serious issues on the table, and that I have some degree of responsibility to try to do something about it, and to make informed decisions, and to confront what it means to live in a society. It makes me think of ways in which I have or have not been a good citizen, and it makes it sink in how much people are suffering in the province, as well as the possibility that poor decisions can lead to things getting worse. It's harder to deal with than most fictional worlds, where there is at least some degree of separation.

Even The Wire, which is so much about how the world *actually* operates, and not a fantastic mirror of it like Buffy et al. nor how the world *used to* operate like Deadwood, is still a little bit separate, because I'm not living in poor, dying-city Baltimore. While I would like to believe I care very much what happens elsewhere, and I think I do, I also think that it's something that I can't do much about, and that feeling of...lack of responsibility, rightly or wrongly, makes it feel a little less personal. I'm not sure if it's right or wrong to feel that way -- but I guess it just is.