Verily, there exists no scintilla of doubt within me that something ill pervades my disposition. Perchance, when I engage in discourse with others, it doth sap my vital energies. Solitude, I exceedingly covet o'er the greater part of social congregations. Moreover, I oft refrain from ocular contact, chiefly due to its disquieting nature for me. Albeit, being such an intrinsic component of American customs and deemed good manners, I am compelled to force myself to meet people's gaze and extend my hand in salutation, albeit solely upon necessity. The most prominent exemplar would be the constant sensation that all those inhabiting the space about me judge my every action. Reckoning the matters at hand, I have winnowed the possibilities down to a trio of latent mental maladies: High functioning autism, avpd and Hypersensitivity.😊

Very interesting, thanks for sharing this. I scored 25. My sensitivities have always been pointed out by others as a weakness or a negative thing. I'm going to have a look at the "better version" mentioned on the site.

I never thought of myself as an HSP before, but I scored a 22 on the test. I answered no to the ones about being particularly sensitive to pain and caffeine, knowing how to change the environment to make people more comfortable (I'm so uncomfortable around people that I don't notice them being uncomfortable), avoiding violent tv/movies, and my mood/concentration being affected by hunger. I am particularly sensitive to sound and lights. Living in a house with half-deaf TV watchers who have it on extremely loud all the time is miserable, especially at night. I had definite AVPD symptoms by the time I was 10. I can't say for sure if I had HSP traits before then, or if they developed after or at the same time. Although I did have trouble sleeping for as long as I can remember, and it was probably because of sensitivity to sound and my parents always having the tv on at night. I also recall hard rock music making me uncomfortable when I was somewhere between 5 and 9. I used to ask my mom to play "girl music" (female vocalists) because it was usually easier on the ears.

Really interesting idea! I've always appreciated to some extent that I was a more sensitive person but it made me feel shut down and insecure plenty of times. avpd and hsp being correlated makes sense to me!

Thanks for this video. I have heard of HSP and now I realize it describes so much of my experiences with life. Will be taking the test, but already know the result.

Hi there, I scored a 22 and tbh I will admit that I am a truly sensitive person and have found out that I have AVPD after you and Marnie shared your stories and began realizing that nearly half of my life ive had this disorder

Thanks for posting. I've only very recently become aware of my personal combination of HSP and AvPD. I've often been dismissed as just "overly sensitive". I'd like to put a brutally honest facet of me here. It's no wonder people never really got me, because I was such a people pleaser, was so desperate to be liked, and always over-empathised. In fact I've routinely actively set myself up for bullying and criticism, even though it's always very hurtful. It ties in with avoiding confrontation at all costs, invariably to my own detriment, which is of course a recipe for personal disaster and makes no sense. I would rarely show I was deeply hurt, except in private, where the only way I could express it was self harm. Go figure!?!? The only person who saw this was my ex wife, who would look at me in mute horror and disbelief, combined with complete (and perhaps understandable!) failure to comprehend such actions. Identical self harm would occur if I failed to come up to my own ludicrously high standards, or made an insignificant error. I've found writing at length and in detail, honestly about myself, my life experiences, the people in it and my motivation (if that's the right term) for behaving as I have extremely useful. It gives great insight to both AvPD and HSP traits. At times it's of course remarkably unpleasant, especially because I'm brutally honest about myself. But nevertheless very helpful in learning about me. Perhaps the concept of writing might help others?

Thanks a lot for this video! It's hard to imagine most people don't experience this kind of deep sensitivity at all. And while HSPs are said to have certain advantages over non-HSPs, I think those with AvPD unfortunately mostly experience the disadvantages.

I scored 24 hhh of course

I never really could say if I'm a HSP, always thought I was highly sensitive to certain things especially towards saddening emotions. I tend to believe I can intensely feel the sadness of others, even if they try to hide it. But I also think I falsely read into these things sometimes and in that case I can feel sad without reason XD thinking it's because I think the other person is sad. On the test I scored 13, not sure though if I understood everything as well as I think I did since English is not my mother tongue. I believe that at least for me, the AvPD related high sensitivities is on itself not related to "true" HSP. I could be wrong though. Also I sometimes believe that the sensitivies I have are more related towards AvPD and perhaps CPTSD (I'm not diagnosed with CPTSD but a psychologist once said that I could have that disorder as well).

Thanks for creating this. I had heard of HSPs but not looked into it before. I scored very low but I identify as schizoid rather than avoidant. Could this be another way besides motivation for social isolation to differentiate AVP and SPD?