In Part 1 of this episode I share some of my own journey as a highly sensitive person and a few anecdotes and recurring themes:

• early signs of high sensory processing sensitivity
• overwhelm from highly stimulating environments (including college)
• my 30 year quest for external validation and how medical education encouraged it
• imposter syndrome and why I was resisted letting it go

Contact:
Email: soniasingh@junipermodernprimarycare.com
Instagram: @soniasinghMD
Twitter: @soniasinghMD

In this episode we answer the following questions

• What does it mean to be a highly sensitive person (HSP)?
• What are some common qualities of HSPs?
• How are HSPs different from introverts and empaths (and how they are similar)?
• What is the data that supports the existence of this trait?
• How is being highly sensitive relevant to burnout in medicine?
• What finally convinced me that I wasn't alone in my experience of burnout?

Links:
The Highly Sensitive Person by Dr. Elaine Aron (Book)
The Highly Sensitive Person Website & Quiz

Acevedo BP, Aron EN, Aron A, Sangster MD, Collins N, Brown LL. The highly sensitive brain: an fMRI study of sensory processing sensitivity and response to others' emotions. Brain Behav. 2014 Jul;4(4):580-94. doi: 10.1002/brb3.242. Epub 2014 Jun 23. PMID: 25161824; PMCID: PMC4086365. [Full Text]

Friederike X.R. Gerstenberg, Sensory-processing sensitivity predicts performance on a visual search task followed by an increase in perceived stress, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 496-500, ISSN 0191-8869. [Abstract]

Morning Report (NEJM, 2017) by Sonia Singh MD
Open Letter to a Burned Out Intern (Annals of Internal Medicine, 2020) by Sonia Singh MD

Contact:
Email: soniasingh@junipermodernprimarycare.com
Instagram: @soniasinghMD
Twitter: @soniasinghMD

This is a brief introduction to the podcast: what it's about, who it's for and why it matters.