World Mental Health Day 2025 | Don’t Blame Yourself for Overthinking

Release time：2025-10-10 10:21:54

In 2021, the WHO estimated that more than one billion people worldwide were living with mental health conditions or mental disorders. The direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 — including economic and employment challenges, deteriorating mental health, and geopolitical instability — have driven a continued rise in prevalence. Anxiety and depressive disorders are the two most common categories of mental illness. Burdens are particularly high among adolescents, women, and people severely affected by the pandemic, economic shocks, or social isolation. Within these groups, a personality trait known as Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is associated with an increased risk of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Individuals with this trait are typically especially sensitive to external and internal stimuli — including subtle changes in the environment and others’ emotions, as well as sounds and light. They tend to process such stimuli more deeply and to exhibit stronger emotional responses. The concept of heightened sensitivity can be traced back to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung in 1913 and has since been developed into a systematic research framework. Studies indicate that this sensitivity has a heritable component and is related to brain regions involved in empathy, social processing, and reflective thinking.

Past research has consistently shown that certain dimensions of the Big Five personality traits, such as neuroticism, are clearly associated with depression and anxiety. “Sensitivity,” however, while correlated with traits like neuroticism and introversion, has been increasingly recognized as a relatively independent personality construct with unique features—such as deeper cognitive processing and stronger emotional reactivity. If sensitivity proves to be reliably associated with mental health problems, it could serve as an important marker for prevention, assessment, and intervention.

A recent systematic review and meta-analysis published in Clinical Psychological Science (Falkenstein et al., 2025) synthesized existing research and quantified the overall relationship between sensitivity and common mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. The review applied rigorous inclusion criteria: only peer-reviewed articles with a mean sample age ≥ 12 years were included; sensitivity was measured using the HSPS/HSCS(Highly Sensitive Person/Child Scale) or validated variants; and outcomes were restricted to ICD-10/DSM-5(ICD-10 and DSM-5 are clinical diagnostic manuals for mental health, published by the WHO and the American Psychiatric Association)-defined psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD). Studies focusing solely on subclinical variables (e.g., subjective well-being, burnout) were excluded. Searches covered the literature up to the end of 2024. Ultimately, 33 studies were included, encompassing a total sample of 12,697 individuals (mean age ≈ 25.4 years; 62.5% female).

Findings on Sensitivity and Mental Health
💠Depression: Sensory Processing Sensitivity showed a moderate positive association with depressive symptoms (r = 0.36), indicating that highly sensitive individuals are more likely to experience depression.
💠Anxiety: Sensory Processing Sensitivity was also moderately correlated with anxiety symptoms (r = 0.39).
💠Other disorders: Associations were further observed with OCD, PTSD, social anxiety disorder, and agoraphobia, suggesting that high sensitivity may increase vulnerability across multiple conditions.

Why might high sensitivity increase risk?
🔶Overstimulation: Highly sensitive individuals are more easily overwhelmed by environmental stimuli. Chronic overarousal may foster learned helplessness, increasing the risk of depression and anxiety.
🔶Deep processing: A tendency toward deeper cognitive processing can heighten rumination and internalization of problems.
🔶Emotional reactivity: Although sensitive individuals respond intensely to both positive and negative stimuli, they may lack sufficient emotion-regulation strategies to buffer against negative effects.

Implications
🔷For sensitive individuals: The findings suggest that high sensitivity increases the likelihood of interpreting ambiguous cues as threatening or rejecting, which can amplify anxiety and depression. However, cultivating cognitive flexibility, reality-checking, emotional regulation, and healthy lifestyle habits can interrupt this cycle and help restore balance.
🔷For clinicians and counselors: Assessing sensitivity levels may inform tailored treatment plans. For example, interventions that focus on emotional regulation, managing overstimulation, and reducing rumination may be particularly effective for highly sensitive clients. Harnessing their responsiveness to art and nature can also support recovery.
🔷For educators and families: Early recognition of sensitivity—and providing understanding and support rather than pathologizing labels—can reduce stigma and improve outcomes of later interventions.

A balanced view: Sensitivity can also be an asset. In supportive environments, heightened perceptiveness may translate into profound insight. Sensitivity is not a disorder but rather a “thinner skin of the psyche.” When wisely managed, it may foster unique creativity and spiritual depth, enabling individuals to excel in fields such as the arts, research, writing, or helping professions.

Ref:
Falkenstein, T., Sartori, L., Malanchini, M., Hadfield, K., & Pluess, M. (2025). The relationship between environmental sensitivity and common mental-health problems in adolescents and adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026251348428