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Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person
Are you a thrill seeker who loves roller coasters, yet prefers safe thrills? Do you love new and novel experiences, yet are careful to think it through? Are you deeply empathic, highly creative, and experience a rich, deep inner life? If so you may be a high sensation seeking highly sensitive person. In this ground-breaking new book Dr. Tracy Cooper, the author of Thrive: The Highly Sensitive Person and Career, presents new research findings that will help you better understand how to embody both traits in ways that promote well-being, contribute to a realization of potential and engage capacities in meaning making in the world.
This book is a must read for all highly sensitive people who are also high sensation seekers and the people who love them!
This book is a must read for all highly sensitive people who are also high sensation seekers and the people who love them!
214 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 10, 2016
29 people are currently reading
216 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 4, 2020
Dr. Cooper is an expert on Sensitive Sensation Seekers (people who are both highly sensitive and high-sensation seekers). These are mostly highlights for myself.
Sensation seeking can be thought of as a greater willingness and openness to approach new situations. It’s a trait defined by the seeking of “varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences”. This appears in four ways: thrill and adventure seeking, experience or novelty seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility. You don’t need to be high in all four aspects to be HSS, and it’s common that you identify more strongly with one or two (one HSS child might enjoy riding their bike fast or jumping off chairs while another might enjoy field trips and getting lost in museums). When you’re both sensitive and sensation seeking, physical thrills might appear in more moderate ways like carnival rides. For the sensitive child, it’s the intensity of the experience that’s thrilling, even if the overall adventure may seem less so to others.
“It’s like the story of the cat who let you pet him five times, but not six. On six, he bites.”
Experience and novelty seeking is the biggest crossover between HSS and HSP. Disinhibition is often less of a factor because sensitivity causes children to pause. It’s like being pulled in two directions at once. The trait is largely heritable (58%) and is backed up by studies done on twins—identified as the DRD4 gene, the “wanderlust” gene, or the “Star Trek” gene. Where HSPs make up around 15-20% of the population, 30% of HSPs also identify as HSS. And there’s an evolution reason for this—the greater our range of behaviors, the greater our ability to perform well in context-specific ways.
In modern society, one interesting thing about these combined traits is that one is obviously more acceptable in western society (HSS). There’s also a gender divide—caregivers want to “correct” sensitivity in boys and “correct” sensation-seeking in girls. That’s why I really appreciated Dr. Cooper’s emphasis on the importance of embracing non-conformity as a means to happiness throughout this book. The sensitive sensation seeker is likely to be far less interested in fulfilling other people’s notions of what our lives should be like and how we should live them.
While sensation seeking traits can sound dangerous on their own, I really enjoyed reading about the benefits of the combined traits of HSS and HSP. HSPs might overestimate risks, whereas HSS might overestimate them. And HSS HSPs may feel a tug of war within. One person talked about it as the elusive “optimal level of stimulation”—similar to that sweet spot on a tennis racket. It just means we’re much more likely to weigh risks before taking them. Which can allow an otherwise sensitive person to push themselves outside their comfort zone and experience more of life.
As a couple of side notes, I also really enjoyed the sections about the theory of positive disintegration (no pain, no gain), age as a construct, and transcendental feelings.
Sensation seeking can be thought of as a greater willingness and openness to approach new situations. It’s a trait defined by the seeking of “varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences”. This appears in four ways: thrill and adventure seeking, experience or novelty seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility. You don’t need to be high in all four aspects to be HSS, and it’s common that you identify more strongly with one or two (one HSS child might enjoy riding their bike fast or jumping off chairs while another might enjoy field trips and getting lost in museums). When you’re both sensitive and sensation seeking, physical thrills might appear in more moderate ways like carnival rides. For the sensitive child, it’s the intensity of the experience that’s thrilling, even if the overall adventure may seem less so to others.
“It’s like the story of the cat who let you pet him five times, but not six. On six, he bites.”
Experience and novelty seeking is the biggest crossover between HSS and HSP. Disinhibition is often less of a factor because sensitivity causes children to pause. It’s like being pulled in two directions at once. The trait is largely heritable (58%) and is backed up by studies done on twins—identified as the DRD4 gene, the “wanderlust” gene, or the “Star Trek” gene. Where HSPs make up around 15-20% of the population, 30% of HSPs also identify as HSS. And there’s an evolution reason for this—the greater our range of behaviors, the greater our ability to perform well in context-specific ways.
In modern society, one interesting thing about these combined traits is that one is obviously more acceptable in western society (HSS). There’s also a gender divide—caregivers want to “correct” sensitivity in boys and “correct” sensation-seeking in girls. That’s why I really appreciated Dr. Cooper’s emphasis on the importance of embracing non-conformity as a means to happiness throughout this book. The sensitive sensation seeker is likely to be far less interested in fulfilling other people’s notions of what our lives should be like and how we should live them.
While sensation seeking traits can sound dangerous on their own, I really enjoyed reading about the benefits of the combined traits of HSS and HSP. HSPs might overestimate risks, whereas HSS might overestimate them. And HSS HSPs may feel a tug of war within. One person talked about it as the elusive “optimal level of stimulation”—similar to that sweet spot on a tennis racket. It just means we’re much more likely to weigh risks before taking them. Which can allow an otherwise sensitive person to push themselves outside their comfort zone and experience more of life.
As a couple of side notes, I also really enjoyed the sections about the theory of positive disintegration (no pain, no gain), age as a construct, and transcendental feelings.
June 12, 2023
terrible/frustrating font/layout, needed a better editor. but good content and only one of it's kind. felt like an intro to the topic, more concrete tips would help. the context was clear but how to actually, for example manage one's emotions, seemed up to the reader to figure out on their own.
the section on being creative gave a sort of overall framework to see the constant need for personal/creative expansion as healthy but failed to really offer ideas/ways of finding the balance between the sensitivity and the sensation seeking (not to mention the procrastination and in-fighting of the two temperaments).
still glad I bought it and will reference it going forward, just for the feeling of being understood when I feel like a crazy person in my brain.
the section on being creative gave a sort of overall framework to see the constant need for personal/creative expansion as healthy but failed to really offer ideas/ways of finding the balance between the sensitivity and the sensation seeking (not to mention the procrastination and in-fighting of the two temperaments).
still glad I bought it and will reference it going forward, just for the feeling of being understood when I feel like a crazy person in my brain.
April 16, 2023
This book is a life changer to everyone with HSS
January 1, 2024
This is a different combination of labels (“sensitive sensation seekers”) that I hadn’t heard of before - maybe describing a small percent of the population. This label doesn’t resonate with me and the book was hard to slog through with the layout of quotes and sections, but I am interested in topics like this that help people unlock an understanding of themselves.
March 31, 2020
If you’re a high sensation seeker you can find yourself in here because it describes how our life “works” in terms of how we operate. However, I didn’t find any particular advice.
Having said that it was a great book to understand and discover more about myself
Having said that it was a great book to understand and discover more about myself
July 16, 2023
Rich and practical guide for the ones with or who are dealing with sensitive and sensation-driven people. The book has practical examples and testimonials. A captivating read, with less intuitive distribution of chapters and titles.
May 24, 2023
I have never felt more seen than I have when I listened to this book.
June 25, 2024
Good info, mediocre presentation. It could use some editing.
December 27, 2017
Being a HSS of course it took me ages to complete this book. It gave me some very interesting new insigghts, but it is repetitive at times and a not too thrilling read.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews