heightened sensitivity
Acutely tuned perception
Heightened sensitivity is an increased responsiveness to stimuli—physical, emotional, or social.
Someone with heightened sensitivity to criticism takes even mild feedback hard.
A heightened sensitivity to light makes bright rooms uncomfortable.
The phrase often appears in medical contexts: The medication caused heightened sensitivity to sunlight.
It can be innate temperament or a temporary state induced by circumstances, substances, or conditions.
- hyperawareExcessively conscious of surroundings
- on edgeTense and anxious
- rawIn original state
- raw nerveUnprotected emotional sensitivity
- overstimulatedExcessively aroused sensorially
reactive · hair trigger · tender · fragile · paper thin · attuned · vulnerable · exposed · walking on eggshells · flinching · allergic · thin-skinned · prickly · acute · vigilant · overwhelmed · nerve · empathic
heightened sensitivitynumbness
Loss of sensation
desensitization · anesthesia · insensitivity · hyposensitivity · deadening
heightened sensitivityemotional numbness
Absence of felt affect
apathy · thick skin · indifference · callousness · detachment
heightened sensitivityhigh tolerance
Ability to endure much
insensitivity · thick skin · imperviousness · tolerance · robustness
heighten, heightened, heightening, heightens, height, heights, higher, highest, highly