‘It is quite possible that TMAs are continually operating in a hypersensitive manner. People hypersensitive to external and internal data in many forms and operating at a high emotional intensity level might very well become overstimulated.’ - My partner comments all the time about how its difficult for me to be in certain environments due to the overstimulation of all my senses, and my difficulty relaxing and slowing down my brain.

‘Many of them need a lot of time alone to regenerate. Yet, this same turbulence can also lead to great insight and creativity.’ - Yes! I desperately need more alone time than most people i know and become extremely overwhelmed if i dont get it. When i do get it my creative output is always increased and even surprises me sometimes.

‘Few people know how to handle normal emotion, let alone powerful, ongoing emotion’ - Its exhausting being tuned in to the emotions of other people and myself, it results in a constant battle to keep the health effects of stress at bay.

In the twenty years we’ve known one another and discussed our career frustrations, she seems never to have had the TMA experience that I have: within just about every job I’ve ever had, it has seemed as if the job required focus on a “reduced radius” that felt increasingly claustrophobic as time went on.

It wasn’t about moving on to ANOTHER thing. It was more like if the job in front of me is “teaching”, I conceive of the work as something that other people would call teaching-counseling-research-writing-performing all at once.

I’m so glad I discovered Barbara Sher’s book. It helps with managing the guilt I feel for not being able to pick one thing to do.

I’m another scanner who blogs, I use my blog in place of the “daybook”.

Kezz

I’ve just discovered that I’m a Scanner, and I feel quite relieved about it.
I’ve been reading things about intelligence, gifted children/adults and other things on Asperger’s syndrome because of some similar apparent effects.

I read a book by a specialist in gifted kids, that gifted people are highly sensitive, and get most details, odours and so on, of the surrounding space. This is why they often are really emotional, intuitive, and are interested in many things.

I guess for most people, gifted people are just people that are more intelligent than others. The truth is that the intelligence is different. It’s not something more. The brain functions in a different way, and it’s a bit like the senses are pluged in an high voltage/ speed stream channels all the time.

So I think, for that matters, that Hank is right, and the stereotype may as well describe highly sensitive persons that blocked their emotions to prevent them from being overwhelmed.

Scanners are perhaps more “whole” in their personalities, because they have the knack of recognising “bizarre” things that in some strange way they need from time to time.