Photo by Harry Quan on Unsplash

“Overexcitability” (or ‘OE’ for short) is a heightened ability to receive, and respond to, stimuli. Everything coming in from the outside world, and everything going on inside your head has the ‘volume turned up’. It is often found in creative and gifted individuals (although not all gifted or creative people have OE, and not all people with OE are gifted – it’s not a one to one match).

The term was coined by Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski, who developed the Theory of Positive Disintegration. He called out OE as a key factor in the potential of a person to develop their personality. A factor which could influence the probability of, and rate at which, a person goes through the various stages of disintegration, and growth into their authentic self.

The Tragic Gift

Dabrowski called overexcitability a ‘tragic gift‘. This intense experience of the world is more likely to lead to extremes of emotion – good and bad – leading a person with OE to view the world in a very different way. And that’s what OE is all about – it’s intense. Whether for good or bad, everything internal and external is amplified.

“One could say that one who manifests a given form of overexcitability, and especially one who manifests several forms of overexcitability, sees reality in a different, stronger and more multisided manner. Reality for such an individual ceases to be indifferent but affects him deeply and leaves long-lasting impressions.”

(Dabrowski, 1972, p. 7).

Five areas of OE

Dabrowski identified five areas of OE. Not all people with OE will have all five, or have them to the same degree. People also manifest their OE in different ways. Below are some of the more common signs of OE:

• Psychomotor: Heightened excitability of the neuromuscular system. This leads to a capacity for being active and energetic, a love of movement, preference for anything fast, and a surplus of energy.
• Sensual: Intensified sensory pleasure (or displeasure) from five senses, i.e. sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Often manifests in a love of music, art, nature, food and language.
• Intellectual: Extreme desire to seek understanding, gain knowledge, and to analyse and categorise information. Critical, analytical and highly curious. Frequently thinking for thinking’s sake.
• Imaginational: Intensified play of the imagination, invention, fantasy, and heavy use of metaphor. Love of poetry, humour, fantasy and fiction, and magical thinking. Often creative and artistic, innovative, or ‘lost in their own world’. Daydreams and night dreams are vivid and rich.
• Emotional: Extreme experience of emotions, complex emotions and empathy, and forms very strong attachments with people, places, objects and animals. Physical responses to emotions, such as headaches and stomach pains. Strong sense of right and wrong, and need for justice.

The Struggle

While OE can lead to a unique view of the world, and help an individual develop their authentic self, the extremes of emotion and intensity of experience can also take it’s toll. Like anything in life, there are pros and cons. There are down-sides to OEs too:

Psychomotor

• Competitiveness
• Compulsive behaviour, such as fidgeting, pacing, or compulsive rapid speech
• Impulsive behaviour, such as interrupting others while talking, or risk taking
• Nervous habits and tics, like scratching, picking or tapping
• Sleeplessness or disrupted sleep patterns

Sensual

• Sensitivity to pollution, smells and chemicals
• Tactile sensitivity, particularly to clothes (fabrics like wool, clothing tags and seams in socks are common irritants)
• Light or sound sensitivity
• Seeks attention (the sensation of feeling the “external gaze”)
• Craves pleasure or comfort (from material items, hobbies or even sexual activity)
• Substance abuse or eating disorders

Intellectual

• Impatience with others who can’t “keep up”
• Obsessive focus on areas of interest
• Workaholism
• Nagging curiosity, or need to consume excessive media (e.g. watching too much news)
• Rebellious, argumentative, or questioning authority

Imaginative

• Daydreaming, or almost in their own thoughts
• Fear of the unknown
• Paranoia, or worst-case-scenario thinking
• Vivid dreams and nightmares
• Lack of focus, easily distracted or easily bored

Emotional

• Anxiety and depression
• Extremes of emotion, rapid mood swings, or feeling too many emotions at once
• Loneliness, clinging to relationships, or feeling continually “out of place”
• Strong memory of trauma
• Physical reactions to strong emotions (stomach aches, sweating and blushing, rapid heartbeat, panic attacks)
• Timidity and shyness, or social anxiety

Why understand OE?

Dabrowski dedicated most of his career to working with people at risk of self-harm and suicide. He understood that sensitive people can also be vulnerable people. An intense experience of the world can become overwhelming and unwieldy.

However, Dabrowski also knew that these intensities can also bring blessings, and that “different” does not mean “broken”. The biggest blessing of all being that a different perspective of the world increases your developmental potential – it allows you to question the way things are, and imagine them as they ought to be.

OE and Neurodivergence

This way of thinking provides an alternative to medical models, which might stigmatise such behaviours and traits, and see them as things to fix. In other words, it is a very neurodivergence affirming concept, which was well ahead of its time. In fact, you could argue that it was a forerunner to the neurodivergence movement. This is because even in his early works, Dabrowski was treating the ‘tragic gift’ not just as tragic, but as a gift. He saw it as difference, and not deficiency.

But the biggest reason to understand OE (and spread the word) is because OE is not widely known. And many people with OE may not understand who they are, and may not fit in with other neurotype definitions. They could struggle with extremes of emotion, and feeling vastly different in the world, and yet not find any mirroring within the current medical models.

If there’s one thing about OE I am certain of – it’s that if you have OE, you are most certainly not alone. We’re out there…