Is It Relationship Anxiety or Intuition? How to Tell the Difference When You’re Highly Sensitive
When you're a highly sensitive person (HSP), dating and relationships often feel more intense than they seem to for others. You pick up on every nuance: the silence between texts, the shift in tone, the way your stomach flips when they pull away.
Your mind might spiral with questions:
Is this my intuition telling me something’s off? Or is this just anxiety speaking?
This is the crossroads many sensitive women arrive at—and staying stuck there can feel exhausting. Let’s explore how to discern the difference between relationship anxiety and true intuition—and how to start trusting yourself again.
The Fear of Being Too Much: Anxiety, Boundaries, and Relationships
If you’ve ever felt like you’re “too much” for the people around you- too emotional, too sensitive, too intense- you’re not alone. Many women and highly sensitive people carry a fear of being “too much,” especially in close relationships. This fear often doesn’t come out of nowhere. It can be a response to early experiences where emotions weren’t welcomed, boundaries weren’t respected, or vulnerability led to rejection or punishment.
As a somatic and trauma therapist who specializes in working with sensitive, neurodivergent, and intuitive women, I hear this fear all the time. It shows up in the quiet moments before a boundary is spoken, in the racing thoughts before sending a text, in the shame that follows an honest expression. So many of us have been conditioned to believe that emotional needs are burdens—and that being ourselves might cost us connection.
Is Anxiety a Trauma Response? What You Should Know
Many of my clients come to me exhausted. Not because they’re falling apart, but because they’re done pretending they’re fine.
They’ve already done some therapy. They’ve read the books. They can name their patterns. But something still feels stuck. Underneath the surface, there’s a constant hum of worry, pressure, tightness. That quiet panic that never really goes away.
And most of them carry a secret fear: What if I’m just too sensitive? What if this is just who I am? What I’m just broken?
Here’s the truth: if you feel anxious all the time- especially in relationships, in groups, when resting, or when you're alone- it’s not a flaw in your personality. It might be a trauma response. And that means there’s nothing wrong with you. It means your body has been working overtime to protect you.
Anxiety Isn’t All in Your Head — It Lives in the Body, Too: Therapy for Women in ORegon
If you’ve ever been told to “just think positive” or “calm down,” you know how frustrating and isolating anxiety can feel. Maybe you’ve tried deep breaths, mantras, or mindset work—and it helped, but only a little. The truth is, anxiety isn’t just in your mind. It’s in your nervous system. It lives in your body.
Anxiety is often a survival response—not a personal flaw. It can show up as racing thoughts, trouble sleeping, looping worries, or a constant feeling of being “on alert.” But it can also appear as muscle tension, digestive issues, chronic fatigue, or a tight chest. These are all ways your body tries to protect you from danger, even when there’s no clear threat.
Burnout and the ADHD Brain: Why So Many Women Are Exhausted
There’s a specific kind of burnout that lives in the bodies of women with ADHD. It’s not just mental fatigue. It’s nervous system depletion. It’s a full-body no after years of masking, overfunctioning, and trying to keep up in a world that doesn’t see the effort behind your every move.
You might be the one everyone counts on. The one who remembers the details, carries the emotional labor, keeps the plates spinning. You’re praised for your sensitivity, intuition, or brilliance, but underneath all of that there’s a quiet overwhelm no one else sees.
What Is a Therapy Intensive? A Guide for Deep Healing in Less Time
A therapy intensive is a longer, immersive session—usually 2 to 3 hours—designed to help you move through more in one sitting than traditional weekly therapy often allows. It’s like giving your healing journey a quiet, focused retreat. One that’s fully centered on you.
How Can Therapy Help Women with Late-Diagnosed ADHD in Bend, Oregon?
Many women with late-diagnosed ADHD spent years masking their struggles, working harder than everyone else, and blaming themselves. They often believed they were the problem when really the problem was that their needs were unseen and unsupported. Therapy can be a turning point. It can be the beginning of reclaiming who you truly are, beyond all the ways you learned to survive.
Signs of ADHD in Highly Sensitive Women in Bend, Oregon
If you are a highly sensitive woman living in Bend, Oregon and you have been wondering if ADHD could be part of your story, you are not alone. Many women go through life sensing that something feels harder for them, but they cannot quite put a name to it. They may feel deeply intuitive, creative, emotional, and easily overwhelmed, yet keep pushing themselves to meet expectations that do not match how their brain and body naturally work.
In women, ADHD often looks different than the traditional signs people associate with it. It can be easy to miss, especially if you are sensitive, empathic, and high achieving. You may have learned how to mask the signs of ADHD by becoming hyper-organized in some areas, while still secretly struggling with things like memory, emotional regulation, or executive functioning.
“You Seem Fine”: The Hidden Struggles of Women with Late-Diagnosed ADHD
At first glance, she seems fine.
She’s thoughtful. Capable. Maybe even a little too responsible.
She remembers your birthday. Holds it together at work. Keeps it all afloat, even when she’s drowning inside.
What you don’t see?
The unread texts, the dishes in the sink, the forgotten appointment that sent her into a shame spiral. The sensory overload after a full day of pretending to be okay. The nights she stays up too late, scrolling to soothe her buzzing brain, or working twice as hard to make up for how scattered she felt that day. This is the reality for many women with undiagnosed or late-diagnosed ADHD. And for years, they didn’t even know it.
Brainspotting and Sacred Becoming: A Journey Back to Wholeness
As a sensitive cycle breaker, you’ve probably learned to function in high-alert mode—always scanning, always doing, always bracing. But your nervous system wasn’t meant to live in fight, flight, or freeze. You deserve more than survival. You deserve to feel safe in your body, not just in your thoughts.
Brainspotting is gentle, intuitive, and trauma-informed. You stay in control of your process at all times. There’s no need to perform or explain. Just your presence is enough.
Loving Without Losing Yourself: A Somatic Guide to Interdependent Relationships
What if intimacy didn’t require self-sacrifice? What if love could feel nourishing, spacious, and empowering instead of overwhelming?
This is the foundation of interdependent relationships—where you can experience deep connection without losing yourself. In this guide, we’ll explore a somatic and attachment-based approach to building relationships rooted in self-trust, mutual care, and embodied presence.
The Ones Who Choose to Heal: What It Means to Be a Cycle Breaker in a World That Resists Change
Some people are born into patterns that are meant to end with them. Maybe you are one of them. Maybe you have felt it—that deep knowing that something in your family, your culture, your history needs to change. The weight of unspoken pain. The echoes of past wounds. The inherited beliefs that tell you who you are supposed to be.
You’re Not Bad at Boundaries: You Were Just Taught to Feel Guilty
Because the hard part isn’t setting boundaries—it’s building up the courage to speak one's truth, and then navigating what happens afterward. It’s the panic and shame (sometimes rage) that arises when others react to boundaries poorly. It’s the deep-seated belief that others' emotional responses mean they have done something wrong. That they are bad, mean, or too much. That maybe they are crazy for expecting their boundaries to be honored at all.
Embodying Self-Love: How to Cultivate Compassion for Your Body
Many of us carry deep-seated beliefs shaped by past experiences, trauma, or cultural trauma. These beliefs can disconnect us from our bodies and leave us feeling inadequate. But here’s the truth: your body doesn’t need to be fixed. It needs to be heard. By engaging in practices that center the body, you can begin to release these patterns and replace them with compassion and trust.
Say Yes to Yourself: Boundaries for Emotional Balance and Autoimmune Support
Boundaries are not just about relationships or time management. They are about saying yes to yourself and your body and creating a life that supports healing from the inside out. Cultivating a trusting, loving relationship with your body is essential, and boundaries play a key role in that process. Think of boundaries as a practice that can help reduce stress, break intergenerational patterns, and create the emotional balance your body craves for deeper healing.
How Trauma Impacts Self-Trust (and Gentle Steps to Rebuild It)
Trauma doesn’t just affect what happened in the past—it shapes how we experience ourselves and the world in the present. Whether it came from a single life-altering event, ongoing harm, or subtle but persistent wounds, trauma can disrupt our ability to feel safe within ourselves. It can leave us second-guessing our perceptions, disconnected from our emotions, and unsure of our own inner guidance.
how to set boundaries for self care and healthy relationships
When you set a boundary, you are not closing a door to connection. You are opening a door to deeper, more authentic relationships—with others and with yourself. You are saying, “My needs matter too,” and that is an act of self-love.
Expanding your window of tolerance
Have you ever felt like your emotions are a rollercoaster, swinging from feeling super anxious to completely drained? Or maybe you feel stuck in one place—constantly on edge, or totally checked out. These feelings aren’t random. They’re connected to how your nervous system responds to stress and past experiences. Understanding something called the window of tolerance can help explain what’s happening and how therapy can make a difference.