Beyond Labels: When Identity Becomes Limitation

a guest post by Marcas P. O'Dea

For more than six decades, I’ve identified as a Highly Sensitive Person.

The label saved my life, honestly.

A Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) is someone whose nervous system processes stimuli more deeply and intensely than average, a term popularized by psychologist Elaine Aron in the 1990s that grew into a recognized cultural and psychological community offering validation, research, and shared identity for people long told they were “too sensitive.”

After a childhood where my sensitivity was met with abuse, cruelty, and demands to “toughen up,” discovering HSP gave me a framework for understanding that I wasn’t broken.

I was different.

And difference, I learned, could be transformed into strength.

I spent years studying this trait, learning to navigate a world designed for different nervous systems, developing strategies that turned overwhelming sensitivity into finely-tuned intuition.

What once made me a target became my greatest asset: the ability to read energy, anticipate problems, detect authenticity from miles away, and create from depths most people never access.

But here’s what I’ve realized lately: I don’t need the label anymore.

Not because I’m no longer highly sensitive—I absolutely am. My nervous system still processes everything at intensity level eleven.

I still feel the collective emotional weather like a living barometer.

I still need quiet spaces and conscious boundaries to function optimally.

The difference is that I no longer need external validation for these traits. I don’t need a clinical term to justify my operational requirements or explain my creative process. I don’t need to educate people about why I am the way I am.

I simply am.

This isn’t about rejecting the HSP community or dismissing the importance of understanding neurodiversity. These frameworks are crucial for people just beginning to understand themselves. But for me, continuing to lead with this label now feels like regression, not progress.

When you truly integrate your authentic nature—all of it, including the parts that don’t fit societal norms—you stop needing permission slips from psychology or neuroscience.

You stop explaining yourself to people who will never understand. You start operating from internal authority rather than external validation.

My sensitivity isn’t a condition to be managed or a trait to be explained. It’s simply how I navigate reality.

It’s woven into every story I write, every creative decision I make, every boundary I maintain.

It’s not separate from me—it IS me.

And that’s enough.

Sometimes the most radical act isn’t claiming a label. Sometimes it’s outgrowing the need for one entirely.

Sometimes freedom means just being yourself without footnotes.

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Marcas P. O’Dea is an author, creative strategist, innovation manager, “Story Sherpa,” creative director, and solopreneur, living his best creative life for more than four decades. You can learn more here: https://marcaspodea.com/.

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