If you’re experiencing insomnia due to thoughts that never leave your mind, you might be suffering from PESM syndrome. Short for “Personnes Encombrées de Surefficience Mentale,” this syndrome refers to excessive mental activity. Do you find yourself unable to rest correctly even during downtime, needing to multitask, and often experiencing excessive emotional empathy? Let’s find out what the specific symptoms of PESM syndrome are.
PESM syndrome is a psychological concept rather than a medically classified condition. PESM encompasses a variety of symptoms commonly experienced by sensitive individuals.
Symptoms include frequently drifting into deep thought, experiencing excessive worry, becoming overly sensitive to trivial matters, having continuous thoughts, suffering from insomnia triggered by these thoughts, being heavily influenced by others’ emotions, feeling the need to be active in multiple tasks simultaneously, being strict with oneself, having a burst of thoughts that make decision-making difficult, and overly empathizing.
Should specific symptoms escalate, it could be diagnosed as a disorder. Particularly, if the symptoms are severe enough to interfere with daily life, it is recommended to seek a diagnosis from a psychiatrist rather than simply overlooking it.
There are many mental disorders with symptoms similar to PESM. If you have a lot of thoughts, feel anxious, worry a lot, experience high fatigue, and even suffer from sleep disorders, it could be generalized anxiety disorder. If you’re strict with yourself and have repeated compulsive impulses and thoughts despite your reluctance, it could be obsessive-compulsive disorder.
If you’re overly preoccupied with other people’s reactions and emotions, you might have social anxiety disorder. If you have a compulsion to constantly do something and continue activities even at the expense of sleep, it could be bipolar disorder. If you’re sensitive to senses and easily distracted by minor things like lighting or noise, you could suspect ADHD.
Another concept similar to PESM is HSP (Highly Sensitive Person). HSP refers to people who overreact to surrounding events or matters. American psychologist Elaine Aron first introduced this concept.
The symptoms of HSP include overly empathizing with others’ emotions, being unable to refuse requests, having a rich imagination and easily getting lost in daydreams, disliking violent movies, and being moved.
Like PESM mentioned earlier, HSP is not classified as a medical condition. However, individuals falling under this category are predisposed to experiencing anxiety, depression, and insomnia due to their heightened empathy towards distressing incidents involving others.
Those who fit the HSP category may easily slip into depressive states just by encountering shocking news. This is because they are good at understanding and deeply empathizing with other’s thoughts and feelings. Especially these individuals are often exposed to environments where mental health is vulnerable, so they need to be cautious about mental disorders.
If you already have insomnia due to these symptoms, what should you do? Experts recommend attempting to wake up early rather than forcing yourself to sleep. Starting the day early can induce fatigue earlier in the evening, which can help you fall asleep faster.
If these symptoms negatively affect your interpersonal relationships, it can be helpful to befriend people of the opposite temperament. Japanese neuroscientist and doctor Takada Akikazu recommends, in his book It’s Not Sensitivity, It’s Delicacy, that people with HSP should befriend those with opposite temperaments.
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