rusty, thanks for sharing yeah, i agree that it's all linked in... fortunately or unfortunately, labels do serve purpose. oh how i dislike labels...! but, when we 'use' them to understand somethign better and/or to a different degree i think it's alright. for me, i've been up against my family, my husband, my kids and what feels like the world for being 'sensitive' and so i finally gave up and decided i wasn't alone. and i found this site and am finding an acceptance of myself not just on the inside, but on the outside as well.. which really is a huge part of this journey of life.. as far as autistic spectrum goes it used to bother me that everyone thought this kid or that kid had somethign wrong with them.. the 'spectrum' allows us to allow for variation and i think that over more time we will have even more acceptance of everyone being different. beign sensitive is also with the job of educating others just by our mere presence... we're showing people that we can't just keep doign what we are doing because continuing to do what we are doing is disrespectful to ourselves, our planet, our friends and basically everything.. so it has to change and through 'highly sensitive people' others are able to open their eyes/blinders a bit at a time. Ea85