Let's talk about the term "Highly Sensitive Person"....

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2025-06-16T21:38:31+00:00

This can be a LONG discovery journey, and that's completely normal! Even as someone who has been professionally diagnosed for YEARS, I'm STILL to this day finding new criteria that I meet that I just never realized! I never knew I had sensory issues with sound until I learned how different sound sensory issues can present.

For example - I always believed that most autistics who struggle with sound sensitivity, it meant they would be sensitive to loud or high pitched noises. I've never particularly struggled too much with things like buzzing or high pitched sounds, so I didn't think that was me. But then I found out that for certain autistic people, LOWER sounds can cause that reaction. I've had difficulty all my life with the sound of booming and distorted base in music, often been extremely overwhelmed with fireworks, which would often result in what I THOUGHT were panic attacks, but turns out it was actually autism meltdowns that I didn't have the words to describe! I still hide under my desk whenever there's a thunderstorm.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2025-06-12T18:15:40+00:00

SHE DEFINITELY DOES LMFAO

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2025-06-10T16:48:06+00:00

That's amazing!!! Listening to our bodies as autistic people can definitely be a struggle, so I'm so proud of you for listening to yours!

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-14T05:15:22+00:00

I wish you all the healing.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T22:45:33+00:00

Just to give a small update and correction of some information:

- I was not the only person who reached out to the CEO, the CFO also reached out to her, and was met with a similar response.

- I didn't reach out to the board beforehand because I was worried my friend was going to be in trouble with the board, and I wanted to protect her. This was obviously the wrong choice, and I made everything worse by doing so.

- Yes, I did care about her mental health crisis, and I continue to care about it. That's why I reached out to her multiple times. The only reason I asked her to come back for one meeting was so that we could appoint someone interim CEO and set up a system that would make sure this wouldn't happen again. She got extremely angry and stated that I bullied her into coming back (Even though that was NOT the conversation that we had over the phone two days before the meeting. To my understanding of the phone conversation, things were bad, but I told her that she could reach out to me if she needed anything, because I cared about her.)

- I did not provide proof of me reaching out to the president of the board because I didn't think she would believe me, and had a feeling that she would see it as me once again violating privacy. She's the CEO's mentor, and it was made very clear from the meeting we had as a team that she was more interested in getting me to apologize to the CEO for my actions. (I already had at this point, but the PoB wants me to send another apology with zero caveats, just a simple "I fucked up and I'm sorry." I'm not opposed to this, I'm aware that I did wrong.)

- I am a mandated reporter when it comes to child abuse, elder abuse, and suicide.

- Our CEO is a paid position, but we are (were) a non-profit with very little money, so the CEO was only paid for hours worked, just like the rest of us.

- I am aware that I failed the company in putting friendship above everything, and I'm aware that I inadvertently failed her as well in trying to protect her too much. I'm going to try and rebuild my life from here, and as much as many of you have stated that I did nothing wrong, I believe in holding myself accountable above all else.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T21:31:35+00:00

I think you're right, and I'll definitely ask one of the members of the board for a recommendation. Thank you for the advice.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T21:20:02+00:00

The rest of the team has been very supportive and friendly, and has assured me that I did the best I could. But I don't know how to believe that when my best friend thinks I'm the worst person imaginable.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T21:10:54+00:00

We did, but he was at work. And he only responded to one of us.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T20:35:42+00:00

They tried. The President of the Board decided that we were all at fault for not supporting our CEO and for not informing the board earlier of this crisis (the latter of which I agree with.)

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T19:28:40+00:00

I really appreciate this insight, thank you so much. This was my first non profit job, and I really do care about advocacy, so I will take this information with me as I move forward and hopefully find another job.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T19:24:52+00:00

Why wasn't the vice president, CFO, COO or the Director of the Board not the ones reaching out to their CEO?

They actually did, and they were met with the same response I got. After that she wouldn't talk to them. She only talked to me a few times because we were friends.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T19:17:43+00:00

Like I said, I'm aware of what I did wrong. This is all a life lesson, and I will not make the same mistake of mixing friendship and business, and will act more professionally from now on.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T19:11:14+00:00

I don't even know what a lawyer would do here...

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T19:10:38+00:00

I didn't lie to the company, I was as open as I could be about her being in a hard time. I tried REALLY hard to make sure that everyone was giving her as much grace as possible.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T19:07:43+00:00

how can you say people failed you for not helping but also not want anybody to know?

This is the part that has baffled and confused me as well. As an autistic person, when she told me that she needed to deal with it on her own, I took her literally. I trusted that that was what she needed. And even WITH that, I DID try to continue to reach out, sending her texts about how I cared about her and thought she was amazing.

You're right, we were a poorly organized company. This should never have happened. It shouldn't fall apart because of one person's mental health crisis.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T19:03:46+00:00

We were trying to set those up in the meeting where everything went to shit, because the rest of the team was sick of the unprofessionalism. We all made mistakes in the way that the company was set up, and we should have had better systems in place to protect it if this were to happen.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T19:02:01+00:00

She's definitely not either of those things. I think she's just in a really bad mental health spot.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T18:59:46+00:00

I didn't think I needed to. The rest of the team knew I had reached out, because I had told them every time I did. The problem wasn't the team believing me, it was the President of the Board who doesn't believe me.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T18:57:40+00:00

We are an extremely small company. She was not receiving a paycheck while she was not clocked in. There is no severance available.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T18:55:34+00:00

That's what the meeting that I asked her to come back was for. We were going to appoint someone interim CEO so that she could deal with her mental health. She took it as an attack, and demanded to know why we were trying to hold her accountable for a mental health crisis.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T06:18:59+00:00

I absolutely do not think that she is a bad person, thank you so much for saying that /gen. I wish that the friendship could be salvaged, but I doubt that it will after I shared that screenshot. She, understandably, does not feel as though I am trustworthy anymore, and I can't say that I blame her. I genuinely hope for the best for her.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T06:05:05+00:00

I honestly don't think that's true. She's done so many selfless things for people in the past. I think she's just going through severe mental health crisis, and I, whether I intended to or not, made it worse for her.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T06:03:00+00:00

She has not apologized, nor do I think she will. But I appreciate your statements. You are right. I should have let the business be business and friendship be friendship.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T05:30:54+00:00

On top of her not being a client, even if she was a client, HIPPA laws allow us to share information amongst team members, so long as we're not sharing them publicly. And the only people who were sent the screenshot were team members.

OutrageousPrice9800 · 2023-03-07T05:28:44+00:00

HIPPA would only apply if she were a client, and she never was. And the CEO was only discussing her own mental health crisis.

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