"I've read a little about it and some articles say a history of trauma primes the brain to pick up and respond quickly to emotional cues. That makes sense."
100%. After a trauma I saw a therapist to ensure all was properly digested.. I do not believe in therapy for myself, so even the few visits felt odd but it is sort of the usual medical route in Holland..
She told me most people coming to her with PTSS have had 1 or 2 major life traumas and that, in my first visit, they had counted 19.. She asked how I was smiling and positive.. Strength. Strength is the answer. Fires either turn you to ash..dust, or they weld you like steel.. I was told because I am an HSP / INFJ that suffered trauma from a young child through adulthood.. of many kinds, with a highly manipulative narc parent and a the other parent suicidal.. that I developed an abnormal amount of antennae.. Where most people had 2.. comparing me to a caterpillar..
I had thousands(( this is her example, not mine )).
She said that people like me then became highly empathic humans.. This recipe makes perfect sense to me.. Then she explained that as a child I never knew what to expect.. just walking out into the kitchen every morning... and that I had to learn, and fast.. how to read the room.. to become a human berometer.. I agree with her completely. What a cool therapist she was.. I was finishing her sentences thirty minutes in. o.o
I don't tell this to sound cool and psychic.. tho I am both!! LOL.. jokeeee..
.. But maybe this explanation helps guide your own confusion, acd, as to why your berometer may not be as developed as mine..