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ocdgirl123
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10 Jan 2011, 11:03 pm

I have an interesting empathy situation.

I am able to be empathetic to a person experiencing most times of emotional pain.

I am sometimes able to be empathetic to a person experiencing physical pain. I have a hard time when I think they injury is "mild" and they are complaining.

I am rarely able to empathize with a sick person.

I don't why I think emotional pain easy and sickness/physical pain harder.

Do anyone of you find that you are more empathetic in certain situations than others?


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Verdandi
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10 Jan 2011, 11:22 pm

When I see someone's been injured, I feel a sympathetic pain, sometimes very sharply.

Sick people usually make noises that annoy me (misophony begets misanthropy...). I mostly wish they'd stuff sniffling and coughing, even though I realize this is unfair because I sniffle and cough when sick too.

I can usually respond with scripted sympathy, if that makes sense, even when I don't really feel it. I don't want people to feel bad, even if I don't have a specific reaction to what they may be feeling right then.



Kaybee
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10 Jan 2011, 11:52 pm

I have difficulty empathizing with emotions (negative and positive) which seem, to me, to be irrational. Otherwise, I am a pretty good empathizer.


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CockneyRebel
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11 Jan 2011, 12:18 am

I find that emotional pain is the easiest for me to empathize with. I find it harder to feel empathy when it come to the other things.


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QuelOround
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11 Jan 2011, 12:41 am

I can't empathize with sick people even though I've been sick before.....

I can empathize with everything else if something similar has happened to me and I take the time to think about it.



astaut
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11 Jan 2011, 12:45 am

I've always thought of empathy as being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes. I'm able to empathize with people that are in similar situations to one's I've been in, but it's hard for me to empathize otherwise. And there are a lot of times where I can empathize but not sympathize.


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Amik
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11 Jan 2011, 5:37 am

I can empathize in situations that are familiar to me, like when they're very similar to something I've experienced myself and bring about similar feelings as I experienced when I was in that situation. For example, I can empathize with someone who is being bullied or treated badly through no fault of their own, because I've been in that situation myself and know what it feels like. I can empathize with the joy someone feels over getting a pet or having a strong bond with animals, because I understand what it feels like.

I cannot empathize well in situations that I either haven't experienced myself or have very different feelings about or that don't make sense to me or even sometimes if I feel that the person is entirely to blame for it themselves. For example, before I had ever been in a relationship myself I found it hard to empathize with people who were upset over a break up, especially if it was them who broke up with the other person. I didn't get it, if they wanted to break up then why were they upset about it? Or if they were so upset about it, why the hell did they break up? After being in a relationship myself I can understand this a bit better and can sometimes empathize, but I still can't empathize when people are upset over breaking up after a short or shallow relationship for example, or over breaking up when they knew before the relationship started that it wouldn't work out.