Problems with being an empath

Post Reply New Topic

Skepticism has nothing to do with doubt, disbelief, or negativity. It has nothing to do with denying any valid aspect of reality. Skepticism is the process of applying reason and critical thinking to determine validity. It's the process of finding a supported conclusion, not the justification of a preconceived conclusion. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, particularly in claims that are far fetched, violate physical laws, or that require the existence of unknown forces or subjective beliefs. Skepticism is an essential, and meaningful, component of the search for Truth.

People often cite some form of "energy" to explain everything from alleged psychic ability to alleged supernatural events. Yet no one has ever defined that "energy", its alleged carrier particle, or its alleged mathematical descriptions.

No one has ever successfully demonstrated the existence of this alleged "energy" to the satisfaction of scientists. They HAVE, however, convinced many ordinary people with little or no understanding of how the universe operates that their false claims are somehow valid.

I "know" God, but I can't prove it and don't need to. The earth was still round when it was believed to be flat. Electricity existed before it was discovered. Newton "revealed " gravity but it was there before it started raining apples.

Most of humanity hasn't yet revealed the purpose of life, or all the forces of nature for that matter.

What Fnord said ^

A very brief addition "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." ~ Daniel Patrick Moynihan

In other words, you can believe anything you want, but that doesn't make it reality. Insisting that a belief is equal in value to facts established by scientific methods because "it could be true" is nonsense.

On a side note, Spanish has separate words for to believe and to know. While in English we sometimes use those words interchangeably, in Spanish it's ungrammatical to do so. It's an important difference.

I "know" the difference. I chose my words carefully My point is that we should keep an open mind and not be judgemental. There is always more than my own limited perspective.

"Being open-minded also means being open to the possibility that a claim is wrong. It doesn't mean assuming every claim is true or refusing to ever conclude that something is simply false. If the evidence leads to the conclusion that a claim is false or a phenomenon does not exist, then a truly open-minded person accepts that conclusion... Open-mindedness works in both ways." Dr. Steven Novella

Of course. Spiritual matters can only be experienced though, not proven.

Empaths are good, sensitive people, I have aspie friends and family who believe they are empaths. Not everything is black and white, not everything experiential can be categorised and perfectly labeled.

Oh that's not what I mean when I describe myself as an empath. Interesting.

I don't feel the other person's emotion. I have my own emotional reaction to their emotion.

I think I feel a vibe like tremors in the earth when a heavy vehicle approaches.

I knew something was wrong with my friend the other day because he was totally blank to me. Normally he is high energy. But he was emitting nothing. Everything was pulled inwards. It was a really weird feeling. I didn't feel blank mysrlf. I felt agitated and sad because I could sense something was wrong.

I think being an empath is having intense over reactions to things other people don't notice. It's a cool way of saying I'm highly strung. I'm the spider in the middle of my web and I can feel when someone touches the web.

I don't take on the other person's emotion at all.

Yes, I agree with this.

I resonate highly with what you are saying because i am extremely aware of any help or behavior that could remotely warrant gratitude from me. I am also highly aware of other people's moods and irritation. I would call myself an empath. The feeling of wanting to escape from it all and have just oneself to be accountable to is also a familiar feeling. However, in the long run what has helped me is the feeling of being able to reach out to people who cannot ask for help. Because as an empath i am also aware of the difficult times somebody might be going through and I don't need them to voice it out before i reach out with help. I attempt to remember this truth about being an empath every time i feel like i want to run away.

Thank you. It is the simplest explanation that does not require supernatural forces or un-measurable energies.

When someone says, "I have an intuitive sense of other people's emotional states that I call 'empathy'", then that is probably closest to the truth.

But when someone says, "I have a psychic ability called 'empathy' that I use to sense other people's emotional state. It relies on a heretofore unknown and undefined energy that only empaths can feel", then that is just bogus self-aggrandizement -- either deliberate deception or wishful thinking.

I agree too regarding my own heightened sensitivity. It ls likely to be some part of my brain that has been finely tuned to be alert in order to attack or defend. One of my symptoms of CPTSD is hyper-arousal.

My autistic daughter in law said yesterday that she felt emotionally ill with sorrow when she was at a restaurant and noticed someone seriously disabled. She told me that she's an empath. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another's shoes, not feeling sorry for someone. That's compassion isn't it?

That may not be compassion if her "emotional illness" is a form of revulsion toward the disabled. If she is feeling this form of distress and identifies it as emanating from the disabled person ("projection"), then it could be her lack of "ownership" for her own feelings.

The objective, dictionary definition of empathy is: (1) The ability to identify with or understand the perspective, experiences, or motivations of another individual and to comprehend and share another individual's emotional state; or (2) The projection of one's own feelings or thoughts onto something else, such as an object in a work of art or a character in a novel or film.

If your daughter has the ability under the first definition (e.g., "identify and understand"), then she's on the right track; but if her ability is more like the second definition (e.g., "projection of one's own feelings"), then she could only be fooling herself.

Yes. The second option I think. It could be fear or repulsion. She wanted to go up to this guy and tell him how upset and sad she was. Good that she didn't. Maybe it's correlated to her OCD and obsession with illnesses and fear of disease.

I once worked with a woman whose husband was a speech therapist. She use to go around to the rest of us suggesting that our speech impediments -- which only she could hear -- somehow made us all unfit for employment, promotion, or just plain socializing. Then she'd try to gaslight people into believing that they were in such deep denial of their speech impediments that they required psychological counseling. She resigned when she got tired the rest of us showing our lack of appreciation for her "helpful" criticism (e.g., she got called into the boss's office for a "talk" about her behavior).

There's been talk in other threads about Munchausen by Proxy (MbP), Autism by Proxy (AbP), and Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA or FDIoA) -- psychiatric factitious disorders wherein those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma in themselves or others to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance to themselves.

Jussie Smollet pulled something similar when he claimed to have been attacked by two white men, when it was actually two black men that he had hired to stage the attack.

I have heard of Munchausen by Proxy. I learned about it in my nursing studies.Never encountered it in my nursing career. The poor speech therapist's wife could have done a lot of damage to vulnerable people.
It's fortunate that the matter was taken care of.

My daughter in law is a good woman, though very dysfunctional at times. Her anxieties affect my son and my grandchildren greatly.All I can do is love her and help however much I can.
You know because I am an RN and an English teacher with some students with learning disabilities, I tend to "diagnose" people uninvited too. I will stop now and just deal with the specific problem, and not try and match a global diagnosis to it. That comes also from my own childhood neglect, I just want to make it easier for other people.

Fnord we are all doing the best we can with what we have been given. Meeting good people wherever they are makes the journey a little sweeter. Thank you so much, you have helped me a lot.

Thank YOU!

I'm so used to being criticized for upholding the truth that a simple act of gratitude makes my day!