Do you get depressed if other people are unhappy around you?

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I seem to be hyper-empathetic some times. For instance, at my job, some people are unhappy with their job. I am not. I find that this is not "right" for me to be happy with my job when other people are not. I consider everyone there to be a sort of "friend," as I do with most people. It's almost like a...mental pain sort of thing whenever I see other people who are unhappy. Does anyone else get this?

Yes I used to work in an office with a woman whose mood was very unpredictable and often rather nasty. It would hit me like a brick wall when I came through the door and made me very miserable. She didn't talk to me either, LOL.

I totally believe that when people are in crabby moods or feeling bad (depressed) it can affect those around them who are sensitive.

Yes, it is often difficult for me, I can sometimes follow peoples moods. I like the brick analogy too.

I feel uneasy around them.

When I know that one of my close family members is unhappy, it mentally pains me to see them that way. It makes me want to make them feel better somehow.

I'm glad to see that it's not just me

Yeah, I was talking to the facilitator of the group session about that, and I explained how there was this one woman who would always come in and have problems, and then there'd be another one who wasn't getting a lot of people at a group he ran, etc. and that would just...*boom!* <-- That's what happened when I hit a brick wall. There's something he said about "putting up a shield..." has anyone either A) been able to do such a thing, or B) explain to me how that is even possible? :p

I'm a sociopath, I don't get this often.

LOL @ League Girl

I dont know about putting up a sheild- it sounds almost like a New Ager technique. I guess if you project your inner ray if sunshine outward you can ward off their evil cloud of doom.

Yes, but I don't necessarily believe it to be empathy, unless it is a rare person who is close to me. I think it is more of an aversion. And their mood thus affects mine, and until it is "cured," I cannot think properly.

When people around me are depressed, or angry, I feel very sad, and I come close to crying. Sometimes, it shows on my face.

No...the moods of others have absolutely no bearing on my own mood. So long as it doesn't affect me in any undesirable manner....NOTHING other humans (assuming I am human and I literally have some doubts about that) do or say alters my mood one whit.


99% of the time my mood is inexpressibly miserable anyway and thanks to anhedonia....nothing I do, say, or think seems to change that.

I stand stone-faced, rigid and expressionless whether others around me are smiling and laughing or weeping and wailing. And my outer appearance mirrors my interior microcosm.

"Go melt back in the night.....everything inside is made of stone. There's nothing in here moving and anyway i'm not alone".

Bob Dylan

When people around me are depressed I suddenly become very, very happy. I don't know if this is some sadistic trait or if its just some kind of defense mechanism.......but I really do enjoy seeing others unhappy. Never understood why....

what's weird is that when i am around a bunch of unhappy campers, i feel absolutely nothing. but when i am around ONE unhappy camper, i am sometimes weighted-down by their unhappiness. what really depresses me is when i am around lots of happy social people. this mass of happiness reminds me of my own less-than-happiness and less-than-social adroitness. just my 2-cents' worth.

I have worked at several places where I was amongst the most amount of drama. School was also awful because of this. I felt like sometimes I was hyper but didn't want to be, because it was uncomfortable. I also feel nothing around WAY too many people. I think it just shuts off then. However, I still feel rather bombarded during those times. I just 'reflect' the need to process the data. I don't do this consciously though.

Yes, their sorrow tends to infect me.

I've heard that it doesn't have to be that way, and to some extent I can consciously fight it and try to work out some way of helping, but I've got a long way to go there.