Empaths?

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I was told I was a empath once....it's like I can feel other people's emotions sometimes...when someone is happy, it makes me happy, when someone is upset, it makes me upset. By itself, doesn't seem that abnormal, but I think I can be in situations where the feelings are pretty intense.... Mean parents yelling at their kids seriously hurts me, tension between lovers, my brother and his wife, when I'm around it, it's like nails on a chalk board.....my sister in law being mean to her kids, nails on a chalk board.....

Although it's probably not so much biological, but that certain things perhaps remind me of my own dirty laundry I experienced as a kid....I dunno....

Anyone else?

Now I must research empaths lol

teaching is a good career for someone who has a lot of empathy as long as he/she doesn't get overwhelmed.

I've seen several things that suggest a connection between autism and being an empath, which sort of just screws the whole lack of empathy thing.

I guess if I have empathy it must be selective. If people around me laugh, or if I see a funny skit on TV, I'll laugh. If people are crying around me, or if I see people crying on TV, I'm immensely annoyed. I don't feel or relate to that emotion. I'm sure there's a word for it, but I don't know what it'd be called.

I pick up on the emotions of people I'm nearby in a big way. it was particularly strong with the last guy I shared an actual bedroom with. for a long time I thought it meant I couldn't be on the autism spectrum, but I definitely am.

A lot of medical sources state that people with ASD are acutely sensitive to emotional arousal in people around them. Being aware of emotional arousal does not equate to being able to identify or identify with the emotion. As a result, some people with ASD show signs of distress and fear when people around them are expressing extreme happiness, pleasure or (positive) excitement.

I think there might be some confusion here.

There is a difference between being a psychic empath and having intense neurological empathy.

When we see people expressing certain emotions our brains create the feeling so we can relate. That's neurological empathy. All humans have to varying degrees because we are social animals. The knowledge of the person's feeling comes first and then that knowledge creates the feeling. Some people may experience more intense neurological empathy than others but it is not psychic. Psychic empathy is just feeling another person's emotion because that person is feeling it and not because you know the person is feeling it.

Addressing the topic, I think it might be similar to increased and decreased pain sensitivity among aspies. Maybe some aspies have hypersensitive neurological empathy. I know I do. I'm not an empath but I can be extremely empathetic.

Also to have a laugh, someone once told me I was, as she called it, "a sensitive". The funny thing is that she didn't know that if I really was in the way she described it I wouldn't be so upset. Sometimes people say things like "you're an empath" to make you feel special whether they want to flatter you or make money off of you. I'm sure if you really were you wouldn't need someone to tell you and it certainly wouldn't be hard to tell. When someone tells me something like that, the only thing I think is "I wish but no".

Here is something maybe someone can help me understand:

My kids seem to be affected by other people's emotional states. Like if there is tension, they can sense it. My son will actually have very strong emotional reactions to some emotional situations.

On the other hand, if I am mad, or sometimes even crying, they seem not to notice.

So it seems to me there are two different things going on?

I would definitely distinguish between psychic empath and

Ive thought about the "theory of mind idea", and that the intense emotions that we pick up on aren't so much that we're "walking in someone else's shoes" or maybe that we're not really in your head and logically understanding you, but we recognize the emotions you're giving off and somehow processing them in intense ways. When I'm around negative emotions, I'd say that it's not so much that "I feel your pain and want to help you" but rather, (if it's too intense) I just want to get out there.

I wouldn't put any of this in the supernatural realm, but rather think of it mechanically, how we process the stimuli.

If someone is being negative and flipping out, I do have the choice to run away or try to help them out, I can use my reaction as a guide to see how someone else may be feeling. What StuartN said seems to make sense

So maybe even positive emotions effect us negatively. But then some of you, and me as well, feel good when people are feeling good.

cathylynn....definitely agree with you, if you can manage the tough times where there's a lot of "noise" and try to be an objective observer, an AS person could be very effective.

I thought this was a good POV that talks more about empaths in the non hocus pocusy way. I just googled empath and have no idea who this lady is nor do I have any interest in buying her book I just thought she puts it in a cool way:
http://www.drjudithorloff.com/Free-Arti ... ath-EF.htm

InThisTogether, very interesting....my first thought is because the person who's upset is his parent, your kid might respond differently? My nephew who is diagnosed as a high functioning autistic, he didn't say mommy or daddy, but he did learn other people's names and learned objects....for whatever reason, mommy and daddy, the connection was different.....

I can feel nearly 100% exactly when I'm by a psychiatrist what he/she THINKS what diagnosis I have.
(I don't mean what I have, I really mean what the psychiatrist thinks I have).

They don't even have to tell me.

Interestingly my father was psychotherapist.

Unlikely.

You're probably recognizing the emotion because you've felt it before (sympathy) which leads to being hyper sensitive to it in yourself.

This is a common ASD thingy.

I concur here, I certainly can feel others emotions. To the point of being overwhelmed or having to retreat from them. Its just hard to express it to others.. <sigh.
On the other hand, feeling my GFs hearbreak as her mother died from a distance? Not only weird, but it frankly, SUCKED. Hurt like Hell. I curled up in a ball weeping for hours.

Sincerely,
Matthew

I'm able to pick up on the emotions of everybody in the room. I can tell who's sad, angry or happy without them saying anything.

I think the important factor is familiarity and identification. If your sons see a familiar behaviour and can identify it, and know what will follow, then it does not cause any fear or distress. Kids might even enjoy seeing a parent mad, because it can be familiar and comforting, it demonstrates a degree of control over the parent and the events that will follow are very predictable.

If your sons sense heightened emotions or tensions, but can not identify it, and do not know what it signifies, then they will react to it, perhaps by being upset. The reaction might be exactly the same if you took them for a surprise visit to their favourite restaurant as it would be if you were trying to tell them some terrible family event had happened.

I doubt this is the explanation. Autistic people are know for picking up emotions without recognizing exactly what they are picking up.

This makes me wonder...

I had been thinking before about how I seem to empathize more with people that are in bad situations. In the past, I think I just assumed that if someone did not feel strongly for people that were in distress, they were just crappy people (which may be true). But, maybe I'm just having sympathy for what I can understand because of what I've been through in my life. I'm sure most people experience this, more sympathy when they can relate.
Maybe I think of myself as in a bad position in life, so I focus more on those that are also in a bad position...
Or maybe I don't feel enough for positive emotions because I do not feel other people's facial expressions (smiles and such) strongly enough?

If I can relate, I use a fairly vivid imagination to put myself in their position and intensely feel whatever emotions I can imagine they feel. But, if I just see someone cry or smile and don't know why or don't have a strong connection with the person...I'm actually not sure that I'd feel anything. Should I feel something just by looking at someone smile?
I know I've laughed several times before just because someone else laughed and I didn't even know why we were laughing.

But... I don't know... This discussion has me feeling uneasy now. Like, have I missed out on thousands of good feels that were supposed to come from smiles simply because I don't empathize enough? Or is my empathy just fine and I'm getting the paranoids from staying up thinking about this when I should be asleep?
I'm too tired now to know for sure if this was decently written or a horrible ramble that makes no sense, so excuse me if it was the latter.