Are aspies an empath?

Post Reply New Topic

I recently learned about an Empath and I realized it sounded a lot like AS about empathy because I read how people with autism will feel emotions around them and they shut down. An empath feels the same way because they will also feel overwhelmed. An empath is also vulnerable to getting into a relationship with a narcissist.

Here are 30 signs you are an empath:

http://themindunleashed.org/2013/10/30- ... mpath.html

Are you an empath?


Maybe I don't have that psychopath trait after all, I am not an empath is why. But my husband might be one because he says he can also feel peoples feelings.

I suffer with this terribly. It's caused me so much trouble in my life. It's only through talking to people that I have reaslised that what I am actually feeling is due to what someone else is feeling.

The work place is a bad place especially if you work in an emotionally charged workplace.

It's not something I would normally talk about though. for obvious reasons.

Very interesting article. I said yes to some but not all so I think I am sensitive to many of the things on the list but I don't think I am an actual empath.

If what you mean by "Empath" is some kind of "psychic" individual who senses the emotions of others without any direct contact or observation, then ... well, most people already know how I feel about so-called "psychics", so I won't repeat it here.

But if what you mean by "Empath" is a person with so much experience dealing with people that their unconscious mind automatically perceives the physical signs of different emotional states in other people, and then it gives notice to the conscious mind of those other people's emotional states, then I would have to say that this is simple normal, mundane intuition in action.

It's sort of when I interview a previously unknown candidate for a job, and I get the impression that "something ain't right" about that person, even though everything about that person looks good on paper, and the person otherwise does well in the interview; and it's only after the person has been hired that we find out that he or she has a disruptive episode nearly every day at work, or that his or her integrity is poorly developed, or that they just can not or will not do the work.

My intuition has never failed me, but it isn't a "psychic" thing at all.

That seems about 90% true for me, except I lack the key trait of instinctively knowing how other people feel. I feel overwhelmed and bombarded by too much sensory information, but it just confuses me, and I don't know what it actually means. (And in other ways I'm oblivious, such as not noticing body language or facial expressions.)

I am not good at reading outward signs of people, but I definitely do pick up on "vibes" all the time.

Hmmm...most (but not all) of the points in the article applies to me. The things that don't are "adventurous", abhors clutter (really, LOL) and paranormal experience. Aside from these things, that article sums my personality up eerily well.

I haven't been in an intimate relationship with a sociopath mainly because I had a couple of "friends" as a young adult who had narcissistic / sociopathic traits. Also, my mother's sperm donor is a sociopath, so I have learned to spot those tell-tale traits quite well and quite soon in people that I newly meet.

That is, however, not the case with e-friends I make, but as long as they remain e-friends, with whom I merely exchange information (and not emotions), it doesn't really matter to me.

I can't be doing with clutter. I throw things away all the time.

I daren't go in my daughters room because she's the complete opposite.

I'm bad at 'reading' people, and I think it makes me more vulnerable to narcissists and other toxic people. I tend to feel a naive sense of sympathy for someone whom everyone else instinctively shuns, based on their 'not quite normal' behavior... And it takes me longer, but eventually I figure out (the hard way) that the other people were right about them to begin with.

This one is not like me at all. I love second hand things and I always have.

I like things that people have owned previously...I tend to treasure them more than if I had bought something from new for myself and I love it also when people give me things as well.

I am a social reject of sorts, and tend to gravitate towards others who are also "different" in some way. Mostly, I get along best with tomboys, Aspie women, "weirdos" and anyone else who is rejected from mainstream society in any way / shape / form. I absolutely *cannot* get along with socially sophisticated, "uppity", girly-girl NT women - they make me nervous and I end up leaving most encounters with them feeling depressed and overwhelmed. Since I am now middle-aged, that's pretty much how it's going to be for the rest of my life, and I am OK with it. I prefer the other oddballs that life sends my way.

Sometimes, NT groups of folks tend to shun some people for GOOD reasons (that may not be obvious to you, especially if you are very naive and trusting). However, a good many times, there is NOTHING evil or criminal or otherwise questionable about the "oddballs" being shunned by mainstream society. Quite likely, they are shunned solely because they don't conform to some arbitrary standards of living / doing / saying / behaving in a certain manner or way.



I actually cannot buy anything "second hand". I avoid previously owned clothes, homes and cars, especially big-ticket items that are being "distress sold" (including foreclosures or repo auctioned). The idea of buying a foreclosure especially freaks me out. Some family went through something horrible - maybe they lost their jobs or their marriage ended or a terrible illness occurred - causing them to lose the roof over their head, and it seems insidious to me to turn them out, and take over their house (although I fully understand that the bank is making a purely business - and not a personal - decision). Our realtor at the time we were house hunting laughed at me for my "sentiments" but I shut her up really fast by telling her that I did not want to take over someone else's bad Karma and pain / suffering. We did end up with a brand new construction - as I insisted - and lived there for several years before selling it a while ago.

We are renting now, but if / when we ever buy again, it'll be a brand new home again. Also, I have the highest respect for people like Suze Orman, but I will never be able to buy a 3-yr-old used car as she (and other financial advisors) suggest, especially a car that was either being "distress sold" or a repo auctioned, even if it is a damned good $$$$$$$$ deal.

Antiques etc - nope... just plain nope. No idea why really, as they can be a good investment, but they are just not "me".

You're very fortunate then. I was brought up in second hand clothes and even shoes. I used to love going to my friends houses and them giving me their old shoes and stuff. I just get a nice warm feeling from it.

I have never been in a position where I could buy my own home...but I get what you are saying about properties having bad energy in them. This has crossed my mind before about living in a home that someone else has owned previously.

I once had a second hand bed...it was the best and most comfortable bed that I have ever slept in in my life.

I'm currently sat on a second hand sofa...I know who the previous owner was. It's a great sofa.

I don't have antiques though, I'm not keen on those and i will never own a car because I don't drive, I cycle.

I feel the same way, being a tomboy myself! (Didn't mean to imply otherwise, sorry if it came out that way!) It's just that sometimes my naive acceptance of people fails to filter out those who are devious and manipulative - as in the case of narcissists, which the article mentioned. I'm trying to get better at recognizing the signs though!

I have trouble taking the article seriously or this made-up idea of empath seriously.
I don't think it has to do autism, it seems much more made up from random traits than autism.
I think the article is describing some traits like being emotionally sensitive, being anxious, perhaps having high interoception that makes one feel more internal responses than normal.

I often read that autistic people have too much empathy where they feel a lot of emotion and other peoples feelings that they shut down. I read that same thing in empaths too so I asked if aspies are also an empath.

I don't appreciate how the article describes the "traits of an empath". it's obviously someone who defines themselves as an empath and is going off their own experiences as well as using their personal spirituality like a commonality. so I am willing to think of myself as having empathic traits but I must disregard the ornaments in the article.

for instance, with most people I can sense their disposition and the people who I can't are scary to me, because they either hide that well or they dont have much at all. and I sense the past lives of objects but this does not mean I avoid them, it just means I understand objects like sentient entities rather than dead material.