Empaths are often prone to experiencing sensory overload where the world just seems like “too much.” So there is a tendency to reach for addictions (alcohol, substances, sex, food, shopping, gambling, etc.) to quiet the external and internal stimuli and go numb to shut the world out.
The current results suggest that alcohol consumption acutely reduces empathic accuracy for positive emotions in men who do not drink hazardously, while empathic accuracy for negative emotions appears unaffected, as are men who drink hazardously.
For some empaths, their energetic and emotional sensitivity extends to their physical bodies. You might feel the effects of substances like alcohol or caffeine more strongly than your friends, for instance.
Why are empaths so susceptible to alcohol, drug, sex, food, gambling, shopping, and other addictions? Empaths can become overwhelmed and overstimulated due to their extreme sensitivity. When they “feel too much,” including their own or another's pain, some empaths self-medicate.
Empathy (both cognitive and affective) is significantly reduced in alcohol dependence. Higher empathy correlates with lesser relapses.
Popular wisdom holds that our true desires and feelings tend to come to light while we're drunk. Although drinking alcohol can definitely lower your inhibitions, there's no evidence to suggest that alcohol necessarily unlocks any deep-seated feelings or desires.
Do true feelings come out when you're drunk? True feelings may come out when you're drunk, but this isn't necessarily true all the time. Instead, alcohol can make people make fake stories and react with emotions they don't feel.
No noise, bright lights, phone calls, texts, emails, internet, television, or conversations. It's sometimes important to just feel your own energy without anyone else around. You are being your own best friend, which is a way to nurture yourself. By decreasing external stimulation, it's also easier to clear negativity.
Watching violent news; being around sarcastic, critical, or narcissistic people; or spending days at an amusement park are not things empaths enjoy. To feel their best, empaths need to minimize or avoid situations like this unless they want to end up feeling exhausted, drained, used, or anxious.
But empathy can have a dark side. Some people, known as dark empaths, understand the feelings of others but don't feel these feelings themselves. They might act like they care, but deep down, they don't feel sympathy for you or have a desire to help. They use their understanding of your feelings to manipulate you.
An curved arrow pointing right. Empaths and narcissists are often drawn to each other. This is because empaths have a lot of compassion and understanding to give, while narcissists thrive on someone worshipping them.
An empath is a particularly sensitive person, someone who is able to feel and experience exactly what others do. While empaths can make wonderful caring friends, in a romantic relationship they can often find it difficult because they tend to quickly become very intense.
Empaths experience intense feelings and are also deeply influenced by others' feelings, sometimes even taking those feelings on as their own. Triggers can include exposure to suffering, tragic events, deep intimacy, feeling helpless, and not feeling taken seriously.
Empaths are those who have developed survival mechanisms when facing challenging environments in their childhood that carry out into their adulthood. They extend themselves outwardly, taking on and empathizing with the emotions of others, even their abusers.
One of the most significant challenges of being an empath is the emotional overload that often accompanies the ability to feel deeply. Empaths are particularly sensitive to the emotions of others, and it can be challenging to distinguish between their own feelings and those of the people around them.
Plenty of alone time (to center and recharge)
Peace is difficult to find when surrounded by other people, sounds, and various stimuli. So, empaths need regular alone time and mini-breaks throughout the day to refocus and recharge. It's not just about being alone — it's about self-preservation and self-care.
As an empath in a tense moment, your heart rate may quicken even more than normal. Your anger may feel heightened, your sadness more intense. It's harder to control your own emotions because you have your emotions and your partner's emotions running through your body.
Intellectuals can make good partners for certain empaths because their sense of logic compliments and grounds an empath's emotional intensity. Ask for help. Intellectuals love to solve problems. Be very specific about ways they can assist you with a problem or task.
The key symptom of empath burnout, empath shutdown, and compassion fatigue is that you start to feel cynical or detached from the people and events around you. Your nervous system may be stuck in survival mode. These are the key signs: Feeling overwhelmed or unable to cope.
In fact, the study suggests that the idea that you turn into a “different person” when you drink is a myth. The psychologists stated that it's simply possible people expect to behave differently when they're drunk, and therefore psychologically influence their own behaviour.
The Affectionate Drunk
Alcohol lowers our inhibitions, and can make us more emotional. The combination makes some people more loving than usual when they've had too much to drink. There's nothing wrong with being affectionate with people we are familiar with.
New research on alcohol's affect on brain activity helps to explain that age-old phenomenon: why people do stupid things when they are drunk. University of Missouri researchers found alcohol dulls the brain signal that warns people when they are making a mistake, ultimately reducing self-control.