You might feel emotionally cut off from what's happening around you or unsympathetic to MORE bad news. You might have even said or thought to yourself “I just don't care anymore.” But take heart – empathy fatigue doesn't have to last forever.
feelings of helplessness and powerlessness in the face of patient suffering. reduced feelings of empathy and sensitivity. feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by work demands. feeling detached, numb and emotionally disconnected.
“A high level of empathy is good, but without conscious skills to deal with it can lead you to empathy burnout.” It is emotional exhausting and can result in a withdrawal from caring or feeling empathy for others.
For example, someone with empathy burnout may feel exhausted because they aren't sleeping. This can cause them to feel distracted and disengaged during the day. It can also prompt them to feel unsatisfied with their job performance and to be short-tempered with their coworkers.
When overwhelmed with stressful emotions, empaths can experience anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and fatigue and may even show physical symptoms such as an increased heart rate and headache. This is because they internalize the feelings and pain of others without the ability to distinguish it from their own.
The signs of empath burnout can differ from regular burnout but usually include feeling overwhelmed or unable to cope with disconnection from others' emotions and emotional exhaustion.
Practice mindfulness
Similar to feeling your emotions, practicing mindfulness is a great way to combat empathy fatigue; as you become more self-aware, you will be better able to set healthy boundaries that allow you to be present with the emotions of others.
Compared to someone who is highly sensitive (empathetic vs. empathic), an empath has a greater sensory awareness and feels extremely emotional about others, their surroundings, and the visual images or media they're exposed to. (You'll often hear empaths say even TV commercials can elicit spontaneous crying).
Additionally, it is common for empaths to feel drained after spending time around people. Empaths are usually introverts, and they require a certain amount of alone time in order to recharge. A study from 2011 suggests there may be a link between highly empathic individuals and social anxiety.
Spiers tells us, “With depression, an empath may feel overwhelmed by the pain and suffering of others. This may lead them to withdraw from their usual routine as a means of self-protection, but by isolating themselves and breaking links with their families and friends, the depression can then be exacerbated.
Empathetic Reactivity – When too much empathy is bad
With empathy, you will feel their stress, anxiety, and anger in your body. You might feel their pain emotionally and physically. If you let these emotions sit in your body, your body and mind can be emotionally hijacked.
Yet in recent years, researchers have found that misplaced empathy can be bad for you and others, leading to exhaustion and apathy, and preventing you from helping the very people you need to. Worse, people's empathetic tendencies can even be harnessed to manipulate them into aggression and cruelty.
Too much empathy towards others, especially when we prioritise other people's emotions over our own, may result in experiences of anxiety and depression, which explains why so many of us feel bad when watching the news about the war in Ukraine.
Someone with low empathy may joke about someone's emotions or circumstances. They may also have a difficult time actively listen to you. They could also act chirpy or indifferent after you just expressed feeling sad or stressed. Someone who is empathetic might try to cheer you up if they see you down.
When empaths are exposed to early trauma or abuse their young nervous system may develop without healing making them hypervigilant. They can become exquisitely attuned to their environment to ward off threats and ensure they are safe or enter a state of hyperarousal.
Fearing intimacy and getting closer.
Some empaths may avoid dating or romantic commitment because they fear being overwhelmed by a partner's energies and emotions.
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 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.
To prevent or recover from compassion fatigue, take time for self-reflection, identify what's important and live in a way that reflects it. To sustain yourself at work, develop “principles of practice” — guidelines of personal integrity that articulate the parameters of your personal values.
Hyper-empathy syndrome occurs when you are too in tune with other people's emotions and mirror them to the same intensity. In other words, you care too much. People with hyper-empathy may find it hard to regulate their emotions and may have a tendency to pick up on negative feelings.
Empath Healing
But they can learn to manage their empathy and the anxiety and depression it can bring so it doesn't debilitate them. The way for the Empath to manage this is to become completely aware of their own wounding, their own traumas, their own pain, and perceived setbacks, and care for themselves.
Personality types ENFP, ENFJ, INFJ, and INFPs are natural empaths per the MBTI Personality types. Empaths are also called Idealists & Diplomats. Highly Sensitive People belong to these MBTI types.
"But unfortunately empaths are attracted to narcissists, because at first this is about a false self. Narcissists present a false self, where they can seem charming and intelligent, and even giving, until you don't do things their way, and then they get cold, withholding and punishing."