An empath will be more sensitive to the emotions of others in the room. The HSP will be more quickly overstimulated, leading to slower sensory processing, overwhelm, and greater difficulty in connecting with others in the moment.
Being a highly sensitive person and an empath are not mutually exclusive: One can be both, and many highly sensitive people are also empaths.
Highly sensitive people are typically introverts whereas empaths can be introverts or extroverts, (though most are introverts). Empaths share a highly sensitive person's love of nature, quiet environments, desire to help others, and a rich inner life.
HSP isn't a disorder or a condition, but rather a personality trait that's also known as sensory-processing sensitivity (SPS).
Most HSPs are either INFJs or INFPs — the ones that don't tend to be ENFJs or ENFPs. Whether you're one or both, it's important to know what stresses you, what overstimulates you and what makes you feel calm, relaxed and happy.
People with empathy deficit disorder: Tend to focus on their own needs and neglect other people's emotions, even those of close friends and family. Struggle to build and maintain emotional connections. Can be overly judgemental of others and underestimate what others are going through.
In fact, some people with ADHD have trouble reining in their empathy. They might call themselves empaths, as I explain below. Stimulant medication often helps them, too. It's all about the self-regulation: not over-doing, not under-doing, but finding the middle ground.
Trauma affects highly sensitive and intense people more intensely. Like any other of your reactions to stimuli, as a highly sensitive person (HSP) your trauma reactions are also more intense than most. As a result, many HSPs have used trauma splitting, or structural dissociation, as a way to cope.
There are common characteristics of being a HSP like being easily overwhelmed, being upset by violence on TV, and identifying as deeply emotional. Remember, being highly sensitive is not a disorder or diagnosis; rather, it is a personality trait.
Highly sensitive people may be more affected by certain situations such as tension, violence, and conflict, which may lead them to avoid things that make them feel uncomfortable. You might be highly touched by beauty or emotionality. Highly sensitive people tend to feel deeply moved by the beauty they see around them.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. The good news is that highly sensitive people aren't more or less emotionally intelligent than others.
Living with High Sensitivity
HSPs may struggle to adapt to new circumstances, may demonstrate seemingly inappropriate emotional responses in social situations, and may easily become uncomfortable in response to light, sound, or certain physical sensations.
Empaths are the opposite of narcissists. While people with narcissistic personality disorder have no empathy, and thrive on the need for admiration, empaths are highly sensitive and in tune with other people's emotions. Empaths are "emotional sponges," who can absorb feelings from other people very easily.
Our results showed that empathy increased with age, particularly after age 40. Furthermore, people who were born later tended to be more empathic than those who were born earlier.
If empaths have been chronically depleted by trauma or stress, they may require medication for depression and anxiety to balance their biochemistry. I recommend prescribing these mainly for the short term.
Empaths can be introverts or extroverts, or somewhere in the middle known as ambiverts. Judith Orloff, the author of "The Empath's Survival Guide," told Business Insider empaths "absorb the stress and also the positive emotions into their own bodies from other people."
"Many individuals who are high in neuroticism become hypersensitive to situations that trigger strong emotions, such as sadness," he adds. In other words, those who have high neuroticism feel emotions very deeply, resulting in them crying more often.
And researchers have found 70% of introverts also are highly sensitive people.
Further, the severity of the trauma correlated positively with various components of empathy. These findings suggest that the experience of a childhood trauma increases a person's ability to take the perspective of another and to understand their mental and emotional states, and that this impact is long-standing.