Someone's pain and suffering can trigger an empath. They might notice a friend's shift in energy when they're hanging out; if an empath knows someone is struggling, they might feel triggered, even from afar. An empath might feel overwhelmed by: A friend who seems quiet or not quite like themselves.
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.
As it turns out, empath zodiac signs make up half of the zodiac wheel. And those who belong to the water element (Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces) may especially tend to find empathy to be a natural predisposition. "Think about the properties of water," says astrologer Maria Sofia Marmanides.
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.
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.
Traits of an Empath
Because they can become easily overwhelmed by absorbing other people's energy, they may look for outlets through substances or behaviors. Binge eating, shopping sprees, and substance abuse are all behaviors that can lead to compulsive habits that eventually turn into addictions.
Other people's joy, pain, or frustration will dramatically affect an empath and leave them riding out others' emotional rollercoasters. The strong mood shifts can lead to exhaustion and confusion if the empathic individual can't distinguish between their own emotions and those of others.
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.
Because empaths quite literally feel what their friends are going through, they can become overwhelmed by painful emotions, such as anxiety or anger. Empaths have a tendency to take on the problems of others as their own.
With post-traumatic stress, your system can't fully return to its calmer state before the upset or even the initial incident. You are never quite at rest and remain aware of protecting yourself from further threats. Empaths are at risk of becoming hypervigilant which is draining for empaths.
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.
Empaths are individuals who are extremely perceptive of the feelings and emotions of people around them, which typically comes through some intuitive abilities. But sometimes, empaths may face challenges with setting boundaries between themselves and others.
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.
Empaths need to be around people who accept their beautifully in-tune nature instead of trying to change them. Those people see how giving, open, and caring empaths are. They recognize that empaths can be amazing friends, partners, and confidants, and they don't take that for granted.
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.
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 and narcissists are often drawn together but this rarely, if ever, leads to a successful and happy relationship in the long term.
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.
Myth #1: Empaths do not get angry.
Although many empaths are typically good-natured and, thus, uncomfortable with their anger, it is an important emotion. In some situations, the heightened anger experienced by an empathic individual is data that something unfair is occurring in a relationship.
But it doesn't stop there: Empaths get physically ill and suffer from anxiety, depression, chronic stress, professional burnout, and pain syndromes more often than their less empathic counterparts.
Key points. Empathy is a gift in many ways, but too much of it can create suffering. Empaths might experience burnout or emotional exhaustion; they can also be hurt through the actions of others with less empathy.
1 Being an empath comes with a lot of positive traits. For one, Brown says, empaths are "highly intuitive and emotionally intelligent," so they can read the room, pick up on other people's energy, and be very aware of their own emotions, too.