mike90

no offense Muhali but you don't get it. What your describing IS normal, what we have, not so much. it seems like the major point of confusion for most non empathics is confusing sympathy with empathy. Sympathy is imagining what its like to be in someone elses shoes, empathy is actually experiencing others thoughts/feelings, and is often difficult or impossible to control. In trying to learn to block out harmful emotions, ive come to a point of having almost no emotions of my own, i feel like a robot most of the time, and when i dont feel like that im depressed.Ive resorted to drugs/alcohol on occasion to try to blunt the depression, which predictably only leaves me feeling worse. hope you other empaths out there are fairing better. Its all I can do to get up every day, and if i didnt have others relying on me maybe i wouldnt. Comparing having this to normal emotions is missing it by a mile

Well I've seen some strange things, most of them from a friiend i used to have that made me aware of my own empathic " abilities". Among the things ive seen or experienced are precognition and limited telepathy, including what people would think of as " mind reading" , which ive actually had done to me and i must say was disconcerting. I've also experienced emotional bonds beyond my ability to put into words, to the point where i wasn't sure where my psyche ended and someone elses began. Also certain people send off abnormally powerful auras of negative energy. Often tiimes I've found the only defense against this form of emotional vampirism is to distance yourself from these people. And no, skeptics, I can't prove any of this. =P

In reply to Ifeelya, i wish i had something concrete to tell you about how to control it. After a couple of what i would term " nervous breakdowns", ( much of the stress that caused these was from my everyday life, but the empathy was like the straw that broke the camel's back) my mind sort of shut down my empathy by itself. But as I've mentioned previously my resulting emotional state is less then ideal.( read: miserable)im ipretty much in the same boat as everyone else, struggling to cope and find support, which i usually get solely from my empath friends. and to Bettina, what you describe is rare but not unknown among empaths, ive known a couple that have had similar experiences with clairvoyance or visions. I continue to wish you good luck

Want to know what what a nervous breakdown is? Simple. Thats what happens when a persons stress factors in there life far outbalnace their support and coping mechanisms. Almost anyone could fall victim to one as they hinge on a persons circumstances more then their personality. So basically all it takes is everything in your life going wrong at once, or enough problems in one area ie finances, work, emotional or physical well being etc. I wouldn't wish the pain of going through one on my worst enemy. Recovery can take a long time with a high chance of relapses if you cant change the root causes or find new ways to cope with them

first off to Bettina if you if this thread is closed i do hope you'll post somewhere else so I and others can see how your doing. And so in answer to the questions from a few others as to what it feels like when it happens, it tends to vary. Usually when i pick up someone elses emotions its all at once in a jolt. Like sometimes if i see someoneand theyre upset or depressed ill sort of soak up their exact feelings somehow. Ive gone from happy one moment to hiding in my room crying the next. The pain is sudden and since its unexpected, overwhelming. it is possible to pick up all kinds of emotions or even to tell other empaths at a glance. But unfortunately pain is the emotion i seem to pick up the most. and yes i can distinguish my own emotions from other peoples. Feeling other peoples sadness is nothing like my own.

BTW sorry for the typos, im pretty tired here hopefully its legible to all of you

Hello again, ive meant to check in on this for some time but work's kept me too busy. Ifeelya's post struck a chord as i found Bettina's original post on this topic by typing empathic into google one night when I felt alone. Reading these posts has made me want to share some of my story so here goes. I didn't find out about my empathy until i was about 20, until then i had assumed i was just overly sensitive and in some negative way different from "normal people" . I used to be able to use my empathy to do things like absorb other peoples emotions, or read their inner thoughts/feelings to a limited degree. But like Bettina my empathy does what iit wants when it wants and i couldn't control it. I ended up a mess because of it. I've tried antidepressants , drugs, alcohol, none of which helped at all. Eventually my mind seemed to sort of shut my empathy down, with the side effect being i dont seem to be able to feel ANY emotions most of the time, but now and then ill go into deep depressions that I have to claw myself back out of. Every now and then my empathy will kick back in and ill sense something so i know its not gone, just in hibernation or something. The only thing that really helps me get through it all is that I have several good friends tatr are like this. I dont seem to be able to make real emotional connections to anyone not like me, so i have a real hard time coping with dayo day life and social situations, i always feel like a freak. I'm basically looking for some sort of support group for this, which is what it sounds like Bettina needs, not quack doctors trying to push drugs, drugs cannot help this in my opinion. i'm going to try to keep up on these posts, please can some of you post more of your experience with this and how you cope with it? I seem to be lifeless or in pain most of the time anymore.

Helllo Bettina, ive skimmed over your story a bit here. i am also an empath so i understand what your going through, though mine doesnt react as strongly as yours usually. I hope you dont stay on medication too long, the docs tried that on me and most of the other empaths i know and it doesnt work at alll, rather it is more a matter of learning control which can be quite difficult. I hope you will continue to post your progress. You are not alone.