#hyperempathy

[sysboxes]

[Text: This hyperempathetic person becomes apathetic when triggered.]

like/reblog if you save or use

[moonshadow-thoughts]

Am I the only one who noticed that, or do people get more and more hateful? People start to hate on everything more and more now. Even small harmful things suddenly get tons of hate. Decisions you make for yourself and your own life that bother no one get tons of hate too. People turn more and more hateful. It has become unbearable.

[lunar-solstice-plur]

Finally this thing is finished. Took way longer than I thought it would. Well, it had a bit of a sour ending at first (venting and all), so I wanted to bring it back around a little. And the frames doubled lol.

But here we are, with our second comic.

[duskyumbra-indigo-1hundredand1]

Reminder for myself as an angel here on Earth:

Not all humans are bad

It's just a very noisy minority

Most humans are good

It's just a minority that loves to be loud

I do not need to loose hope in kindness over one bad interaction

How they act is their fault

I do not need to abandon Earth

I do not need to abandon my mission

There is still good

I still need to be here to help the good humans

Staying in my vessel is the better option

People can still change, I can still encourage kindness

They're probably just having a bad day

IGNORE THE BAD HUMANS

[augmentedchordsofficial]

I have talked abt before how low empathy often gets demonized but also we need to stop Romanticizing hyper empathy. Hyperempathy isn’t fun or quirky it’s disabling. If you’re not disabled or in some way harmed (for lack of a better word) by having a lot of empathy you’re not hyperempathetic. I would consider myself hyper empathetic and it sucks. I have huge trouble accepting gifts because all I can think of is the other people in the world who also deserve them but can’t get them. I feel bad for random inanimate objects, even though I know it’s irrational. The guilt is constant. Hyperempathy doesn’t help me, and I wish I didn’t have it

[be4utiful4byss]

SHADOWED/“DARK” EMPATH

An attempt at reclaiming the “dark empath” trope away from psychological abusers.

Refers to someone with a higher capacity for empathy than they do sympathy—this person can relate and picture the scenarios of others well, but has a harder time sympathizing for and therefore comforting them.

I personally don’t care who uses this label or flag, just don’t be an asshole. Peace.

[kiragecko]

Hyperempathy/Being "Highly Sensitive"

So "hyperempathic", being a "highly sensitive person", or a bunch of other things, are used to describe people whose brains devote a lot of space to reading other people's body language.

These people are often ADHD, another type of neurodivergent, and/or grew up in an abusive environment. They discovered at a young age that predicting authority figures' actions was difficult, but also vital for survival, and so their brain prioritized that skill.

With neurodivergence, this is often because their own emotions naturally express in different ways than other people's do, and so there isn't an intuitive link between people's actions and emotions. Also, their parents are often neurodivergent as well, and their emotions might express in ways that are different from both the child's AND other adults, making things even more complex. With abused kids, this is often because adults are frequently lying about what they feel, overreacting, blaming kids for things that are completely unrelated to them, and otherwise acting in very unpredictable ways.

This skill can be seen positively by others, and reinforced. Or they can be seen as "too sensitive", and needing to get a thicker skin. Often its both, depending on the context.

Of all the things associated with ADHD, this is the one people tend to be most uncomfortable admitting might be a neurodivergence thing. Being empathic is GOOD! One's ability to read people is a gift! Almost a superpower! ADHD is a disability, something to be ashamed of, so empathy CAN'T be a symptom! ('Highly sensitive' is often used as an alternative by such people, and can end up separating kids from resources and community they need.)

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But hyperempathy has a lot of costs. It steals resources needed for other types of growth. It's exhausting. And it encourages depersonalization - communication becomes so focused on understanding the other person that there is very little space to recognize one's own perspective, and it's easier to connect with other people's emotions when your own aren't in the way.

It's also isolating. Since both sides of the conversation are focused on what interests the non-hyperempathic person, the hyperempathic person doesn't get to share themself. They're working so hard to understand others, but other people aren't returning the favour. Empathy is how they've learned care is communicated, and nobody seems to care!

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Hyperempathy is also wrong. A LOT. But the hyperempathic person has very few ways to figure that out. Hyperempathy develops to keep someone safe, and doesn't really care about false positives. False negatives are the thing that must be avoided, at all costs. So, thinking someone is angry when they aren't is FINE, as long as they don't directly ask the person and risk them BECOMING angry!

Hyperempathy also develops in a certain environment, and is keyed to that environment. Different communities have very different norms and body language! Unless the person deals with a LOT of different communities and environments at a young age (a situation where hyperempathy is less likely to develop, because its a LOT less effective), they only learn their own. Yet their brain is CERTAIN it knows what things mean, and often resists later information that calls that certainty into question.

Hyperempathic people can, ironically, end up the most insensitive people imaginable. Sure that they know what you're feeling better than you do. (And since they often grew up with people with very little introspection, they were often RIGHT about that as kids! But they aren't, now.) Condescending and cruel and exclusionist, while being sure that they're the kindest, most thoughtful people around.

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Hyperempathy also pops up in weird environments. People don't stop being hyperempathic when they start watching a show, for example.

I don't like most comedy, because comedians are often really unhappy people desperate to make others happy so they can feel it vicariously. Awful to watch, when my brain is primed to make other people happy! Especially through a screen, where I have NO chance to provide even a moment of vicarious joy!

I'll also get really uncomfortable watching certain actors. About 60% of the time, they're in jail within the next decade. The other 40% seem to be perfectly nice people. (Love the character Leverage's Nathan Ford was supposed to be. Really wish he hadn't been played by Timothy Hutton.)

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Finally, hyperempathic people often find weird ways to let their own emotions out.

Sometimes, they gravitate towards emotional people, where they get chances to vent emotions that match the ones the other person is asking them to empathize with.

Sometimes, they spend a lot of time fantasizing, safely feeling things in imaginary environments. Or read/watch a lot, in the hopes they can feel things through the characters.

Sometimes, they'll self-sabotage, and then have messy meltdowns when they fail, letting out all the built up feelings.

But, even if they talk about how they feel a lot, they often struggle to actually process their own emotions WITH other people. Because communication is about the other person. Even when both people don't want it to be.

[transmasc-wizard]

Empathy thing. read definitions before voting

i am autistic and experience hyperempathy (affective)

I am autistic and have normal affective empathy

i am autistic and have low affective empathy

i am autistic and have no affective empathy

I am allistic and have hyperempathy (affective)

I am allistic and have normal affective empathy

I am allistic and have low affective empathy

i am allistic and have no affective empathy

see results

Voting ended onJun 3, 2023

AFFECTIVE EMPATHY: feeling other people's emotions. like, if someone is crying, you get sad. If someone is angry, you get angry. if someone is really excited, your emotions match that energy. etc.

HYPEREMPATHY: you are very very sensitive to the emotions of others and even non-intense emotions will frequently greatly affect your emotions.

LOW/NO AFFECTIVE EMPATHY: you almost never take on other people's emotions just bc they're feeling them. low-but-not-No empathy may experience "exception" people or feel empathy for really intense emotions, or large groups of people all feeling the emotion.

NORMAL is somewhere in between but hard for me to describe. probably just like... people's feelings influence yours, but not to the point of frequent distress or impaired functioning? like they definitely have an impact on your emotions but not an Intense one unless their emotions are also quite intense.

if you are AUTISTIC and have comorbidities, feel free to say what those are. if you are ALLISTIC/NON-AUTISTIC, feel free to clarify if you are completely neurotypical (no mental disorders or disabilties) or if you have something else (ADHD, bipolar, ASPD, OCD, whatever).