Empaths, Empathy, and Highly Sensitive People
When I found out that I am an Empath, the realization gave me a lot of answers about my behaviour and experiences. But I was disappointed by the lack of information that was available online and in books. I started this blog to become closer to other empaths, but what I’ve found on Tumblr is that there are huge misunderstandings about what this word means, both the definition of it and what it means for the people who have it.
My goal on this website is to become a hub of information about empaths and emotional sensitivites; to spread information and ideas for coping and healing. This series is the first step to achieving that goal.
In this series, I’ll be defining terms and giving examples of symptoms; interviewing friends of mine who are empaths and HSP; sharing my own story; building a community of empaths to support one another; and telling the majority of people who aren’t empaths what helps up and hurts us. This first post is meant to introduce terms and explain why they are important.
What is a Highly Sensitive Person?
The Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) is a term used by Dr. Elaine Aron, a psychologist who researched HSP adults in the 1990’s. It affects approximately 20% of the world’s population, regardless of personality type and gender. It is diagnosed by a deep perception, overstimulation, empathy, and awareness.
HSP is a genetic trait found in the brains of humans and in over 100 species around the world. It is an evolutionary advantage for one individual in a group to be so aware and easily stimulated, to identify potential threats to the group and to mediate conflicts within the group.
While this term is well-known in some circles, the term is not widespread enough to catch all HSPs. Sometimes parents raise their HSP children with unfair expectations simply out of ignorance, and HSP adults burn themselves out regularly. It also leads to HSPs misidentifying themselves as Empaths, as the term is less understood but more common.
The good news for HSPs is that there is a lot of information out there for them. There are books on coping methods, how to raise HSP children, the needs of HSPs at home/ in relationships/ in the workplace, etc. There’s even a documentary by Dr. Elain Aron herself available to rent or buy online. It’s called Sensitive: The Untold Story. I recommend it.
More information on this trait is readily available on Google and Youtube, but I will outline in a future post the common symptoms of HSP. If you have any questions in the mean time or would like a list of resources I recommend, please ask me in my askbox.
All Empaths are HSP, but not all HSP are Empaths. Empathy is also a genetic trait, and all Empaths do have the trait in the brain that HSPs have, but we also have something a little different on top of it. I can accept one idea about Empathy: that while HSP is a trait in the brain that processes information, Empathy is a trait in both the brain and nervous system. On top of the deep processing of information in the brain, the nervous system is extraordinarily sensitive to and affected by energies.
Empaths’ bodies absorb and internalize energies. The energy could be anything: emotions, pain, intentions, truthfulness, illnesses, etc. If someone is feeling angry, that energy is taken in by an Empath and we also become angry. The difference between this and and HSP’s empathy is that HSPs feel it because they have observed the situation and processed it, and therefore feel it. An Empath feels is without processing it intellectually, and the transfer is done without their knowledge.
I find it easieset to think about it like heat. When you sit beside someone who is warm, you will also come to feel warm. You will absorb their heat and feel warm, yourself without consciously thinking about it. But this is where my very limited knowledge of chemistry comes in: heat is an effect of increased movement of atoms, and causes waves. So these waves of energy are coming away from one person, and affecting the atoms of another and making them warm.
Continuing with this example, being an Empath is like having thermoreceptors for everything.
It’s estimated that the Empathic trait affects 2-4% of the world’s population, and there is even speculation that that percentage is rising.
If you search ‘Empath’ in Google, you will actually find more information about HSPs than Empaths, because of the overlap of terms. If you’re willing to venture out into the deep and are confident you can filter through the information there, please do. But if you have any questions about Empathy or would like a list of recommended resources from me, please stop by my askbox.
When they have so much in common, why is it important that we make a distinction between Empaths and HSP?
It’s important to make the distinction because while both HSP and Empaths have different needs from people who don’t have the traits, the needs and experiences of Empaths are different from the needs and experiences of HSP. There is overlap, but there is also a huge difference in how the two are affected by the world. By using the terms synonymously, we are erasing those different experiences and the kind of help either can have available.
I mentioned before that all Empaths are HSP, but not all HSP are Empaths. Because of the descrepency of experience, a lot of Empaths (including myself) choose not to claim the name HSP.
Why is it important to know about all this?
It’s important to talk about this because these traits affect the way a huge number of people interact with the world. It changes behaviour and we have different needs from people who don’t have the traits – needs that are very often not met.
Something I’ll talk about more in the next installment is the fact that HSPs and Empaths are very often victims of mental illness and abusive/ manipulative people. It is so, so, so important for HSPs and Empaths to know that there is a reason behind these situations, and that there are ways to control them.
The rest of the upcoming series.
This is the first post in my series on emotional sensitivities. The next post will deal with common symptoms of both HSP and Empathy and the manifestations of both in life.
As I’m mentioned twice above, if you ever have any questions about emotional sensitivities you are more than welcome to ask me in my inbox. Or, if you’d prefer more candid discussion, message me. I never publicly post asks that are sent to my non-anonymously. I have the upcoming interviews of my friends and my own story, and if you have any questions you’d like answered for both or either, I’ll take those, too.
Follow this series in the tag #PrairiePsychic ! I also share my day-to-day experiences as an Empath in the tag #prw.Diary on my blog.
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