Intuitive empaths know what others feel without needing to be told, and they have an unusually sharp sense for whether someone is being truthful or lying.
For this reason, many self-proclaimed intuitive empaths go into the healing professions. There’s a lot of reported evidence from psychologists for the existence of empaths, and it often seems to suggest that they are unhappier than others.
Empathy is present, in general, to a greater degree in women. A study from the journal of Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews stated that there are gender differences as regards empathic response from infancy.
It has been suggested that females are more empathic as a result of neurological adaptation to the traditional role of child-rearing, as it requires a sharper understanding of non-verbal expressions.
When empaths are in interactions with others, they’re able to understand how the other person feels and why they feel it. This makes them excellent listeners and great friends. However, being able to put themselves in other people’s shoes and feel as they feel can be extremely stressful. Apart from having to deal with the stress and difficulties which arise in their own lives, they take on other people’s suffering as their own.
If you are extremely sensitive or have been labelled as being too emotional, you may be an empath. Empaths seem to have the ability to experience emotions at a greater intensity than the rest of us. This can lead to increased joy and pleasure in life, but when they’re exposed to negative stimuli, it can cause extreme anxiety and distress.
It also means that they’re more prone to mood swings than others, as stimuli from the environment can change rapidly from positive to negative. Empaths are often very sensitive to noise and other disturbances, too.
At one extreme of the empathy spectrum (the low end), there are people with disorders which cause anti-social and often violent, criminal behaviour. Empathic people are on the opposite end of the spectrum, not being able, in some cases, even to watch violent films. They also find things that many people laugh at, like the misfortunes of others, unbearable to witness.
Because of the intensity and diversity of stimuli in situations involving a large number of people, empaths tend to find being around big groups exhausting and anxiety-creating. It’s common for empaths to prefer being alone or with one or two people.
If they have to be in social situations involving large groups, it’s often necessary for them to withdraw early and take time alone to recharge their batteries.
Empaths often find that they experience physical symptoms in response to high-intensity situations. Headaches are common as well as fatigue. Empaths may also be more likely to respond to the anxiety they feel by abusing their own bodies with drugs and overeating.
Empathy is something that nearly all human beings have, with the exception of people who have psychological disorders that prevent them from feeling empathy. Empathy is, therefore, something which is found in human beings on a spectrum – from high-empathy responses to low-empathy responses.
Confirming the existence of empaths scientifically is difficult though. Human neuroimaging is not at a level of advancement which would allow us to confirm that there’s something different going on in these people’s brains.
Up till now, tests have had to, in most cases, consist of surveys and questionnaires about how subjects perceive their own responses. This kind of evidence is very difficult for the scientific community to accept as a solid basis.
Scientists do not currently accept the use of terms such as intuitive empath just as they don’t accept terms like ‘psychic’ or ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception). Scientific research currently divides empathy into the categories of ‘emotional empathy’ and ‘cognitive empathy’. Emotional empathy is the ability to respond emotionally to what another person is going through, and cognitive empathy is the ability to comprehend another person’s perspective or mental state.
Neuroscience, however, which has been dedicated to investigating empathy over the last decade or so, has found that there is a scientific explanation for how living creatures are able to empathise with others.
Neuroscientists have called this phenomenon mirror-touch synaesthesia, where mirror neurons are activated when one animal sees another animal perform a particular behaviour. It has been suggested that in the case of empaths, mirror neuron activity is particularly acute.
It has been proposed that, like in the case of people with a very low empathic response, childhood trauma may be present to a greater degree in empaths than in the majority of the population.
The ability to empathise with the unpleasant experiences of another person may come, to some extent, from having had similar experiences. However, having had similar experiences does not always mean that someone is able to empathise with others going through the same thing.
Do you think you might be an intuitive empath? Share your thoughts with us.
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This is me to a tee. All my life I thought these traits somehow labeled me as different, odd, over sensitive. anti-social and so on. Thank you for your detailed article!
I’m glad I found this site, feels like reading about myself! What professions could suit an empath?
I was raised by an abusive narcissist who beat my Mother, my Brother and me. He stopped beating me when I was six because I stopped crying. Instead he concentrated on my Mom and Brother. I have been an empath for as long as I can remember, although I had not heard the term empath until about 20 years ago. As much as my Father lacks in compassion, I am supercharged with it. People have always confided in me die to my ability to make them more at ease in their grief, Dottie or other troubles. I’ve found that I have to limit my emotional interaction with others who overwhelm me emotionally. Although it’s great to be able to truly emphasize with others this is not always a gift. Keeping myself emotionally grounded requires a lot of time being just by myself and using distractions such as hobbies to help me cope.
Now I understand ... the past 5years have been a huge evolution of finally understanding what I thought was “wrong” with me ... as a child, everything made me “cry” ... super sensitive ... Move forward 50 years and it’s now making sense... I (either) “feel” things about a person .... or “know” things about a person without them saying a word ... sometimes a person walks into a room and I will “bristle” (a shiver comes over me) ... the energy is soo overpowering (negative) I have to walk away! I’ve gently learned to “pluck” out the negatives in my life (huge survival skill) and ONLY surround myself with positive energy (people) ... it’s OK to give Empathically to positive people ... but the negatives will suck you dry — learn the difference ... I worked for a psychologist and clients would confess/share very tragic/abusive/sad details about their lives ... once home, I would need to lay down, meditate “remove/purge” everything from my day before I could cook/care for my family ... it was emotionally exhausting... I’ve learned how to achieve a better balance now by working from home and also by not making eye contact when I fell negative energy walk through the door ... some people just refuse to help themselves (and like to point fingers at others in an effort to deflect attention from themselves) ... ... ... when faced with an unavoidable crowd (weddings, reunions, large get togethers) I always need to “nap” to clear my mind and “refresh” before dealing with what may come my way, energy wise!!
Excellent..