difference between having anxiety and being hypersensitive
thought I’d post this. since I was thinking about it. I don’t know if I covered it all.
There’s a difference between having anxiety and being over sensitive. Also a difference between being an introvert and being an empath who needs to chill out. But they are similiar. They mesh together so well it’s hard to tell.
This is what psychologist and counselors have to do everyday, and well, this is what I’d taken upon myself to do with my psychology degree because empaths are real, it’s not a myth and people just don’t acknowledge it.
They have a high correlation. Which means one causes the other, but the job is to find out which one causes which one.
Being an empath usually makes some of us introverts and have anxiety. You feel everyone and everything. It’s overpowering and then you want to be alone for a little while to de-stress and chill. But introverts do act the same way who aren’t empathetic.
Traits of an empath:
- Feeling the world’s suffering on a large scale and wishing you could do something to help. Ironically, this makes you less equipped to help, because you feeloverwhelmed.
- Finding it difficult to watch the news or distressing images because you feel the pain of the person/people you’re watching –as if you’re them
- Finding it difficult to fully be present to yourself and your own feelings when conversing with other people. This is because you’re busy exploring their aura and responses to life – not your own.
- Shyness – empathy can make you somewhat self-conscious as you’re very aware of the effect your words have on another person and what they’re thinking and feeling in response.
- A tendency to say yes to the requests and demands of other people – almost as a reflex; without thinking about whether you actually want to. When you’re so immersed in another person’s experience of life and what they need – how can you say no? It’s only afterwards that you realize you forgot yourself and your own needs.
- A general tendency to put your needs last, or serve others at your own expense.
- A liking for distance in relationships, and for solitude. This occurs because as an empath, intimacy and closeness is your default. But when you don’t know how to stop yourself from exploring other peoples’ auras, you need some space on your own, where you aren’t around other people.
- Feeling an affinity with the animal kingdom. When you’re an animal empath, you can get a feel for how other species experience life and you are able to relate to animals on a deep level. Some people are plant empaths, so the same is possible for plants.
- Feeling responsible for how other people feel – and going out of your way to help them to feel better (even when it doesn’t serve you.) After all – you feel their emotions so keenly.
- A tendency to let relationships and friendships get too heavy (and too close) – too fast.
- A strange tendency to feel aches and pains, but only around certain people.
- Finding yourself often in a counselling role, where people dump their emotions on you, and being very drained by it.
- An emotional over-identification with characters in novels, films and plays. It doesn’t matter that they’re not real – you can still feel how they felt.
- A tendency to forget to have fun and lighten up.
Traits of an introvert:
Social Interaction
- Has only a few close friends
- Does more listening than talking
- Talks to family members, but not to strangers
Social Preferences
- Likes solitary activities, like reading, or activities with only a few people
- Likes to spend time in own room with the door closed.
- Watches a game or activity before joining in
- Likes creative or imaginative play
Emotions
- May get crabby after spending a lot of time around other people
- Does not share feelings easily
- Becomes deeply humiliated after making a mistake in public
Introverts like to be alone. Empaths like to be alone. But Introverts aren’t as absorbed into everything as empaths are. :) Just think about it :D
(via witchfulthinking)
Reblogged from empathworld May 18th, 2012 54 notes #empath #empathy #social anxiety #anxiety #sensitivity #oversensitivity #important
