If you are an empath, then you know that you can pick up the emotions and feelings of people around you. Someone that picks up these feelings and emotions in a stronger way might be someone that is dealing with toxic empathy. This kind of empath can cause the person to have depression, stress and anxiety and it can keep them from being able to do what they need to do in their own life.
Toxic empathy happens when you not only pick up these emotions and feelings, but you feel them in your spirit and in your body. Picking up the problems of everyone else can cause you to be stressed and overwhelmed with life. When you make these emotions and feelings your own, you are putting yourself in their situation.
People that have hyper empath characteristics are people that often don’t reach their own goals or their own needs because they lose who they are when they are picking up so much negativity all the time.
If you are someone that is constantly picking up these emotions and feelings often hide away their own feelings and they sometimes feel empty because they aren’t able to look into what their own needs are.
Signs of Toxic Empathy
Here are some signs that you might be dealing with toxic or overwhelming empathy:
- You feel bad for situations, and you allow people to be mean to you because of what they are dealing with.
- You let people demand things and you have a hard time saying no.
- Pick up stress that people have, and you feel it in your body.
- Feel the emotions, sadness and pain others are feeling for a long period of time.
- You find that you are tired in your body and mind.
- You aren’t able to reach your own goals or fulfill your own needs because you are too overwhelmed.
Dealing with Toxic Empathy
Here are some ways that you can deal with toxic empathy:
- Emotional Hijacking
Emotional hijacking happens when you pick up the emotions and feelings of people, but these things come inside of you and take over your own feelings. This can happen when someone is talking to you about what they are feeling.
You can absorb these emotions when someone is telling you what they are feeling. You can combat this by staying calm and relaxed and releasing the emotions of others healthily.
- Healing Relationships
Make sure that you are in healing, healthy and happy relationships. This is important so that you can have someone that is going to listen to you like you listen to others. Healthy relationships have boundaries, and these are relationships where everyone has their needs met and it isn’t just one sided.
One way to have these kinds of relationships is to communicate and to set boundaries that help you to meet your own needs as well as the needs of others.
- Talk to Someone
Another thing that you can do if you are battling this is to talk to someone. You can find a counselor, psychologist, or therapist that you can share your problems with. By talking to someone that you trust, you can learn to handle your own emotions and feelings.