Empaths are people who are highly sensitive but still, there is a difference between the two. Highly sensitive people (HSP) are introverts, while empaths can be both introverts and extroverts.
They love to help other people because they share other people’s pain; they can feel it better than anybody else.
Because of that, empaths are often targets for people with dark traits, like narcissists. Narcissists feel all the ‘easy to get to’ positive energy that empaths have and they use it to their advantage.
Narcissists and empaths attract each other because narcissists are searching for unfailing sources of energy and empaths are exactly what they are looking for.
Empathic people have the ability to absorb all of the environment’s energy. This is terrible for empaths but great for the people surrounding them.
Empaths feel others’ energy in a deep way and if it’s negative, they are going to (unknowingly) absorb it to help them.
So, being an empath is not an easy thing to be because, after some time, they get overloaded with all the emotions they pick up. They get exhausted from people emotionally taking advantage of them.
How to know for sure if you’re an empath
- Do people consider you too emotional or too sensitive?
- If someone close to you is distracted or feeling sad for some reason, does it affect you?
- Do a lot of people in one place drain your energy? Do you need some time alone to regain your energy?
- Do noises, hard smells and too much talking annoy you?
- Do you prefer going by yourself somewhere, so you can leave whenever you want?
- Does stress kick you out of the game? Does it sometimes seem that you can handle anything?
- Does making a commitment scare you?
If the answers to these questions are positive, then you’re an empath, but to dig a bit more deeper, check out the traits of an empath bellow.
Empaths take in other people’s emotions
Empaths can feel absolutely everything. It’s hard for them to resist absorbing other people’s emotions, so they pick up on everything.
Whether it is anxiety, fear or depression, they will feel it hard on their own skin. It’s really hard for them to live this way because they can’t help it.
But, on the other hand, positive and happy feelings are what keep them alive. Unfortunately, the negative ones are much frequent and more intense.
Empaths read others
They can sense how others are feeling. They see right through them, so they know how to act around them.
If someone’s hurting, they will sense that and they will know how to approach them and possibly help them.
They know how to read body language signs, which is not exactly empathy but it’s easier for empaths to read these signs because they just have perfect communication skills—it’s like a sixth sense.
See also: Common Triggers For Empaths And Ways To Manage Them
Empaths know how to listen
Nothing can pass by them. They know how to show emotional support and how to listen to someone who needs help.
They will sit patiently and listen to everything someone has to say without having the need to speak about themselves.
They will put their life on hold and ignore their needs if someone needs their help.
Empaths are usually introverts
Although this doesn’t have to be true, there are empaths who are extroverts, but not as many as there are introverts. Introverted empaths like to have one-on-one communication.
They avoid large groups of people because they make them uncomfortable.
When they are extrovert, empaths are not that different, except that they can tolerate a few more people than introverts can but they have a limit, which they can’t go over.
Empaths attract energy vampires
Their sensitivity attracts people who suck their energy dry. Those are people who have dark traits which reveal their psychotic and narcissistic personalities.
These vampires drain your physical energy but they also have the ability to destroy you emotionally .
They know how to make you feel unlovable and not good enough after just a short period of time.
Once they take away your self-esteem and self-love, it’s much easier to have complete control over you.
Empaths give too much of themselves
Empaths live other people’s feelings. If they see a homeless guy on the street, they won’t pass him without tossing some money in front of him.
They would want to take him home, give him some food, let him take a shower and have a good night’s sleep.
They really feel other people’s pain and seeing that homeless guy is going to make an imprint on their heart so deeply and they won’t be able to forget it that soon.
It’s completely normal that people see pain and they want to help erase it but empaths see pain and they live it.
Empaths are peacemakers
Empaths are complete peacemakers. They have the tendency to only feel what is outside of them and not inside them, which leads to ignoring their own feelings.
If something is disturbing the peace, if they are in the middle of an argument, they’ll try to calm things down because they absolutely can’t stand yelling or any kind of disturbance when things are out of order.
Either they will try to make peace or they will avoid the problem and just leave.
If they are attacked, they won’t have the strength to defend themselves because arguments drain them and destroy them, so they will run away.
Empaths need their time alone
Since they absorb other people’s feelings, it can become overwhelming. So many emotions and so much stress can wear them down.
They become exhausted because of others. That’s why they don’t get too focused on themselves.
Because of this, empaths attract bad people, often people with narcissistic traits. These bad people are attracted to empaths because they can feed off of them.
They can drain their positive energy, which is their supply.
That’s why empaths need their time alone. They need to recharge.
They need to focus on themselves and find the resource of their positive energy once again, to be able to continue functioning in everyday life.
Empaths are hypersensitive
Empaths are world-class nurturers. They take care of people just because they feel the need to. It’s an unselfish act of goodness and kindness.
They can’t stand seeing someone unhappy. And even though their life might be a mess, they will hit the pause button and go to rescue someone who needs it.
But one thing is sure; empaths can get hurt easily. You have to be very careful around them.
Things that might not bother you will probably bother them. People who aren’t like this don’t understand what an empath is going through.
Their initial thought when they see an empath overreact to a certain situation is: “Oh, get over it!” But it’s not as simple as that.
You can’t change what a person is made of. You can only try to understand them.
Empaths have great intuition
Empaths usually listen to their gut because it never lies to them.
They see everything around them through their intuition, although where manipulators are concerned, their intuition fails because the manipulator is just too good of an actor and so they attract each other.
They have to find each other.
You see, living in a world of empaths is not easy, especially if you are one. It is draining and sometimes you just wish you could turn off the world and be alone with no one bothering you.
But, it’s not that easy—you can’t just forget who you are. You have to learn to live with it.
