As empaths we feel what others feel. We feel the inner struggles of our loved ones, the suppressed anger of our co-workers and the distress of the people in public places. And most often we are so used to feeing all of this that we do not even recognize we are doing it. This just seems and the way we function. We appear to live a life at the mercy of everyone else’s emotions.
Most people that I have met who call themselves an empath, have done this from a place of victimhood. They tend to use the word to explain, underpin and validate their own suffering. While I can understand very well how painful and draining it can be to feel and perceive so much, I do not believe it has to be this way.
For almost my entire adult life, I would feel down after meeting with my family of origin. Every time I came back, I would feel like there was something wrong with me. I felt weak and somehow broken, like I could not function in this world the way I was supposed to. It took me years to understand what had been going on and to break that pattern.