What is an Empath?
Put simply, an Empath is a person who absorbs other people’s emotions and experiences these emotions as if they were their own.
Empathic people are extremely sensitive to the emotional energy of those around them and as a result, tend to commonly experience energetic overload in the form of fatigue, anxiety, and depression.
However, despite the tendency to “soak up” the energy of other beings, Empaths are highly compassionate, loving, intuitive, and insightful people.
Take Our Free Empath Test
Are you emotional, spiritual and intuitive? Do you seem to “absorb” the emotions of other people? If so, you may be an Empath. Take our free Empath Test to discover your unique percentage score! If you would like more in-depth information, check out our empath book.
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Ever since I was young I have had close friends or relatives visit me in dreams. I can also feel ghosts when they are around or certain feelings of old homes, buildings and even gravesites. I was a hospice nurse for years and had too many spiritual experiences to count. Most of the time I feel everything others are feeling.. to a point that I became burned out as an RN. I always put others needs before my own and one day I started to get sick and it went downhill from there. I had no energy to help others anymore because I wasn’t taking care of myself. I have still had many experiences but I started to try and ignore them. I always thought something was wrong with me. I considered “my gifts” a curse and blocked them or ran from them. I didn’t understand why it was me for a long time. Only recently someone told me I was an empath and to be honest I had no clue what that was. When I started reading about empaths my entire life started to make sense but it makes me sad because I learned these defense mechanisms to keep everything away due to misunderstanding. Will I ever be able to bring that back in myself? And as I understand it help it grow into more? I have considered it a curse for so long because it overwhelmed me but I feel like I’m in a better place and be who I’m meant to be. :). I’m really grateful I ran across your website today. Thank you.
I am so grateful for this website and the insight to my life, I have always had this “weird thing” going on with me when I was younger and I never told anybody because it scared me! the first time I experienced this “gift” I was around 8 or somewhere close and I was standing in the line at my school lunch room waiting to go thru the line and thy give you your tray and milk and food and when I got inside the room and got my tray handed to me I set the tray down and looked under my milk and there was a star sticker and they did that sometimes and whoever got that tray got a free ice cream however when I seen it I started freaking out inside because I had dreamed about that exact situation with everything the exact same way , I am 44 now so I am guessing that I had dreamed it and then it happened but it may have been just me having visions but either way it scared the living daylights out of me, I thought that because that was happening that I was going to die or something bad was going to happen so I remembering thinking I’ve got to do something to make this different so it’s not the same thing that I seen before so I kicked my foot out and moved my arms, I’m sure the staff was probably thinking this kid needs help lol but being so young and not knowing what was going on it scared me, and every time I experienced it I would get so scared my heart would race and I thought I was dying, why? I have no idea!! maybe because I was a child and didn’t have a clue to what was happening to me and why, and I felt like there was something really wrong with me! I had panic attacks at school when it would happen and my mom would have to come get me while I’m sitting in the nurse station with my head between my knees so I wouldn’t hyperventilate I was close to passing out quite a few times , nobody knew what was going on, as I child tho, thinking back now remembering the emotions I was feeling back then brings it all right back but today I know what it is and have embraced it as my gift and I am blessed to be one that has this gift, I have never really thought about any of that until the past couple of yrs when it happened I payed attention to it and just kind of blew it off but curious and I recently went to this spirituality center and when I met with the reverend she knew RT away that I was an empath and she would tell me all the time that I have something special about me and that I should embrace it and learn more how to empower myself and tap into that energy so I started looking things up and as I got further into my research the more things started to make sense and it made me start thinking back growing up and the “weird” things I went through and I realize this is what it was ……. to have that total understanding now and be able to look back and explain things and know I wasn’t just crazy losing my mind lol I have always felt this connection with God and my spiritual being and today I am thankful for him blessing me with this gift as I realize not everybody has this gift , I thought this happened to everybody assuming ppl knew exactly what I was talking about without explaining lol I am sorry to go on and on but this is new to me as far as understanding why things happen all through my life so I have been “digging” in my memories, knowing what I know now is the biggest relief knowing that I’m not a crazy kid with mental issues I was diagnosed bipolar II because of depression and then times when I had so much energy and did things that ppl usually don’t do or say lol anyway I think I’m going to start a blog, after I learn how to…….lol I just want to get that out to ppl that understand me….
I was born breech. I have never fitted in anywhere. I am at my most serene when alone as being around people drains my physical and emotional self. I absorb all that is around me and won’t remember within short while but what happens after a few days I can recall most of the conversation. It feels like I process it internally ,subconciously, then it sees daylight again like a lightbulb goes off in my head.Earlier this year I foresaw a death of one of my siblings . I was in communication with one of my brothers by e-mailand mentioned that a legal matter needed to be taken care of before one of us died. Within a half hour my sister called to tell me that one of my brothers(I have 5 brothers) was on his way to emergency surgery with a dissected aorta. I tried to contact the brother I had e-mailed to let him know to no avail a few minutes later my sister called to say my brother had passed away on his way to surgery while he was on the phone with his wife. She heard him die on the phone 6,000 miles away. My brother who I had e-mailed called me to ask if I had a crystal ball . Throughout my life I have been called evil the devil and shunned by my family to the point that I have shut down my intuition and sight. I was raised in a very religious catholic family and pretty much told them they were hypocrites. There are other incidents in the past that I have foreseen. I strive for the underdog and the betterment of humanity but it is really hard and lonely not being understood. I would love some insight to overcome theses feelings . Thank you for hearing me . I am the oldest of 8 siblings.
I know EXACTLY what you mean!! I remember when I was younger it snowed so bad here in NY that they put the state on a “state of emergency” and I was outside building an igloo lol and this nasty ugly feeling hit me inside and I had no idea where it came from or why, so it Disturbed me so much I went inside and when I got inside my dad was on the phone with one of my aunt’s and she told him that their other brother had just had a bad heart attack and they were rushing him to surgery, as soon as I heard that the feeling went away and I thought what in the heck just happened here !!?? I was older so it made me think about it a little more trying to figure it out and I kept saying to myself “how did I get that sick feeling at the same time my uncle was having a heart attack on the other side of town? more importantly WHY lol I kind of just forgot about it and when it happened growing up I thought maybe I should tell somebody what I was feeling and if something does happen then somebody knows what was going on, I did tell ppl however the response I used to get was “if you knew it was going to happen you’re the one that did it” or it would just get brushed off like dust lol it was the 80’s things were ALOT different then, so the older I got the more I payed attention but I never thought anything about it I just felt that I was a “lucky” thinker lol that happened alot now that I sit and think back, I sit here in amazement realizing the gift I had as a child I didn’t just all of a sudden start “knowing” things or having “feelings” about things I was born this way! wow I just realized that, God blessed me at birth and I know and always have that God has something he wants me to do here on earth , my purpose in life I guess, everything has a reason, the way we chose to look at it and apply it to our lives is on us!
Do you have any blogs about empaths energetically breaking free from a narcissist, i am deeply connected to my ex partner and i just cant shake him off. Ive recently gone no contact after he brutally discarded me, now, Its like ive a simieze twin attached to me and hes constantly bullying me daily. I dont feel like im a single person i still feel hes attached to me.
Hey , I have only recently been able relate myself as being an empath , because it’s been brought to my attention , and once I have read up on it I feel so relieved now I know about all these feelings I have felt over the years .
I specifically wanted to reply to you as I was in a very Abusive relationship with a narcissist and felt trapped by his presence for a a long time . Even 5 years later I felt as though I was still heavily emotionally attached to him . However , my ability to stop this sucking the life out of me was to also rid other negative people in my life which helped my find my own positive pathway . I felt deeply burdened by other people’s problems and was very emotionally attached for a long time until I learned to surround myself with only good positive people . That kind of vibe can make a narcissist try even harder to bring you down or it can repel them and that’s exsactly what it has done in my case . Find yourself in a network of people who give out positive energy x.
I’ve known for a long time I’m empathetic but only recently learned I’m an empath. Now that I know I find myself in even more of a love hate struggle with myself. On the one hand it means the therapists are wrong about some of my diagnosis, on the other hand it explains a lot why medications don’t work for me and I still continue to suffer. While I’m trying to learn to cope with my empath ‘gifts’, I’m so tired I just want to give up. Being an empath has felt far too much a curse than a gift and those that take advantage of these ‘gifts’ don’t seem to appreciate them at all. Is there anyway to just shut it all off? The hardest thing is every time I have a predictive dream something bad happens. My cousin died after I dreamed of her as an angel. My dad died after I dreamt he was struck by lightning, I predicted my friend’s dad getting hurt and her screaming… then last year I predicted my family and I having a car accident and later that same day we had an accident and the car rolled. I’m terrified of my dreams, and I can’t sustain myself with everyone’s emotions weighing me down. It’s like someone dropped a giant stone on me and I can’t move. Please someone tell me is there a way to shut it off?
Maybe look into micro dosing magic mushrooms.
I’m getting some, I know from experience that they’ve improved my outlook before.
MDMA too.
I’ve always known i was different from most ppl. I’m just learning about my empathic abilities or should i say not being scared of them. I’ve been told im bi popular but i never thought i was. Professionals try to medicate me but i wonder take the meds. I see hear and smell things most ppl don’t. I’m looking for guidance on the matter if my abilities
How does one seek help as an Empath if they don’t know what it is or are never introduced to Empath gifts?
I wish I could turn off the empathy , and emotions, I wish I was more logical and analytical,Mr Spock , data and 7 of 9 got it right, emotions cause so much pain and indecision
I’ll be honest and state that I am still very confused about the difference between Empaths and Highly Sensitive people. Every empath test I take scores very high, however when some people describe Highly Sensitive people, they sound almost similar. Based on my childhood experiences before I learned to use marijuana to block them, I used to have prophetic dreams and some extreme spiritual / other worldly experiences which is what’s leading me towards the direction of being an Empath. I’ll admit the reality of this is a bit overwhelming because it seems there as a lot of work to be done internally to be able to have a better grasp on controlling and using my gifts correctly.
It is definitely a lot of work, this range of articles in this website are proof but it’s worth it considering the damage that can be caused by not learning to cope with these gifts. HSP’s are highly sensitive (of their own feelings and emotions), they feel things physically or emotionally much more than others. Empath’s are sensitive to other peoples emotions and feelings, here lies the differnece.
Your website is
Empath Test Question
#1. You expect me to choose only one option?! Cant be done.