Hyperempathy Syndrome: Too Much Of The Good

It is as if people with hyperempathy syndrome have long antennae that pick up every emotion that vibrates around them.

They lose themselves in other people’s needs and poison themselves with too much care, and they also feel guilty about the pain that others experience. It is painful and exhausting.

You may be surprised that this is a “syndrome”. Do we go too far in categorizing “normal” behaviors as pathological? The answer is no, and there is an explanation for this. If DSM-V categorizes hyperempathy as a personality disorder, it is for a good reason.

Any behavior that makes it more difficult to relate to others gives rise to suffering and prevents you from living a normal life, and this needs a diagnosis as well as some form of treatment.

People with hyperempathy, who show a constant pattern of stress and an inability to function in their social, personal and professional lives, show signs of a personality disorder.

It is important to clarify that there is a difference between being really sensitive and having hyperempathy syndrome.

In the book Women Who Love Psychopaths , psychiatrist Sandra L Brown talks about how many women do not understand the psychopathic behavior of their partners, and how they even justify it.

In other words, their excessive empathy prevents them from seeing the predator in partners. In fact, they use very sophisticated, clever ways to justify their partner’s violent actions. This is clear evidence that hyperempathy syndrome is a condition that is worth thinking about and talking about.

Empathy and hyperempathy syndrome, the narrow boundary between balance and pathology

If empathy is a positive, useful and desirable trait, you may think that there is nothing wrong with having “too much” of it. But as with everything in life, abundance is never good, and it is best to have a healthy balance.

Hyperempathy affects your ability to separate yourself from other people. Empathy is putting yourself in someone else’s situation, but it is important to point out that when you do this, you should never stop being yourself.

It is also important to recognize the different types of empathy that you may experience, which ones are healthy and which ones can become a pathology.

• Affective empathy: this has to do with the ability to feel the emotions that someone else is experiencing and have a concern for them. You know what they feel.

• Cognitive empathy: this gives you more complete and accurate knowledge regarding the content of another person’s mind. You know and understand how he feels.
• Excess empathy or hyperempathy: this involves being a mirror and a fungus. You not only experience what the other person feels, but also suffer from it. It is a physical pain that causes anxiety and causes you to submit to the needs of the other person. You can not see where you stop and this one starts.

What is it like to have hyperempathy syndrome?

Below we will address the characteristics of people with hyperempathy syndrome to help you distinguish between emotional sensitivity and pathological hypersensitivity. It will also show you how the DSM-V identifies these behaviors.

• They first experience a breakdown of their identity and their social abilities.
• It is common for them to develop other conditions such as obsession and psychosis.
• They tend to have mood swings and go from deep depression to degenerate joy.
• They are patient and dependent. They want to solve everyone’s problems to reinforce the image they want to project of being valuable and needed. They need constant interaction and validate themselves by performing services. If someone tries to set boundaries for them, they feel hurt and rejected.
• They are also overprotective and undermine other people’s autonomy.
• Excess empathy gives them serious problems with being productive at work. They feel that no one understands their altruism, their need to provide support and help others.
• Last but not least, you see that they often go from excessive empathy to bitterness. They have suffered so much disappointment that they tend to isolate themselves and sink into a deep anger.

What can you do if you have too much empathy?

At this point, most of you are probably wondering what makes a person suffer so much by taking on the feelings of others. There has been a lot of progress on the subject in recent years. In fact, researchers are discovering the genetic and neurochemical cause of hyperempathy syndrome.

Researchers learn a lot from so-called empathy spectrum disorders, such as Asperger’s syndrome, hyperempathy syndrome and borderline personality disorder. It is an interesting topic that will provide important answers and better treatment options in the coming years.

If you are currently suffering from too much empathy, the answer could not have been easier: seek professional help.

Whether you are at the most pathological extreme of empathy or you are simply hypersensitive, it is always a good idea to learn techniques that can help you set boundaries, have more control over your own thoughts, take better care of your needs and identify your own identity and your self-esteem in a more accurate way.

Do not forget that excessive empathy does not only upset you; it also separates you from the rest of the world.

It is not worth holding on to a world of constant emptiness and suffering. Take the first step.