gms1976
Bronze Member
I'm extremely sensitive to the energy in a room, from the people I work with or am around. I soak it up like a sponge. I've always thought it was PTSD and my hyper-alert brain. My therapist told me that in her experience she's found that patients who've undergone abuse or trauma often become very sensitive to energy in addition to the PTSD. It's often something that flags her to pay more attention to a specific area she's working with the patient on.
I found this intriguing as I've been very sensitive to the world in general since I was a child and I also endured sexual abuse and war trauma from very young. Interestingly I've always felt different from the rest of my family. They're very stiff, unemotional and cold while I'm emotional and drawn to nature and animals. I've always been emotional, in touch with how and what others are experiencing. It's tiring and draining, but as a nurse it was invaluable as it helped me meet the emotional needs of my patient's more accurately than most other nurses I know. There is just this ability to see things crystal clear from the other person's point of view or sense hidden emotional pain. It's a bear sometimes! I already had PTSD with the flashbacks and so on and now for the past year, my emotional radar has steadily become more heightened than before.
To give you an example, I often understand and experience what others are feeling emotionally. When they're in emotional pain, I often experience it too. When there is tension in our department at work, I feel it all like it's been magnified. If someone's having a bad day, I absorb their emotional state like a sponge. Anger from others creates additional turmoil inside. I often feel overwhelmed by the energy around me in general and end up isolating myself in my home because it feels as though the universe is coming at me all at once. I know a lot of this can be chalked up to PTSD and hypervigilence and I'm not discounting that in the least, but what if there's an additional aspect to all of this?
At first I thought it was just hypervigilence (which I do have - and it sucks! - and it does play a large part) and I also read about the Highly Sensitive Person which makes sense too. But then I came across the definition of an Empath sort of by accident and I'm wondering if it's another part of the puzzle. At first I scoffed at it as I'm a very logical person. It sounded weird and psychic-ish and whacky. I'm a RN and medical knowledge and factual explanations are important to my understanding of my world and accepting issues and problems, especially since I can research and seek updated treatments and supplements. I have also completely lost my faith so spiritual belief of any kind is difficult for me to comprehend or connect with.
But something about it kept drawing and pulling me back and I kept digging and looking for information. I found some things that really opened my eyes - whether I wanted them opened or not. I was reading up about empaths and the info I was finding hit me between the eyes so many times I really didn't know what to think. The interesting thing is that, from what I understand, empaths don't necessarily have any emotional trauma in their pasts, but are still able to read a room, sense what others are feeling and so on.
This got me thinking...I'm wondering if being an empath, or highly emotionally intuitive naturally can make traumas that much worse? What if it's a factor in the reason as to why some people develop PTSD (or severe PTSD) and others don't? Again, this is just me thinking out loud here. I saw many cross-overs with PTSD except for most Empaths, there is no trauma.
I found a list that includes several traits of empaths and I thought I would share 10:
1) Knowing: Empaths just know stuff, without being told. It’s a knowing that goes way beyond intuition or gut feelings, even though that is how many would describe the knowing. The more attuned they are the stronger this gift becomes.
2) Being in public places can be overwhelming: Places like shopping malls, supermarkets or stadiums, where there are lots of people around, can fill the Empath with turbulently vexed emotions that are coming from others.
3) Feeling others emotions and taking them on as your own: This is a huge one for Empaths. To some, they will feel emotions off those near by and with others they will feel emotions from those a vast distance away, or both. The more adept Empath will know if someone is having bad thoughts about them, even from a great distance.
4) Watching violence, cruelty or tragedy on the TV is unbearable: The more attuned an Empath becomes the worse it is and may make it so they eventually have to stop watching TV and reading newspapers altogether.
5) Creative: From singing, dancing, acting, drawing or writing an Empath will have a strong creative streak and a vivid imagination.
6) You know when someone is not being honest: If a friend or a loved one is telling you lies you know it (although many Empaths try not to focus on this because knowing a loved one is lying can be painful). Or if someone is saying one thing but feeling/thinking another, you know.
7) Love of nature and animals: Being outdoors in nature is a must for Empaths and pets are an essential part of their life.
8) The ability to feel the days of the week: An Empath will get the ‘Friday Feeling’ if they work Fridays or not. They pick up on how the collective are feeling. The first couple of days of a long, bank holiday weekend (Easter for example) can feel, to them, like the world is smiling, calm and relaxed. Sunday evenings, Mondays and Tuesdays, of a working week, have a very heavy feeling.
9) Finds routine, rules or control, imprisoning: Anything that takes away their freedom is debilitating to an Empath even poisoning.
10) Addictive personality: Alcohol, drugs, sex, are to name but a few addictions Empaths turn to, to block out the emotions of others. It can be a form of self protection in order to hide from someone or something (external emotions).
Anyway, I'm currently scratching the surface as there is a whole world of information regarding this and how relates to PTSD, if at all. Any thoughts would be most welcome. Anyone who is interested in more traits can google: At a glance: 30 Traits of an Empath. It was one of many sites I visited.
My apologies for the long post.
I found this intriguing as I've been very sensitive to the world in general since I was a child and I also endured sexual abuse and war trauma from very young. Interestingly I've always felt different from the rest of my family. They're very stiff, unemotional and cold while I'm emotional and drawn to nature and animals. I've always been emotional, in touch with how and what others are experiencing. It's tiring and draining, but as a nurse it was invaluable as it helped me meet the emotional needs of my patient's more accurately than most other nurses I know. There is just this ability to see things crystal clear from the other person's point of view or sense hidden emotional pain. It's a bear sometimes! I already had PTSD with the flashbacks and so on and now for the past year, my emotional radar has steadily become more heightened than before.
To give you an example, I often understand and experience what others are feeling emotionally. When they're in emotional pain, I often experience it too. When there is tension in our department at work, I feel it all like it's been magnified. If someone's having a bad day, I absorb their emotional state like a sponge. Anger from others creates additional turmoil inside. I often feel overwhelmed by the energy around me in general and end up isolating myself in my home because it feels as though the universe is coming at me all at once. I know a lot of this can be chalked up to PTSD and hypervigilence and I'm not discounting that in the least, but what if there's an additional aspect to all of this?
At first I thought it was just hypervigilence (which I do have - and it sucks! - and it does play a large part) and I also read about the Highly Sensitive Person which makes sense too. But then I came across the definition of an Empath sort of by accident and I'm wondering if it's another part of the puzzle. At first I scoffed at it as I'm a very logical person. It sounded weird and psychic-ish and whacky. I'm a RN and medical knowledge and factual explanations are important to my understanding of my world and accepting issues and problems, especially since I can research and seek updated treatments and supplements. I have also completely lost my faith so spiritual belief of any kind is difficult for me to comprehend or connect with.
But something about it kept drawing and pulling me back and I kept digging and looking for information. I found some things that really opened my eyes - whether I wanted them opened or not. I was reading up about empaths and the info I was finding hit me between the eyes so many times I really didn't know what to think. The interesting thing is that, from what I understand, empaths don't necessarily have any emotional trauma in their pasts, but are still able to read a room, sense what others are feeling and so on.
This got me thinking...I'm wondering if being an empath, or highly emotionally intuitive naturally can make traumas that much worse? What if it's a factor in the reason as to why some people develop PTSD (or severe PTSD) and others don't? Again, this is just me thinking out loud here. I saw many cross-overs with PTSD except for most Empaths, there is no trauma.
I found a list that includes several traits of empaths and I thought I would share 10:
1) Knowing: Empaths just know stuff, without being told. It’s a knowing that goes way beyond intuition or gut feelings, even though that is how many would describe the knowing. The more attuned they are the stronger this gift becomes.
2) Being in public places can be overwhelming: Places like shopping malls, supermarkets or stadiums, where there are lots of people around, can fill the Empath with turbulently vexed emotions that are coming from others.
3) Feeling others emotions and taking them on as your own: This is a huge one for Empaths. To some, they will feel emotions off those near by and with others they will feel emotions from those a vast distance away, or both. The more adept Empath will know if someone is having bad thoughts about them, even from a great distance.
4) Watching violence, cruelty or tragedy on the TV is unbearable: The more attuned an Empath becomes the worse it is and may make it so they eventually have to stop watching TV and reading newspapers altogether.
5) Creative: From singing, dancing, acting, drawing or writing an Empath will have a strong creative streak and a vivid imagination.
6) You know when someone is not being honest: If a friend or a loved one is telling you lies you know it (although many Empaths try not to focus on this because knowing a loved one is lying can be painful). Or if someone is saying one thing but feeling/thinking another, you know.
7) Love of nature and animals: Being outdoors in nature is a must for Empaths and pets are an essential part of their life.
8) The ability to feel the days of the week: An Empath will get the ‘Friday Feeling’ if they work Fridays or not. They pick up on how the collective are feeling. The first couple of days of a long, bank holiday weekend (Easter for example) can feel, to them, like the world is smiling, calm and relaxed. Sunday evenings, Mondays and Tuesdays, of a working week, have a very heavy feeling.
9) Finds routine, rules or control, imprisoning: Anything that takes away their freedom is debilitating to an Empath even poisoning.
10) Addictive personality: Alcohol, drugs, sex, are to name but a few addictions Empaths turn to, to block out the emotions of others. It can be a form of self protection in order to hide from someone or something (external emotions).
Anyway, I'm currently scratching the surface as there is a whole world of information regarding this and how relates to PTSD, if at all. Any thoughts would be most welcome. Anyone who is interested in more traits can google: At a glance: 30 Traits of an Empath. It was one of many sites I visited.
My apologies for the long post.
