Childhood Empathy And Childhood Development

[Lionheart]

When I was a young boy of about 4 -5 years old, my cousin would bite me in the back and I was told to bite him back......I said, "No, It will hurt him!!!" I naturally was very empathetic and I wonder what bearing this had on my childhood development with early child abuse traumas.

I am what is sometimes called a "sensitive"; a universal empath; I am a highly sensitive person and have been since I can remember. Experts told me that they don't know why some people are more sensitive than others. But I think it may have been a predisposing condition that led to the development of PTSD.

How much more horrid is the effect of child abuse trauma on a child that is already predisposed to "feel" the pain of others, I wonder? What a drag it is to be so sensitive!!! What a drag it was to internalize the abuse.

I have come to accept that it is just a part of who I am...I am sensitive and have a good heart, but this also makes me vulnerable and at times, a target for people on a lower vibrational level.... anyways, I am pondering if there are many survivors who were also very sensitive as a child before trauma occurred....If you were, I am interested in hearing how you think that has affected you.

 

[Ronin]

I was hyper sensitive in some ways and super cruel in others so I don't know how to answer.

Basically hurt mine & God have mercy on you, because I won't.

Kept trying to add some with time. We'll see how that works out.

 

[Klo]

I'm about 90% convinced that I have Borderline Personality Disorder, or C-PTSD, they sound so similar when I read about them. I'm just not very outward-acting, like I don't go off on people or engage in destructive behaviors very often, but I identify heavily with the internal experience descriptions.

From what I've read, the general consensus is that BPD is caused by both nature and nurture. The nature part is having a brain that experiences emotions more easily and deeply than the norm, and then the nurture part is when there is at the least emotional abuse, especially heavy invalidation on top of being abused. And then you get BPD.

I think I still would have had trauma issues even without being a person who inherently experienced deep and free-flowing emotion, but I also think being that way perhaps both cursed and saved me simultaneously. Like the curse is that I am pretty sure I developed BPD, but then I also feel saved because at least my emotions were strong enough to survive, even if they are now very dysfunctional and alternate between numb and very intense most of the time. Those are things I can work on in therapy. If I had lost my emotions and empathy, I am not sure that I could have ever gotten them back.

 

[Sideways]

To be honest, I think I could have been a real mongrel empathy-wise & still been just as messed up by my abuse.

To me, the significance of empathy viz ptsd is more the impact it's had on my life since I started on the recovery marathon. I'm not sure my ability to empathise changed my experience (or the impact) of my trauma, becaus it was happening to me, not anyone else.

But it definitely comes in handy if you can empathise with others during recovery - it helps my head understand that my suffering is not unique, which reduces the isolation. It also tackles some of the negative self-talk about "this happened to me because I'm uniquely bad" - realistically, I see plenty of others just like me, and when I empathise with their situation, it encourages me to empathise with myself.

 

[EveHarrington]

It makes me sad that sensitive people are put down and made to feel like they're lesser than. On the other side, I feel sad for people who can't emotionally feel things to the depths that I can. I don't mean to sound high and mighty, but I rather have my depth over their lack of depth any day (even if it can/does bring me more pain).