A coworker asked me today if I was an empath and I had no idea what that was. I asked her to explain and it was basically “someone who knows what other people are going through.” It’s way off from what I assumed it meant (I thought she said “are you in N-PATH” and I assumed it was a certification program lol). But isn’t this just someone with empathy?
As someone who somewhat (I don't bring it up unless it's already being discussed) identifies as an empath:
Most people who use the term are fucking insane and are probably not any better at empathy than other people. As something non-falsifiable it's going to draw in a lot of people who will abuse the term for their own self-idealization.
That said - there are tons of people who feel emotional energy at an unsustainable "my cup spilleth over" level. So, if emotions are running high, they are deeply contagious for such people and they will either mirror them or retreat from the source. But, more usefully, they also identify subtle emotions more readily. If someone is playing down their sadness/rage, an empath will see it overtly nonetheless. They are really good at reading between the emotional lines as it were. They can be easily exhausted by the emotions of others but paradoxically they tend to always want to help and be there for people (because dispelling/resolving the emotional vector is the goal).
They can't read minds, but they are the first to read the room. Second-hand embarrassment will send them spiraling into orbit.
It's a blessing and a curse; super useful for communication when emotions are SUBTLE and thus, ignored by the non-empathetic. When emotions are running high empaths get incapacitated.
If I had to sum it up in one sentence, an actual empath is someone more attuned to other people than themselves (opposite of self-absorbed).
I just think it's a response to social trauma that makes us really overly aware of minor emotional shifts in someone's tone and body language.
It's probably not even healthy, as you cannot actually know what others are thinking but you still end up feeling like you do nonetheless. Like, I'll agree that reading between the emotional lines is a good descriptor of it, but I do not think that's necessarily a positive, especially if you end up focusing in on it and end up in weird shitty unintended emotional feedback loops between you and another person who might just be having an off day or slightly off moment lol
You're right that it does help you read the room really fast though, sort of a really in tune and always on vibe checker going off.
Yeah, I think we're largely in agreement. The people who act like it's a supernatural ability make it borderline impossible to talk reasonably about it, sadly.