Study Links Social Anxiety To Being An Empath

a reply to: ParasuvO

Anyways, I hope they leave the children alone, stop telling them they need to be saved, stop destroying the incredible gifts they have

Yes. Leave the children alone.

STOP telling them they are useless condemned sinners. They are CHILDREN!!!!

Bah

a reply to: FlyersFan

oh my, i have always had social anxiety, yes i am an empath

originally posted by: hutch622
a reply to: [post=18886549]FlyersFan[/po


Gotta love google ,empath is something that i had to look up , well highlighted it and let google do it . Back on thread , this would be the same as someone entering a room and you automatically dislike them for no reason no . Or the person that you feel like you have know for years even though you have only just met them . People definitely give out vibes . I have been wrong about people but rarely .

can usually peg someone ,yes, on forums as well, trust me i know who the players are but i won't tell

another thing, we tend to make certain people uncomfortable, they know we know

a reply to: MojaveBurning

i have known for years, just shocked they have an actual study now

originally posted by: zackli
a reply to: ~Lucidity

You need science to explain why you can't explain things?

I typically use whatever the people around me believe to explain things. My explanation is that I don't need an explanation, I'm fine without labeling it.

I still have a hard time believing that people can believe some of the things they believe, like the student in my abnormal psychology class who said he believed bees can read "thought waves". I think he should have been one of the subjects under study, but I'm sure he would disagree vehemently, as would a number of the other students in that class who appeared to believe similar things.

If what is true is really only socially determined, I'm strictly an antirationalist.

That student's belief about the bees is interesting.

I found a poorly bee near my door step in the summer and gave him some sugar water and held him in the sunshine to see if he could rally and fly off. Sadly, he was a bit too far gone so I took him in.

He was a perfect little house guest - he'd sit on my arm or go to sleep on the sofa. I had to leave him alone at night and in the mornings, somehow, I'd know exactly where to find him - he used to wander about before I got up.

If I took him outside to feed on the blossoms and flowers he'd walk about and take what he needed and when I put my hand down for him, he'd jump on. Back at home he could top up with sugar water.

There was no doubt in my mind that we were tuned in to each other. It always struck me as odd, the way he turned up near my doorstep, of all the places he could have ended up. Almost as if he knew where to find help

a reply to: berenike

That is an awesome story.

originally posted by: kosmicjack
Someone needs to test how accurate people who consider themselves empaths really are. I also wonder if the ability applies equally to negative and positive emotions/vibes/feelings. And I wonder about the association between this ability and having an emotionally volatile parent or homelife....

there's only my own experience, but i have been extremely accurate

a reply to: zackli
Um that's typically the way science works. It doesn't appear out the air like magic. People observe things and formulate theories and then try to prove them and if they become definable and repeatable and provable these theories become science.

So, yes. If you've been a certain way all your life and struggled just as long to try to explain the things you know and how you know them when these things are not easily explainable and when you try people just don't "get" it, it's nice to see that there are people looking into just those kinds of things.

Clearly, you've never been in this boat and wouldn't get it.

Using whatever the people around you believe to explain things? About what? Yourself? Others? The state of the world? Sorry...makes no sense to me. Kind of weird even.

Not needing an explanation? But you just said...

Your explanation is that you don't need an explanation? more power to you. I like things explained even though I don't need or want labels or need such to do so.

This study is on to something real. All my life I have 'felt' the mood and demeanor of some around me. For the longest time I had convinced myself that I was only being paranoid. Due to some congenital medical conditions I have always been uncoordinated with a goofy walk. As a result, I grew familiar with that uncomfortable feeling you get when you are at the end of someone's stare. Most of the time I would turn my head in the direction of the 'source' and watch the person avert their eyes in guilt. By the time I was in high school I had decided it was all in my head and that I should ignore it.

Funny thing -- when I ignored the feelings my confidence increased. I felt the stares less often. That reinforced my paranoia explanation, so I didn't think much about the issue for years. I partied my way through college and made many friends in the process. Then I went through some depression and withdrew from society for a while. When I began reintegrating and got a new job, I had strong feelings of anxiety when around others, even lifelong friends. One of my coworkers told me "we can feel the tension when you come through the door." From my end it was like everyone else was sending me negative vibes, but according to other people I was the one emitting the bad vibes. I don't think it was due to my actions or things I said, because I made a point to keep to myself. When someone approached me in a positive manner, the tension would drop and we would have a friendly interaction.

A few years later I had a better job and better hopes for the future. As my confidence grew, I felt less social anxiety. People reacted more positively to being in my presence. I felt less tension, and others seemed less tense around me. I have begun to wonder if I unintentionally broadcast my thoughts/feelings. As another member said, "holding down the transmit button."

Reading people has always been a talent of mine. Lies -- be it a white lie told by a friend or a politician twisting the truth -- are often easy for me to see through. I've always thought of it as reading between the lines or listening between the words. Could it be that simple? Probably. But studies like this, as well as the emerging science of noetics, have me wondering if we don't all possess senses and abilities we are unaware of.

Of course many are going to call BS and say it's just body-language. Imagine if only a small percentage of humans posessed the sense of sight. How long would it take the seeing minority to convince the blind majority that light and color exist? Or would they be thrown in the asylum for such crazy-talk?

a reply to: FlyersFan

That would explain a lot to me actually.
Thanks for posting this.

a reply to: Darkblade71

Thank you - insects / bugs are surprisingly easy to tune into, especially if you helped them on some occasions.

They seem to understand when you're well-intentioned towards them.

Just for curiosity and my own research, do any of you dream or doodle triangles without thinking about it? I hated geometry in school and am bad at math. I don't get why I dream about triangles and was wondering if there was a connection with this empath condition. Maybe it is an aging thing on my part.

I was really blown away from reading this and it totally nails it for me to a tee. I use to be very social and out and about, but for the past few years, I'm just not the same. I've always been a bit shy about meeting new people, but never to this extent. Going out anywhere, whether it's the mall or going to the grocery store, I feel uncomfortable (when I'm alone). It's so hard to explain the feeling. It's like I want to be more social, but something in me refrains from it and I'm sure others pick it up. It's so frustrating, but little by little I'm getting use to it.

a reply to: Stormdancer777

they know we know

Yes but that's fun that they know . First the power hand shake . I just tell them . It didn't work then turn away . They have no where to go then . lol

a reply to: FlyersFan

I agree. I have always had an inate ability to get a read on who people really are when I meet them but about 3 months ago I I had a traumatic experience that has since left me with a degree of social anxiety. Since this incident I have been able to detect/understand where people are coming from because of their emotions and in a few cases been able to do this from farther away than most would think possible. I do not claim to be some sort of empath or have a super power but the increased communication with my wife and the ability to call my mother in law or friends during the night and know what they are going through without being told has been interesting to say the least. As more anecdotal evidence I have a friend with severe social anxiety and in recent years he has attributed this to being able to "feel" what other people feel. He says it is like walking through a mall and everytime you pass somebody you feel how they feel and it changes how you are feeling. He equates it to everybody being able to get under his skin a bit and he finds it unnerving.

Anyways, S&F for interesting read.

I'm empathic. Always have been. I can "read" a person in seconds. I can't explain it, it's always been there since I was a little kid. I can tell if someone is angry, sad, happy, or depressed, but more than that I can feel their anxiety levels, and their general demeanor. It's like I get a sense of their personality. I've never put it into words like this before, it's always been something that just happens automatically. I do have to admit, it has come in handy many times.

I also have Social Anxiety Disorder. Was on meds for it years ago, but the side effects were intolerable. It's not real bad, I can go to a fair, concert, movie or anything where the general feelings around me are good. But I absolutely cannot watch an argument or a fight I have to leave.

If empathy equates to fear of criticism, social anxiety and related phobias, how is this a good thing?

Wouldn't recoiling into self-induced paranoia of this type be the last thing one with empathic abilities should seek to do with their skill?

They left out the fourth kind.

4. Telempathy: feeling the collective angst of the internet.

I was just thinking about my own social anxiety when I decided to check ATS and found this topic on the top of the page. Weird coincidence. I have a problem with looking people in the eyes. I swear I can see/feel their life force. I avoid eye contact because I feel like I am invading their space.

I live on a night schedule because the day time seems to have this intense busy energy that I find highly distracting. I could go on about my experiences, but for now I will say there might be something to this theory.

Introverts tend to be more aware of people and their emo tions. I don't see how
not enjoying the company of loud mouth, extrovert, in your face borderline narcissistic
humans would be hard to understand. It seems quite logical to me.

I mean i don't enjoy being around people 24/7 with their non stop energy infringing on mine.

So it's quite rational to understand that people with or without anxiety to mainstream society
would rather just have peace, and thus like the buddhist monks enjoy, and are able to actually
MEDITATE without all the crap going on around them. I don't enjoy chinese water torture do you?