How about intros? I have been researching the subject of being an empath for a few months now. I don't remember ever NOT being one, just never knew there was a name for it. I also never knew that not everyone has this ability, I just assumed that everyone was like this, as do most people that are empaths. We get frustrated with other people easily, like when we see someone hurting someone else, and our inner voices scream " Stop that!! Can't you feel what you are doing to them??" Actually, they don't. We can walk into a room and right away feel what other people in the room are feeling. In another forum, we discussed what the opposite of empath would be. I felt it would be intellectual. We can be doing anything and suddenly be taken over by feelings or emotions that are not our own. It is quite confusing, because when this happens the empath must stop and figure out if this is their own feeling, or that of someone else, and if possible, where it came from. Not all empaths can read minds, actually only a few do. An empath feels your feelings and emotions, the stronger it is, the harder we are hit with it. I do mean hit with it, sometimes it really does feel as though you have run into a brick wall, BAM!! It can be painful! Some empaths even feel others injuries and ailments. There are many levels of ability, and once you know that you are an empath, you can decide if you want to shield the world out, or open up to it. I have learned alot over the past few months about this world, if you have questions or concerns or need to vent, please do. This thread is for all of it. If I don't know an answer, and no one else on this thread does, I WILL try to find an answer to it using other forums and contacts. So, this is my little introduction!

I had blocked mine out for a time, it got to be too much to handle, I had no idea what it was though, it was just painful so I blocked out all emotion and feelings. It's been a wild ride to get it all back, and realize that I had natural blocks put up that I couldn't get to stay down now, I am still fighting that battle. I am winning, slowly. It been a rough lesson to learn, but I am learning to live with it, feel all of it, and learn to use it in positive ways. Glad to see another empath here, it was getting a bit lonely here! I was afraid I was putting all this stuff up just for myself!!!!!!!

I know what you mean. I never knew what it was, just that I knew how people felt about me, and when I was little, it wasn't good, my family didn't want me so I had to grow up with this isolated feeling, it is painful for a child to understand feelings like that, and when you try to get the people to talk about it and ask why they felt that way, they would tell me I was wrong. They didn't understand themselves that this is how they felt! They know now, and I am still very close to my family, I don't have the childhood problems looming over my head, none of them meant to harm me what so ever, and I don't hold it against them. Knowing these things as a child is a rough way to learn about life!! I wouldn't trade being an empath for anything though, I love being able to feel the connection to people and not have to be close to them physically, the hermit thing keeps me away physically from people, this way I can still have an understanding of friends with out the physical proximation!!