What Is an Empath?
Empathy is the ability of a person to put themselves in someone else’s position, and exists on a continuum. This empath test can help you discern where you fall.
For those who are curious, there are two main components to empathy, with one being affective empathy and the other being cognitive empathy.
The first is a person’s ability to feel an appropriate emotion in response to another person’s mental state. Meanwhile, the second is a person’s ability to understand another person’s mental state.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most people possess some degree of empathy because humans are a social species. It is invaluable for human-to-human interactions. It is important to note that there can be more empathetic people and less empathetic people. This is where the concept of an empath comes in.
Interested individuals might come upon sources that describe empathic abilities in either magical or near-magical terms. However, the simple fact of the matter is that empaths are just people who are not just very aware of other people’s emotions but also very sensitive to other people’s emotions.
Sometimes, this can be a good thing for them. Other times, not so much. A high degree of empathy can cause people to feel drained from their relationships.
Take This Empath Test To Learn If You Are an Empath
There is help for those who have ever wondered, “Am I an empath?” For proof, look no further than these questions, which can be turned into an impromptu test for finding a true empath:
Do You Have a Lot of Empathy?
By definition, an empath is someone who has a lot of empathy. In fact, they are said to have so much empathy that they actually feel the emotions that other people feel.
For instance, an empath can feel the happiness of someone who is happy even if they have no personal reason to be so.
If someone can’t be counted among highly sensitive people in this regard, it seems safe to say that they shouldn’t consider themselves to be an empath.
Do You Have Good Intuition?
Oftentimes, empaths are extremely sensitive people who are very good at noticing subtle signs that others would miss. Some of them are very aware of this process happening. In contrast, others are not.
As such, someone with a good intuition that provides them with valuable insight into other people’s state of mind on a regular basis might have more empathetic abilities.
Do You Find Closeness to Be Overwhelming?
Being an empath isn’t necessarily a good thing. Some empaths struggle with personal relationships because they feel too much closeness to be overwhelming. Essentially, when they spend a lot of time with someone else, they can feel as though they are being inundated by all of the signals that they are picking up.
Something that can cause them to become afraid of losing themselves in the relationship.
Even worse, empaths tend not to do so well when they ask for alone time because their empathy makes it very easy for them to pick up on their partner’s hurt feelings. Something that happens a lot because a lot of people just don’t understand their high sensitivity.
Do You Always Find Yourself Helping Other People Out?
Most people have the ability to ignore other people’s problems to some extent, thus enabling them to focus on their own concerns. Unfortunately, highly empathic people find it much more difficult to do this than the rest of the population.
After all, they feel other people’s distress themselves, which provides them with a much stronger motivation to help out in some way. Something that can cause empaths to burn themselves out if they take this to an extreme because they feel the pain of everyone they encounter.
Do Other People Always Talk with You About Their Problems?
Highly empathetic people tend to stand out. If you are taking this empath test, it may already be clear, they can become a popular choice of conversation partner for people who want to talk about their own problems.
This can be a good thing. After all, everyone needs a good listener from time to time, meaning that an empath can become a pillar of support for their friends and their family members.
However, this can also cause empaths to become a kind of emotional dump, thus causing them to become stressed out by relieving the stress of other people.
Moreover, an empath’s desire to help out other people is something that can make them more susceptible to manipulation as well as other kinds of toxic behavior. This is definitely something that they will want to avoid while also watching out for negative emotional energy.
Are You Someone Who Avoids Crowded Spaces?
Empaths are so sensitive to other people’s emotions that they start feeling those emotions themselves. This can be bad enough in a one-on-one situation.
However, this can be much worse when an empath is in a crowded space. They will be getting fed signals from everyone around them.
Under the wrong circumstances, it doesn’t take too long before they start feeling emotional distress. Something that leads very easily to physical distress. Too much positive energy is better than too much negative energy. It can still be overwhelming.
Many empaths learn to cope by avoiding crowded spaces in preference for spending time with a small number of people.
Are You Someone Who Takes Solace in Natural Settings?
On a related note, empaths who aren’t so good at handling the sheer amount of emotional noise that can come their way in a crowded space might seek out natural settings as well as other remote places to seek solace.
Essentially, these are places where they can be free from the negative emotions of others, thus enabling them to rest and relax on their own.
Do You Often Suffer from Emotional Overload?
Not every empath will be successful at managing the emotional signals coming from other people. Furthermore, some coping methods just don’t work for every single empathetic individual out there.
Due to this, it is very common for them to suffer from emotional overload because of over-exposure to other people’s emotional states, particularly if they haven’t been careful about avoiding an overabundance of negative emotions.
Further Considerations After This Empath Test
It can be difficult for interested individuals to tell whether they are an empath or not. However, the more that they answer in the affirmative to the questions on this empath test, the higher the chance that “Yes” is the answer to their question, “Am I an empath?”
Help is available for highly empathetic people who are struggling with their sensitivity, which is why they should look into ways to cope. This is particularly true because said process won’t take a long time while potentially providing enormous benefits for their personal wellbeing in the long run.
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