Empaths are hypersensitive to the moods and motives of other people. This means they feel uncomfortable when others behave in inauthentic ways.
Because empaths are so sensitive, they can pick up subtle clues about what another person is thinking or feeling. This means they find it difficult to be around certain kinds of people.
It is hard to hide the truth from an empath because they can sense a deeper truth beyond smiles and words. When people behave in inauthentic ways, it makes empaths feel uncomfortable.
People may behave falsely for a variety of reasons: to hide their pain, to protect themselves, or in order to manipulate others. Whatever the reason, empaths find it difficult to form relationships with people who can’t, for whatever reason, be authentic.
Perhaps the people empaths find most difficult to deal with are egotistical types. People whose egos have become out of control often fail to understand or show empathy or compassion for others. Everything becomes about them.
People can become egotistical as a protection mechanism, and while empaths often feel sorry for them, they know they can’t be around this kind of person for long without becoming drained.
Empaths like to help others and have a lot of compassion for those in pain. However, egotistical people are not usually looking for help out of their situation and so it can be impossible to do anything but agree with them. They will always think they are right and won’t thank anyone for pointing out a different perspective.
Empaths are usually deep thinkers. They love to understand the human condition and feel deeply what others are feeling. For this reason, they find it extremely dull to be around superficial people.
Empaths don’t see the point in small talk. They like to get to know people properly and feel a deep connection with them. They find it hard to get this kind of connection with people who are only interested in things at a superficial level.
Again, there are many reasons why people may be superficial. They may wear a superficial mask because they lack belief in themselves and don’t want their deeper feelings to be let out for fear or ridicule and rejection.
Sometimes an empath can find a way to get beyond this mask and make a rewarding connection. But if superficial people won’t let them in, empaths can’t really see the point in maintaining the relationship.
Empaths find it very hard to be around angry and aggressive people. Even if an angry person is extremely good at hiding his or her feelings, an empath will pick up on it.
But empaths don’t just notice these emotions; they physically feel them, too. Spending time with this kind of people can leave empaths feeling shaky and distressed.
Empaths need to use techniques to protect themselves if they often have to be around this kind of person, but ultimately they should try to avoid them for the sake of their own health.
Empaths always try to see situations from the other person’s viewpoint. This is a great way to be with most people as it leads to greater understanding and better relationships.
However, manipulative people sometimes abuse the good nature of empaths. They try to take advantage of the compassion and sympathy they are shown in order to get their own needs met. And they don’t give a damn who they hurt in the process.
There is rarely any reciprocal support from these people so the empath is left drained, used and let down.
While empaths have compassion for the underlying pain that causes people to behave in manipulative ways, they need to be on their guard and protect themselves from emotional abuse.
Many people don’t show their true face to the world. They hide behind a mask for many reasons. Often it is because they lack self-belief and have poor self-esteem. Because they are so afraid of what others might think of them, they only show a limited version of themselves to the world.
Empaths have huge amounts of sympathy for this kind of person. They see and feel their pain and long to help.
Despite this, they can only help if they can get behind the mask. If they can be a safe friend for an inauthentic person to open up to, they can transform them and create a mutually beneficial relationship. But if the inauthentic person can’t or won’t let down their defenses there is little an empath can do.
Being an empath can make it difficult to be around these kinds of people. But though they may make us feel uncomfortable, there are opportunities for growth within these interactions.
At the same time, empaths do need to protect themselves against negative energies and make plenty of time to rest and restore if they are around these kinds of people for long.
What type of people do you find difficult as an empath? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
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You know how I got here? I Googled "i like being uncomfortable around people" and it's true. I'm alone 95% of the time so that's where my comfort zone is. And I'm a highly inauthentic person, I only let cracks of who I am out through the internet, anonymously ofcourse. I have 0 friends and regularly Google the word "girlfriend". But I'm not an empath, I leave my feelings at home when I go outside. Am I a zombie? Maybe. Am I happy? Nope. Am I unhappy? Nope. I just am.
Breadbaron-
Well, that was an extremely authentic and honest thing to say. I appreciated the honesty. I am an empath and I get very drained around people in general. It seems to have gotten worse over the years. People are very much like yourself everywhere. Social media, societal pressures, fear of rejection, or possibly just not feeling good enough as a whole has seemed to taken its toll on so many. I am not saying this is you. It was just refreshing hearing your words of true honesty. I wish more people would take this route in normal everyday life. Thank you for sharig.
-Bethany
great article exactly what i was looking for. thank u
Very true and a great and pretty accurate article! Thank you for sharing. Explains why I have to steer clear of well, pretty much of those kind of people even though I know they need help. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.
I believe I am an Empath. I feel other people's physical pain, emotional pain, and a great deal of embarrassment for them and myself when something embarrassing happens. My biggest challenge is that my oldest daughter is a master manipulator. She has been since she hit her teen years. But she also know that I feel what I feel and uses that to her advantage. That in turn makes me feel like a door mat and also strains my relationship with my husband(he is her step father) because he only sees the bad that she does and does not at all understand what I FEEL. She lives on her own with her bf and their daughter so I can keep some degree of separation but mentally and emotionally it drains me. I get irritated when people I'm close too don't share the same level of compassion for other humans as I do. I don't understand how anyone can hurt another person and not feel an ounce of guilt. I put myself in the other person's shoes no matter what the situation is and go from there. I don't know any other way. I wish I saw this as a gift or a blessing instead of the hellish nightmare that wreaks havoc on my mind, body, spirit, and my soul. 😢
As empaths we need daily self care to keep our guards/protection up for those who try to break us. Have you tried grounding, it’s something us empaths should do daily, if not multiple times a day.. if your unaware of what this is, google how to ground ourselves.. hope this helps!
Blessings, love and light to all,
Priest Rankin
I understand how you feel exactly, the weight of the world is on our shoulders, and somehow, only my youngest daughter has the same issue, and although it can feel like such a burden, she is only 9 and I have been aware she was an empath since she was 6 I think, when I was asking her and her stepsister what they would wish for if rhey had only one wish, and while he stepsister said toys or money, something like that, my daughter said her wish would be "that everyone in the world would never fight again, and that way everyone would be happy." Just when my older daughters had all made me feel like a complete failure as a parent, my youngest wished for world peace. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. My older 3 daughters have a stepmom they allowed to manipulate them to leave me and their sister. I fear they will become manipulators too. I have often wondered if it will make their lives easier, not caring or feeling the pain of others, and I even feel guilty wishing they were empaths because they would not have left us, but it may make their life easier to become like the majority. Even though they left us, and are completely stokholmed and mean at this point, I hurt when they hurt, i do not have to know what they are going through, I can feel their pain when they are hurting, but I feel them slipping away from me now. I fear this means they are numbing themselves, hardening their hearts in a malevolent world without anyone who actually cares for them, alone, my greatest fear is them ever feeling as alone as I have felt at times the lasts 5 years since they left. It is so exhausting loving them so much and knowing they do not love me back. Seeing right through every manipulation they were victims to and realizing that they bought it all, not half-heartedly, but entirely. Everything I assumed they saw through, that they acted like they saw througn, and I was to busy to slow down and understand what was happening in their minds, what they were being trained to feel, when they were trained to hate me. Manipulation is something I am only just learning about, yeah, i am turning 40 next month and the entire concept of people who can say and act a certain way, just to accheive a desired outcome, no matter the harm they cause or the lies they tell or who they destroy or to purposefully destroy, it all creates a sort of cognitive dissonence in me. The way it stands out to me like they were bad actors from a soap opera and the rest of the audience seems as enthralled as if they are watching an oscar-winning performance, yet when I say something genuine the manipulator can then turn it around on me like I am trying to manipulate, with no ill intent even possible, just to make me seem dishonest, and further discredit my character. It is like being stuck in the twilight zone. Like noone understands LOVE anymore, like the very definition has changed, which it really has comparing the biblical definition to the webster definition, but in the bible it is all right there spelled out in front of you, and even the most devout Christian seems suddenly oblivious of the concept. Judging and demanding control, conditions without end, and noone seems to notice how wrong it all is. Being an empath feels like we are on the verge of extinction, like evolution has declared us week and is exterminating the remainder in favor of a world full of self-serving, emotionless zombies, that will cut the throat of their neighbor for a better parking space. It makes you feel utterly alone. Trying to describe how you feel to nonempaths just sounds self-righteous, because somewhere in them, they still know right and wrong, when you are just trying to be honest about the way your brain works on overdrive, not trying to say it makes you any better than them, just different.