Being an empath means having high emotional intelligence and being able to deeply understand others’ emotions.
However, empaths tend to absorb others’ emotions, which can lead to anxiety.
Here’s a closer look at the empath-anxiety link.
What is an Empath?
An empath is someone with the ability to recognize, understand, and absorb the emotions of people around them.
Empaths have high levels of compassion and emotional perception.
They can put themselves in others’ shoes and feel those emotions as if they were their own, often needing a lot of support.
Some key traits of empaths include:
- High emotional intelligence
- Absorbing others’ emotions
- Feeling compassion for people’s pain
- Connecting with strangers easily
While empathic abilities allow for deeper connections with people, they also come with challenges.
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How Empaths Absorb Emotions
Empaths don’t just sympathize with people’s feelings – they take those feelings on as their own.
This emotional absorption happens in a few key ways:
Mirroring
When interacting with a friend going through something, an empath will subconsciously mimic the friend’s body language and facial expressions.
This physical mirroring causes the empath to start feeling those same emotions.
Brain imaging scans show that when an empath sees someone experience an emotion, the areas of the empath’s brain related to those emotions activate in tandem.
Their brains create a shared network.
Global Changes
The emotions empaths absorb can lead to actual changes in their biochemistry and hormones.
Feeling others’ stress and anxiety triggers empaths’ physiological stress response systems.
How Anxiety Emerges
The combination of conscious awareness of people’s pain and subconscious absorption of their emotions puts empaths at major risk for anxiety as emotional overload.
Emotional Tunnels
Empaths often use “emotional tunnel vision,” zoning in so intently on others’ emotions that they lose perspective.
This immersion into emotionally-charged tunnels while neglecting their own self-care is draining.
Lost Identity
Getting constantly immersed in others’ emotional worlds can cause empaths to lose touch with their own needs, thoughts, and feelings.
Self-identity becomes blurred, and anxiety surfaces.
Overwhelm
Without enough time for self-care and resetting between emotional exposures, empaths quickly hit their threshold for emotional absorbtion.
Too much emotional input becomes overloading.
Signs Empaths Have Anxiety
Many empaths show classic anxiety disorder symptoms including:
- Worrying excessively
- Feeling tense, jumpy, and restless
- Panic attacks
- Insomnia
- Depression
Additionally, empaths may exhibit physical intuitions about others’ emotions, like stomachaches before interactions. Headaches and fatigue often emerge, too.
Coping Strategies for Empathic Anxiety
If you’re an empath struggling with anxiety, here are some proactive coping methods to try:
Energy Shielding
Imagine a force field around your body protecting your own emotions. Visualize it dispelling and diffusing others’ energy.
Physical Grounding
Plant your feet firmly on the floor. Look around and name some things you see to re-center your attention.
Mirror Cleansings
After emotional interactions, scan your body for any tension you’ve adopted. Consciously relax each area.
Implementing healthy daily emotional hygiene habits can help empathic people stay balanced instead of absorbent. Protecting your energy ensures you can sustain positive connections without anxiety.
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Final Thoughts
While deeply connecting with people’s feelings, empaths often overlook their own. Getting swept up in emotional undertows drags empaths down.
Finding the right self-care strategies offers needed flotation. Ultimately, empaths don’t have to drown in others’ emotions.
A few coping adjustments can prevent anxiety so these intuitive people can continue shining light.
