Imagine being in a room of people that are sad, and all of a sudden it is like all of their sadness comes unto you. Now imagine because of this you are crying all the time for absolutely no reason. You cannot watch a sad movie because you start crying. You cannot hear a sad story because you start feeling sad. You cannot even read a sad part of a book because you get sad. This is what it feels like to be to empathetic. You are constantly taking on the sadness of others, whether they are real or not. It is literally being able to feel people's pain, and being able to put yourself in someone's shoes. While to some this is considered a good thing, to me, someone who is overly empathetic, it gets really exhausting.

It is both mentally and physically draining to always take on people's pain, and most of the time feel the same amount of pain that they feel without having to be in the same situation as them. It gets annoying that I can never watch a movie without getting emotional when someone dies, or being sad when the person does not end up with the person that they love. Even when the movie has a happy ending I cry, and sometimes it is for absolutely no reason. When people around me are sad, I want to cry just as much as they may be crying. Being overly empathetic makes you look like you are overly emotional, and that people cannot tell you anything that could make you sad. People tend to think you are over dramatizing how sad you get when you are happy or sad, but the truth really is that you cannot help it. Though I hate being overly empathetic sometimes, I also have to love it because it is a trait that many people do not have.

I like being empathetic because of the fact that I get to see how people feel, and can easily relate to them. Though sometimes it becomes a little much, I like being able to tell people I understand where they are coming from. I also like, for the most part, being able to tell people that I know how they feel and being able to show it as well. There are a lot of people who are unable to show empathy, but yet I was blessed to be able to have it as a gift.

So even though being empathetic has its downsides, it also has its upsides. It helps me to be able to bond with others and understand where they are and what they are going through. While that does become a burden, I have become a pro at dealing with it.