A coworker asked me today if I was an empath and I had no idea what that was. I asked her to explain and it was basically “someone who knows what other people are going through.” It’s way off from what I assumed it meant (I thought she said “are you in N-PATH” and I assumed it was a certification program lol). But isn’t this just someone with empathy?
An empath is someone who actually feels other people's emotions. Meaning it's not real and is either a mental disorder(making them intensely feel what they think the other person is feeling) or someone trying to make someone else's feelings about them(I'm so hurt because they're hurt, I need to be the focus of this moment.) Some people do just have a lot of empathy and get called this and ugh. Watch big Joel's video about empathy, it's overrated and weirdly treated in our modern world compared to sympathy or compassion.
I think it's probably related to rejection sensitive dysphoria, wherein you get way way way way overly in tune with everyone's vibe and it fucks your shit all up.