Aspies As Empaths: Fifteen Signs You Might Be an Empath 2025-07-24

[Coxhere]

Coxhere submitted a new resource:

Aspies As Empaths: Fifteen Signs You Might Be an Empath - This resource describes who the Empath is and how Empaths can take care of themselves.

Here is a link that takes one to a definition of who an Empath is: What Is an Empath and How Do You Know If You Are One?. It gives fifteen signs that one might be an Empath. The article gives suggestions as to how to cope with being an Empath.

Read more about this resource...

 

[Neonatal RRT]

From this description, I am an empath...with one important exception that pretty much makes me NOT, and that is...cognitive empathy...which, like many of us (not all) with an ASD, we are missing. Those 15 qualifiers pretty much explain much of the autism experience...except for cognitive empathy. Many of us having difficulties with understanding another person's mental state, non-verbal language, intent, indirect language, etc. and generally contributes to much of our day-to-day social difficulties. I, for example, will never "know" my wife despite being with her for some 40 years. It's things like that that make interacting with people a bit confusing and anxiety-inducing, and can lead to all manner of miscommunications, misunderstandings, even surprising emotional blow-ups from others. Worse case scenarios being that we can be taken advantage of by others with nefarious or malicious intent...even sales people.

AI Overview

Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand someone else's perspective and thoughts, while emotional empathy is the ability to feel what others are feeling. Cognitive empathy is like understanding the puzzle of another person's mental state, while emotional empathy is experiencing their emotions as your own.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Cognitive Empathy:

• Definition:
  The ability to understand another person's thoughts, feelings, and perspective without necessarily experiencing those emotions yourself.
  
  
• Key aspects:
  Reading facial expressions, body language, and understanding the context of a situation to grasp what someone else might be thinking or feeling.
  
  
• • Example:
    Recognizing that a friend is upset after a difficult meeting at work, even if you're not feeling the same frustration yourself.
  • Focus:
    Intellectual understanding and perspective-taking.

Emotional Empathy:

• • Definition:
    The ability to share in someone else's emotions, to feel what they are feeling.
  • Key aspects:
    Experiencing a visceral reaction to another person's emotional state, feeling their joy, sadness, anger, etc.
  • Example:
    Feeling a pang of sadness when you see a friend grieving, or feeling their excitement when they receive good news.
  • Focus:
    Experiencing and sharing the emotions of another person.

In essence:

• • Cognitive empathy is like understanding the map of someone's emotional landscape, while emotional empathy is like traveling through that landscape with them.
  • Both types of empathy are important for building strong relationships and navigating social situations effectively.
  • Some researchers suggest that people with certain conditions, like Autism Spectrum Disorder, may have a difference in their experience of these two types of empathy.
  • It's also worth noting that there's a third type of empathy, compassionate empathy,which involves taking action to help others based on understanding their needs.

 

[Coxhere]

From this description, I am an empath...with one important exception that pretty much makes me NOT, and that is...cognitive empathy...which, like many of us (not all) with an ASD, we are missing. Those 15 qualifiers pretty much explain much of the autism experience...except for cognitive empathy. Many of us having difficulties with understanding another person's mental state, non-verbal language, intent, indirect language, etc. and generally contributes to much of our day-to-day social difficulties. I, for example, will never "know" my wife despite being with her for some 40 years. It's things like that that make interacting with people a bit confusing and anxiety-inducing, and can lead to all manner of miscommunications, misunderstandings, even surprising emotional blow-ups from others. Worse case scenarios being that we can be taken advantage of by others with nefarious or malicious intent...even sales people.

AI Overview

Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand someone else's perspective and thoughts, while emotional empathy is the ability to feel what others are feeling. Cognitive empathy is like understanding the puzzle of another person's mental state, while emotional empathy is experiencing their emotions as your own.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Cognitive Empathy:

• Definition:
  The ability to understand another person's thoughts, feelings, and perspective without necessarily experiencing those emotions yourself.
  
  
• Key aspects:
  Reading facial expressions, body language, and understanding the context of a situation to grasp what someone else might be thinking or feeling.
  
  
• • Example:
    Recognizing that a friend is upset after a difficult meeting at work, even if you're not feeling the same frustration yourself.
  • Focus:
    Intellectual understanding and perspective-taking.

Emotional Empathy:

• • Definition:
    The ability to share in someone else's emotions, to feel what they are feeling.
  • Key aspects:
    Experiencing a visceral reaction to another person's emotional state, feeling their joy, sadness, anger, etc.
  • Example:
    Feeling a pang of sadness when you see a friend grieving, or feeling their excitement when they receive good news.
  • Focus:
    Experiencing and sharing the emotions of another person.

In essence:

• • Cognitive empathy is like understanding the map of someone's emotional landscape, while emotional empathy is like traveling through that landscape with them.
  • Both types of empathy are important for building strong relationships and navigating social situations effectively.
  • Some researchers suggest that people with certain conditions, like Autism Spectrum Disorder, may have a difference in their experience of these two types of empathy.
  • It's also worth noting that there's a third type of empathy, compassionate empathy,which involves taking action to help others based on understanding their needs.

. . . .especially sales people!

 

[Coxhere]

I searched "empath" secondary to the comment about being tired and not wanting to continue, that one was being taken advantage of. I was thinking about others taking advantage of us when I did the search regarding empaths and empathy. Empaths are taken advantage of in cases where Aspies are not aware that some people are parasites and will suck one dry of any and every thing that they possibly can. Another term comes to mind too, however. This is "codependency." Codependents don't always know, aren't always aware that what they are doing isn't "love." They think it's love but it's codependency. I'm going to do a search regarding Aspies and Codependency. . . .

 

[GrownupGirl]

I might have some of the traits that were mentioned, but I'm so not an empath. I have barely any empathy at all.

 

[arithmetic]

I'm really good at telling how people feel.
I can also see, from the way they move, which parts of their bodies are causing them trouble and why that is.
Sometimes I can see that someone has a migraine and take it away.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I'm really good at telling how people feel.
I can also see, from the way they move, which parts of their bodies are causing them trouble and why that is.
Sometimes I can see that someone has a migraine and take it away.

You may be one of us that can tap into another's consciousness. This is something that, if you have these gifts, can be developed further with the right coach. The Telepathy Tapes podcasts have interviews with various scientists, mediums, researchers, coaches, others with "abilities" that can help develop and expand abilities in others. There are schools in the US, China, India, and other countries that are teaching thousands and thousands of children how to expand and use their abilities. I think this is something that is going to really take off within this next decade.

What little I know about the subject so far is that it is not uncommon for small children to naturally have psi abilities, but around 5-7 years, they tend to loose them. It apparently has to do with the brain's development of our Default Mode Network (DMN), areas of the brain that have to do with filtering out "less likely" things, logic development, our sense of self, our ego, etc. EEG studies have found, in individuals that do have "psi" abilities, when they are in such a state, their left hemisphere tends to shut down and they primarily operate on their right hemisphere... as well as, having their DMN shut down. What has been suggested is that some people, for whatever reasons, their DMN is less developed, their consciousness/higher self can decouple or become less connected from their physical body and are then able to tap into other's consciousness as well as the greater universal consciousness that surrounds us all.

I find it interesting that so many of us have been programmed to belief that none of this is possible... but when science gets involved, starts doing PET scans, fMRI, and EEG studies, blinded performance studies, there's a lot more to back this all up. I suspect that over the next 5-10 years, we are going to hear a lot more about this within the mainstream.

 

[UFO]

I'm really good at telling how people feel.
I can also see, from the way they move, which parts of their bodies are causing them trouble and why that is.

Do you still have communication problems? Outside anxiety issues, I mean, as my main problem is exactly opposite: I notice way too late what people are feeling. I might start talking about something they don't want to hear, and that is what makes them angry, then I continue and continue until something really innocent part is a final straw and I am left wondering why they blew up for something like that small.

 

[Outdated]

I've always been very sensitive to what other people are really feeling and that gives me a great advantage when socialising, or when trying to get something I want. There's a huge mistake that people make when they hear the word Empathy though:

Empathy does not equal Sympathy.

In fact quite often understanding what a person feels inside negates any thoughts of sympathy.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I've always been very sensitive to what other people are really feeling and that gives me a great advantage when socialising, or when trying to get something I want. There's a huge mistake that people make when they hear the word Empathy though:

Empathy does not equal Sympathy.

In fact quite often understanding what a person feels inside negates any thoughts of sympathy.

Agree. What we do seem to have in this world today is an element of "weaponized sympathy" driving much of the political, economic, and social conversation.