Empathy or Compassion

[Fitzo]

I can understand that. Animals don't hurt others for personal enjoyment, but people do. The odd thing is animals seem to have empathy and exhibit compassion by their behavior:

Yes and also humans have some level of self determination (obviously some more than others) whereas animals have none.

 

[Sid Delicious]

For me it is an all or nothing situation. I don't always pick up on subtle cues, but sometimes I will notice someone is upset when I begin to feel upset. The same thing happens if they are excited. It's as if I absorb whatever they are feeling. Then I either have to shut off emotionally (for example, if it isn't appropriate to get involved) so that I can focus on whatever I was doing OR I get an intense urge to protect them and make them feel better. Usually I have to do the former, as they wouldn't welcome some random crazy lady trying to mother them like a lost puppy!

Seeing people cry is tough, as my heart explodes and I go into 'FIX EVERYTHING NOW' mode! So to avoid that I probably seem incredibly cold and robotic to other people at times.

And yes, I agree about seeing animals suffering. I can't watch RSPCA adverts without wanting to hunt down and torture the humans that hurt them. I know that's bad, but there is no reason for anyone to deliberately hurt a defenceless creature.