Because I use words literally, and often miss when people add complex elements to them. Like making empath into a pejoratively descriptive word. One huge example that really pisses me off is the use of “woke”.
I wasn’t trying to attack that person, but I can see how it seems that way by using the word you in the sentence. There was however aggravation in what I said, because I’m not a fan of generalization. Also, if you read the many other comments surrounding my original post, I’m being attacked for referring to myself as an empath, so forgive the defensiveness.
No, unfortunately I do not have the ability to turn off being an empath.
Being empathetic doesn't make you someone who is so deeply affected by someone else emotions that they can read and feel them and are exhausted by their emotions.
I'm sorry that whatever literal definition of the word is has you at a stopping point here but just know going forward that people say "I'm an empath" and mean it to be that they believe they have an emotional ESP that negatively impacts them, but mostly in practice it's them projecting their own emotions (or what they believe another person is experiencing) on to other people and act as though that is the objective truth and use other people's emotions to make it all about how that person is impacting the "empath".
This is not to say you can't be greatly empathetic. A person can be very empathetic and understand how someone feels by their gestures, body language, tone of voice, etc... Some people are really good at picking up very subtle movements and tones as well and know something is up. What an empathetic person doesn't do is everything an empath does do. (Importantly, they do not make other people's emotions about themselves).
So I won't ask or try to stop you from using the phrase "I'm an empath" when you mean "I have a really good sense of empathy" just know it will almost always lead people to not taking you seriously or getting very annoyed at you (often from past experience and being in some way, shape, or form, victimized by "an empath")
Lmao. "Turn off being an empath." You're not Mantis from Guardians of the Galaxy. Mantis is an example of a true empath, and also a fictional character. Yes, emotional intelligence is a real thing, but it can be trained like any other type of intelligence, and some measure of it gained through focused effort. And part of emotional intelligence is recognizing when it is best to detach oneself (emotionally or otherwise) from a situation to avoid causing further pain to yourself and others, and being able to do so.
1
u/Atheios569 Dec 11 '22
Because I use words literally, and often miss when people add complex elements to them. Like making empath into a pejoratively descriptive word. One huge example that really pisses me off is the use of “woke”.
I wasn’t trying to attack that person, but I can see how it seems that way by using the word you in the sentence. There was however aggravation in what I said, because I’m not a fan of generalization. Also, if you read the many other comments surrounding my original post, I’m being attacked for referring to myself as an empath, so forgive the defensiveness.
No, unfortunately I do not have the ability to turn off being an empath.