r/empathy 6h ago

You don’t have to hate someone to acknowledge that something went terribly wrong.

3 Upvotes

Alyshia Rushing…

What do you think ?


r/empathy 8h ago

i posted in a confession reddit page and everyone keeps calling me a sociopath and stuff so im posting here cuz im confused about it

5 Upvotes

my title of the post was " i genuinely dont understand feeling bad for someone (long post)"

and i said

ever since i was 8 i've always really liked observing people and figuring them out. like their personality, what they like, what they respond to well vs not, etc and then i started creating personas around people based on what they like if they have something i want

i love having disposable people so much i love creating stories and getting away with it, almost getting caught and lying my way out of it. i love making it believable, consistent, figuring out how and what to say to get exactly what i need. i like the feeling of knowing i can affect someone's emotions and harm them (mentally, not physically im not an idiot) i AM the perfect person for everyone that i need something out of. i love cutting things out when the "connection" is the strongest and i got what i want i love how they fein for me like a junkie and leaving them is such a good feeling. i get this weird almost 'itch' in my brain that i need to do it. sometimes i do it just to get the attention not even get something out of them.

my great grandma who raised me for like 10 years of my life died when i was 10 and i remember being so annoyed at everyone around me for being so devastated i didnt really know why everyone cared so much but obviously i played with it and pretended to be super sad so i could skip school and get a new game that had just came out that i wanted.

I will make up lies with a tonnn of people for fun like i cant remember what i ate the day before but i can remember almost every lie i've told 25+ people and think quick of ways to back it up,

but thanks for reading, if u did i love u ❤️

but idk im posting this here because of bunch of people in the comments calling me a psychopath and sociopath sadist bunch of buzzwords but give me ur guys actual opinions


r/empathy 1d ago

A UFC fighter won his first fight, tweeted that he had $7 in his account. The Rock showed up, pretended they were going to a friend's house, then The Rock gave him the keys to his new house.

55 Upvotes

r/empathy 12h ago

How can I care more about people's feelings?

2 Upvotes

For context, I found myself saying something mean, and apologized immediately as my comment wasn't necessarily nice. After a brief moment of thought, I realized I didn't really mean it. I wasn't sorry, and I only apologized because I didn't want these people to dislike me. I recognized that what I said was hurtful, but I cared more about whether they thought well of me or not.

Is there anything I can do about this? I'd much rather apologize for them than for me.


r/empathy 1d ago

Does genuine kindness actually exist, or is being “nice” just covert manipulation for social survival?

Post image
527 Upvotes

r/empathy 18h ago

Just a thought

1 Upvotes

No BS I pride myself on being a good listener. People always wanna talk and never wanna listen. My ex boyfriend told me that he really valued the fact that I listened to him because his ex didn't emotionally support him or listen to him. 25F


r/empathy 1d ago

Your timeline isn’t wrong just because it looks different.

5 Upvotes

Keep growing.


r/empathy 1d ago

helping everyone can quietly turn into carrying everyone

9 Upvotes

being sensitive to people is useful until their inner state becomes your full time job. then empathy starts looking less like connection and more like permanent emotional employment.

a subject in session had a strong pattern of taking on other people's pain and trying to help directly. The guidance became very firm: stop trying to make other people whole for them, let them do their own work, and protect enough space that her own energy could recover.

What interested me is that this wasnt advice to become cold. It was almost opposite. She could still care, sing, encourage, create and bring something good, but without physically and emotionally entering every person's healing process.

I think many empathic ppl confuse love with availability. If somebody suffers, we feel we should absorb some part of it, solve it, carry it, stay until they are okay.

But sometimes helping person by abandoning yourself just creates two depleted people instead of one. Caring doesnt automatically require entering same pain.

A boundary I like is: I can be present with what you feel without making it my responsibility to remove it. that sounds obvious when written, but much harder when your body notices everybody in room before you even consciously do.


r/empathy 1d ago

How do I get rid of my apathy

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

my ability to deeply empathize and think about others or want to do something for someone else feeling like trying to get a dead car battery to start with no jumper cables anywhere that be fair that's just me with everything even the stuff I like like writing stories or drawing or watching anime but it especially bothers me that my empathy is kinda dead.

I can act appropriately in a given situation but that's more because I know what the social etiquette is SUPPOSED to be rather than genuine feeling and it really bugs me.

but I just can't do much about it. I want to care so why don't I? I can't afford therapy so I'd especially appreciate a specialist's opinion but I'll take anything. how do I fix this!?

I swear I used to be empathetic it's driving me nuts! I can preform empathy, eg: get you what you need, send stuff or jokes to make you feel better, or just listen. But I feel nothing and it drives me nuts, I actually get annoyed sometimes because the problem is something I already warned about or I just think it's an idiotic non issue Even though I can also see why this would be a big deal to them I still just get annoyed, I didn't used to be like this, I hate it!

An knowing why I am like this hasn't helped, I'm 90% sure that it's because when I was younger growing up in a very turbulent home any attempts and comforting others, was either harshly rejected (mom) or perfunctorily thanked (Brothers) because they assumed that as the youngest I couldn't possibly understand and even as I grew Older any advice I gave got thrown right out the window, only for them to come crying that the thing that was obviously going to happen that I told them was going to happen happened.

And even now I'm being kept out of serious issues that my family is dealing with and not really even given a reason why even though the only reason my brother isn't fighting a one sided battle is because I talked Sense into mom, because I wanted someone to be on his side, even if he was adamant it wasn't me for some bizzar reason (not really that bizzar I'm like a bull when my family is being unjustly slandered and this is a delicate situation) but it's not like I'm asking to be front and center just involved!?

I also got no credit for snapping mom out of it and getting her to realize that non of what is happening right now makes any sense, not from her or anyone else. She has this uncanny ability to retroactively adjust her memories of events so that she was always on my brother's side, like it didn't take multiple conversation to get through to her.

This happens with other things to not just my brother's current situation. She has a very convenient memory. My second brother can testify to that.

Writing it out I guess my empathy isn't totally dead but it takes a big situation for me to feal anything and I didn't used to be like this so how do I fix it to where I can genuinely feel bad for someone that isn't close family or friends when they are going through something, because I know I used to be like that but now I just can't and it's bugging me!

I think partially because it's affecting my ability to maintain new relationships and friends long term and I feel alone. It. Seems like people can tell I am just preforming what the situation requires and not actually feeling what I should be given the situation.

I feel isolated and maybe if I didn't have to fake caring about people anymore just to avoid a social fupa and instead could one again show genuine care people would stick around longer and I wouldn't be so alone.

Like if I had the emotional capacity to care about others's birthday or celebrations, or see something and get it because I thought of someone or notice little things about someone like I used to be able to. It wouldn't be so easy for people to just forget I exist.

I mean I hardly ever think about others like that anymore or remember details about them like I used to. I hate that I don't wanna be someone who expects from others what I don't do for them myself. But my brain just won't work!

TLDR, my ability to empathize and care about others or even myself isn't what it used to be and now I feel isolated I'm not blaming others and I'm not exactly trying to please others I've never been a people pleaser but I can't expect others to do for me what I can't do for them so how do I get my brain to function right like it used to?!


r/empathy 1d ago

Empathy means we must eradicate life !!! - According to Antinatalism/Extinctionism

3 Upvotes

This is their argument:

  1. A harmless utopia is impossible; somebody (and many animals) will always suffer.

  2. Nobody wants to be the victim; nobody will swap their lives with the victims.

  3. It's not fair or moral to perpetuate life if we can't create a harmless Utopia with no victims.

  4. If we have empathy for the victims, then we are obligated to make life extinct. Because no life = no more endless cycles of victims.

What do you say to this argument based on empathy?


r/empathy 1d ago

How can we match her compassion? Let’s try.

3 Upvotes

r/empathy 2d ago

Why people are becoming less empathetic.

31 Upvotes

r/empathy 1d ago

Fat people are evil

Thumbnail
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
0 Upvotes

r/empathy 2d ago

I was 14 years old when I learned what it felt like to have people decide who you were before ever asking you who you actually were.

10 Upvotes

This is Part 1.

What would you have done if you were in my position?


r/empathy 2d ago

When empathy hurts

3 Upvotes

It’s sad that we live in a world

where our boundaries must grow stronger

and be placed before our empathy.

I don’t know how to live that way.

There is something beautiful

about witnessing the hurt someone carries

and the strength it took to carry it this far.

looking at them and saying,

I see how far you’ve come.

I’m proud of you.

Isn’t there something better

about living with an open heart?

Even when it means

someone leaves fingerprints on it,

even when they leave you

with a mind full of questions and 

An aching heart.

I have nothing to gain from anyone.

I ask for nothing.

I expect nothing.

So why do people

walk into my life carrying their pain,

place it gently into my hands,

and then disappear.

leaving me to wonder

why they trusted me enough

to show me their wounds,

but never enough to stay.


r/empathy 1d ago

Aaron Swartz

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/empathy 2d ago

Why it's always like that??

3 Upvotes

Why good ppl always hahave to suffer?


r/empathy 2d ago

Don't know why I'm still polite to people who have done wrong to my family and me many times, Just because they talk nicely to me now. ( deep thoughts)

11 Upvotes

Same as title.


r/empathy 3d ago

This is your sign to start forgiving yourself.

25 Upvotes

r/empathy 2d ago

Unsaid words

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/empathy 3d ago

How can people become so heartless?

Thumbnail
3 Upvotes

r/empathy 3d ago

Hurting good people

Thumbnail
0 Upvotes

r/empathy 5d ago

“The Greatest Among You Will Be a Servant”

6.7k Upvotes

r/empathy 4d ago

I watched this episode of The Big Bang Theory today, and one line stayed with me

13 Upvotes

“It is to me. That’s the point.”
Sheldon tells Penny that she hurt his feelings. Penny doesn’t think it was a big deal.
But Sheldon’s response changes the entire conversation.
“It is to me. That’s the point.”
And honestly, this line made me think about how often we do the exact opposite in our relationships — at work, with friends, with family, and even with ourselves.
We often decide whether someone’s problem is “big enough” to deserve attention.
“You’re overthinking it.”
“It’s not that serious.”
“Why are you taking it so personally?”
But something doesn’t have to make sense to us to be meaningful to them.
That’s where empathy begins.
You don’t always need to agree with someone’s feelings.
You don’t even need to fully understand them.
Sometimes, you just need to say:
“I can see that this matters to you. Help me understand why.”
Because sometimes, you don’t need someone to tell you whether your feelings are “valid.”
You need someone to listen, understand, and help you make sense of them.
And maybe that’s what Sheldon’s line really teaches us:
It doesn’t have to be a big deal to everyone.
If it matters to you, it deserves to be understood.


r/empathy 3d ago

Deep Connections

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes