03/22/2023
"The third worst thing is realizing that your empathy has nothing to do with your moral conscience or internal innate goodness and everything to do with growing up walking on eggshells. Maybe you had an anxious and overbearing mother who you learned to read like a book. Maybe your father was a perfectionist who was hyper-critical and quick to anger, and adapting to his ques meant the difference between being praised or being shamed. No matter what the circumstance, someone made you feel so unsafe that from a young age, you had to hyper-fixate on the emotional states of others just to feel safe. Now you have to live with the constant exhaustion of always being vigilant and aware of the facial expressions, body language, and word choice of the people around you. To the point that you sometimes understand what and how people are feeling better than they understand themselves."
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The worst thing about being empathetic is that it's jarringly easy to tap into the despair of another human being. Sometimes it catches...
