#hyper-empathy

Your mental health comes first. This is going out specifically and especially to all my fellow hyper-empathetic people out there. If you know that going down a rabbit hole of information on a specific horrible topic is going to make you depressed or feel like crap then you don’t have to interact with that. (Edit: I have been informed that this is called “doomscrolling.” To repeat what I was told: Doomscrolling is not activism. It doesn’t end up helping anybody and it only hurts you.)

In this day and age where we have access to the internet and information about soooooo many different horrible things it can be so easy to get sucked in to all of it. We have wars, we have constant natural disasters (there’s a massive fire close to where I live right now, it’s barely contained, and is rivaling the fire we had a few years ago that destroyed an entire town. It’s terrifying), we have beloved creators being accused and revealed to have done horrible things (the fact that I can say this and multiple names immediately pop into my head sickens me).

The point is, take a break. Get off the internet. Breathe. Go for a walk. Maybe look at videos of cute baby animals, or compilations of “restore your faith in humanity.” Go read a book. Eat something you like. Take a nap. Drink some water. Take a shower. If you’re religious, pray about it. Take care of yourself and don’t allow yourself to drown in the dread.

And for the people who might come at me for this saying “how dare you not care about the problems going on or the pain other people are in!” That’s the problem. It’s not that I don’t care, the problem is that I care too much. Please refer back to the hyper-empathetic part of this message. I am a sympathetic crier. I will allow myself to get so sucked in to an issue and I will end up feeling terrible about it. I won’t want to leave my bed, I feel like crying and throwing up and there is an everlasting pit in my stomach the size of Alaska. I am no help to anyone in a state like that, and neither is anyone else. I will say it again, take care of yourself and your mental health first.

There’s a reason on planes they tell you to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.

so, autistics, what is something you are hyper-empathetic about?

you are allowed to cry

you are allowed to cry

you are allowed to cry

you are allowed to cry

you are allowed to cry

it doesn’t matter who you are

you are allowed to cry

you are allowed to cry

you are allowed to cry

you are allowed to cry

you are allowed to cry

hyperempathy is when someone has an extremely high level of empathy, often linked to autism. my hyperempathy is likely linked to the fact that i’m autistic.

it’s different for everyone, but in my case, it means i can often feel other people’s emotions very, very strongly. it’s very useful, but also very overwhelming feeling not just your own emotions but also the emotions of everyone around you.

to support us, just do your best to be kind, and help us when we get overwhelmed, but understand that sometimes, the best thing for us is to be alone and let everything settle. 

hyperempathetic people can learn to manage it, though! i’ve figured out how to assign tells to my own emotions so that i can differentiate what i’m feeling from what others are feeling. 

I recently got an eevee plush at build a bear and she is pretty much my new favourite thing and I just want to have her with me everywhere.

But this is a problem because now I’m worried I’m neglecting all my other plushies and I’m worried they feel AWFUL and it makes me want to SCREAM. So I have to keep telling them all I love them too or I will cry.