Sort of, at least in thought. It comes out as a twisted desire to be hurt (I shouldn't really say "harmed", since this whole thing applies to mental/emotional pain too). But a need to think of it as a kind of punishment, yes, that's part of it.

Trigger warning?
I think I mentioned there that once in a while, this kind of thinking will actually drive me to some minor self-harm; this thought of "You need/deserve to suffer." Yet in terms of what I do...it's meant to simulate actual punishment. I've never cut, for example. Partly because I'm too much of a coward, but also because that doesn't resemble any kind of real world punishment. I've never heard of, for example, a parent taking a child's arm and cutting them as punishment. I have however, heard of a person being whipped with a belt, or simply beaten with someone's bare hands. And that's what I've done to myself: I'd take a belt (or the buckle end, if it's fabric), and whip myself with it until I had welts and bruises. Once I even drew blood. I've also hit and slapped myself, which sounds hilarious until you consider that every time I've done this, it's left marks. Small ones that faded in a few days, but still. The last time I did any of this was a couple of weeks ago, and the bruises lasted days. It's not common for me to actually act on any such urge, though. It happens maybe once or twice a year.

/end TW

I just made the mistake of looking up "punishing masochism", in case that was a term for a specific thought pattern...all I got was BDSM stuff. There's nothing sexual here.

Cool article, but I don't think I'm an empath. I can't read people all that well, and I mostly tend to be kind of emotionally insular (in fact, someone told me today that I'm quite hard to read). I just get bothered by hearing about other people's suffering because of some weird guilt complex thing.

The part about not being able to handle depictions of violence or cruelty, even to the point of feeling physically ill, was all that resonated with me. That and daydreaming, mood swings, drawing people (for real, I don't even know why or how. People seem to like me for some reason, and I get along easily. Even though I push away and hint of a deeper friendship or relationship, almost instinctively. That's another problem altogether).

But I'm looking through that list again...nope. My intuition sucks, public spaces actually kind of energize me in a weird kind of way, I'm gullible as hell, and like I said, I can't read people. My mom is actually great at it though - plenty of times we've had totally differing opinions on someone, and she turns out to be right in the long run. Though I do have a somewhat addictive personality, am bothered by some unanswered questions and clutter. However, that thing about not buying second-hand made me LOL - I prefer second-hand. It's cheaper, and has a certain "character" to it. I'm secretly a sucker for paranormal stuff, I wish it was real and would love to have an "experience", but alas, no.

So yeah, not an empath.