Empathy is one thing that I'm good at too. I can very easily put myself in the other person's shoes and see the situation from their side but also like you, if I'm not careful (which I never am), I can do it so much to take on someone else's pain and feel it with them. I've done this for years. I just feel so badly when somebody is hurting. It hurts me too. I wish I could take their pain away so that they wouldn't have to deal with it and instead I'll deal with it for them. But what actually happens, is it is impossible to make somebody better so we both deal with the pain. My therapist has noticed this about me and she wants me to start putting myself first, a very new and foreign concept for me. I've yet to be successful. I can't stop thinking about what the other person is going through and wishing I could fix them and take on their pain for them so they wouldn't have to. It just about kills me to know/see somebody else in pain regardless if it is physical or emotional.