[precaryous]

Does anyone understand the concept of empathic distress....and can you give me an example?

Someone suggested I may have this...and I'm not sure if agree.
I have looked it up but I don't think I understand it.

[Leah123]

One definition, let me know if yours varies siginficantly:

"an emotional state characterized by the inability to tolerate the perceived pain or suffering of another.”

It's proposed by some as an outgrowth/improved term for compassion fatigue.

I suffered from some of this as a mother and had to heal it in therapy by working through my trauma and increasing my emotional carrying capacity to help my high needs daughter more. The alarm bells of my daughter's distress in combination with my PTSD getting triggered and chronic insomnia sometimes overwhelmed me. I felt her pain so deeply I couldn't effectively always mitigate it.

My daughter just suffered from it was well this week: my MIL was in hospital and my dd got sick from the worry. I was at least able to be there for her now though and have the carrying capacity for both our distress to help her feel better faster.

[precaryous]

So, it's being sick with worry caring for someone else's problems? (Putting it simply.)

[stopdog]

This has a reference to an article that may be of interest:
Empathic Distress

[Leah123]

Originally Posted by precaryous

So, it's being sick with worry caring for someone else's problems? (Putting it simply.)

As far as I can tell, yes, it's basically having a sensitivity to others' pain that causes problems (burnout, shut down, overwhelm, pain, stress) for the self.

[divine1966]

I get like this at times. I deal with kids who often have very painful lives. Abuse/neglect/crime. There have been times I could not physically function as I felt pain someone else felt to unbearable degree. It is manageable though most of the time

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[Favorite Jeans]

I think it's a kind of emotional boundary issue where your empathy is so great that you take on distress that isn't yours. If you were designated as the "feelings person" in your family where you sensed the unhappiness that others would not address or acknowledge and became a conduit for that unhappiness you are likely a sitting duck for empathic distress.

[Leah123]

I do believe in the hard-wired capacity noted in the article Stopdog posted too, I've definitely found different people to have different baseline levels of that type of receptivity.

[Lauliza]

Originally Posted by precaryous

So, it's being sick with worry caring for someone else's problems? (Putting it simply.)

Yes, in a nutshell it's this exactly.

I have this, and its tough. My heart breaks to see anyone, especially children or animals, suffering or being treated badly. It breaks my heart. I put myself in their place and my imagination goes wild imagining what they are feeling and thinking. I wish i could toughen up some. The older i get, the worse it gets.

[amandalouise]

short and simple terms its being sensitive to others pain a common example is when someone is in labor and their loved ones are so in touch with that persons pain that their body reacts by maknig the person feel the affects (in other words having false labor pains when someone is really in labor)

another example a tooth ache one person has a tooth ache and the other person is so sensitive and close to that person that they "perceive" their self as having the toothache too.

many people with mental disorders ......sometimes.... can "take on"or perceive their self as having the same mental problems as another. here in my location another term for this depending upon other accompanying symptoms is ......sometimes....called fictious disorders

[iheartjacques]

Yes. And I had to learn to out up some walls to separate myself from thecemotiinscandcfeelings of others.

[precaryous]

I have always thought that the majority of people feel empathy....and a minority of people are apathetic.

Do you think it's the other way around?

[Leah123]

No, I don't believe most people are completely apathetic, but that empathy occurs on a scale and most are toward the middle is all. I think most feel a certain level of empathy for those close to them in pain, also some but less empathy for those in news stories about natural disasters and famine and such, or second hand anecdotes, etc. However, the powerful empathy that leads folks to actions beyond words- to volunteer, fundraise, innovate, challenge, surprise others with their caring- that I'd say is less common, unfortunately past the level of intimate relationships. I empathize with animals for example, hence I do not eat them. It's hard for me to understand how most people aren't attuned to that suffering enough to prevent it, but most people I meet are completely inconsiderate about it while some fewer do actually have a conviction about it and argue for eating meat.

[XenaStrikes]

"a new integrative model that suggests that the term compassion fatigue should be replaced by the term empathic distress fatigue to more accurately account for symptoms of withdrawal and burnout."

I hope your T can help you with this.
Wishing you the best of health and good luck.