How to have empathy?

DX'd - Other
1

My empathy sucks. How to improve it? Idk why it sucks, probably bcz of apathy caused by sz negative symptoms.

1 Like
2

Loving kindness meditation. Try out a guided meditation on spotify.

1 Like
3

I’m not sure that empathy can be easily learned later in life. It is a trait that is developed kind of on it’s own.

Maybe try to imagine yourself in the other persons shoes and imagine how you would feel?

2 Likes
4

@Aziz

I was thinking about your problem with your pdoc.

Idk why some docs won’t switch meds when a patient wants to. Like he ■■■■■■■ knows

Anyway: I had to just sit tight for 3 months until I could get a new psych and switch meds.

1 Like
5

I tried meditation, my friend told me about the Headspace meditation app. I can’t sit still and clear my thoughts, it drives me crazy.

6

Idk if a simple med switch would give me empathy honestly, I dont think so.

7

It is not about clearing your mind necessarily. It is about letting thoughts rise and fall without attaching yourself to them.

It is like observing your thoughts as though you are separate to them. i.e. “Oh that thought just arrived. What is next?” Ask yourself what am I going to think about next? Wait, wait, wait. And then pop the idea comes. Note it in your mind. And ask yourself What am I going to think about next? The space in between will lengthen with practice. That is a kind of meditation.

2 Likes
8

My focus really sucks honestly, I feel like I have ADHD and cognitive problems.

9

If you don’t practice you won’t improve. You can’t be a professional without putting in the hours.

2 Likes
10

You’ve got it, bang on the head @Bowens . This is the basis of empathy

2 Likes
11

what’s up, @Aziz

you’re a good person.

2 Likes
12

There are 3 different things people mean when they talk about empathy

  • knowing what emotion someone is feeling by looking at them
  • feeling their emotion alongside them
  • caring that they have that emotion, and feeling bad for them

The first one is learned through repeated practice, the same as any other skill. The second doesnt matter, and can actually get in the way of helping.

That last one, in my experience, is very hard to develop unless you feel others also care about you. Ultimately, it is totally fine to fake it. As long as you still help people in need when you can, it doesn’t matter if you actually feel compassion or whatever while you do it. Mother Theresa is widely cited as a great and compassionate person, but in her journals she talked about how much she hated the work and the people she helped. She just kept doing it because she knew it was needed.

3 Likes
13

she fell for the mafia.

1515

14

empath online and empath in person are very different to me. I don’t have an affinity for speaking to others on a forum, for example, as I do in person. Talking about a homeless person is a lot different than seeing it in person. And maybe that’s the whole point of talking about empathy. Start here and apply it to the outside world.

2 Likes
15

Online is easier for me.

16

I’d say Aziz is a constant forum contributor and is predominantly working on himself. His comments are usually about forms of treatment and his libido. j/k although you’re quite open about it. see, some empath… not difficult

3 Likes
17

I talk much less when talking face to face but on the phone and online I talk more lol

18

I have difficulty with all these honestly.

19

I have inappropriate emotions sometimes and I laugh for no reason. I read its a sz symptoms, negative symptoms.

1 Like
20

They really aren’t necessary. As long as you do the right thing, it doesn’t matter if you did it because you felt compassionate or because you felt obligated or because you just knew intellectuallt that it needed to be done and you could do it.

1 Like