Is there such a thing as empaths?

[Ban my account ffs!]

I don't mean in the Troy on star trek or "can read your mind" mumbo jumbo... but more like the opposite of a sociopath.  Someone who experiences emotions unusually strongly and tends to mirror or reflect the emotions of others around them?

I ask because this is me.  I tend to reflect whatever emotion people have back onto them like ten fold.  When someone is happy and tells me a story about why they're happy... I actually experience feelings of extreme happiness.  And when there is something sad, I often feel very sad and often depressed as a result.

There is a whole community out there called "empaths" who take it up to 11 with all this psychic and "indigo child" crap... which I'm very skeptical and almost dismissive about.  But I realized with what I've gone through in the past couple years with caring for my infirm mother kind of mirrored her own experience in a way.

Generally I'm empathetic to a fault.  I get so into various movies and stories that I'll cry... either from sadness or happiness or just plain overwhelmedness.  This is embarrassing.. but I've only ever watched the movie Brokeback Mountain once.  I'll never watch it again.  Seeing the 2nd main character get beaten to death for being gay had such a traumatic impact on me that it depressed me for weeks afterward and I can't help but experience pangs of depression whenever I think of that movie.

This kinda stuff seems super softie and overblown... but, again, it affects my life in real ways.  If someone is having a really hard time I sometimes will even avoid that person so as to avoid the emotional pain I will certainly experience if I get too involved.  So people think I'm cold and distant.  I'm not... and it tears me up not to be able to help.

Does anybody else experience this?  Is there any real medical diagnosis for this kind of condition besides "manic depressiveness" or something?

[Napoleon]

I don't have it in me to make a long post but I can relate to a lot of what you're saying.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Yes.