Yeah it's called theory of mind. I also get my theory of mind from other people.
What is it?
Yes.
Yes to craving empathy, keeping it to yourself, to me being a bad person I presume.
When you feel low, do you ever crave empathy?
It's a good ice breaker at least, which is a lot of what stops connection from happening.
I guess it is.
The 'oh I never thought about it like that' effect, which can only really happen by allowing for that kind of dive.
It depends on whether the empathy is reciprocated. Have you ever seen that Joe Rogan clip where the guy opens up about his father and gets ignored?
That's probably why people don't open up.
It's sort of like giving people dirty laundry. Everyone has a lot on their plates already. Giving empathy is like doing laundry for people. It can be draining.
Like, someone telling you "yeah that sucks"?
Or do you mostly keep it to yourself and suffer through it to build character?
That's the easiest way to reach a crashout short of a monk stay or the like.
Maybe it is. So who do you chat with if you have problems?
Ive been wondering a little bit about my life choices and how I treat people around me. I think I've been tough on people, and I wonder if that has an adverse effect on them. I tend to have a very thick skin and I expect others to have it as well. But I've realised many people are quite soft.
I dont know where the balance is. Too little reaction, and people assume they can walk over you. Too much, and they are crushed.
Do you think I lack empathy...?
It's not like it's some binary yes/no, it's of varying degrees from peer to peer.
Based on your experience of me, do you think I lack empathy?
Functionally speaking, lot of unempathetic people can still learn the expected routines enough to fake it through sympathetic cues, and many empaths by contrast can become so overwhelmed by what they're feeling that they'd prefer to detach from people overall.
It's a receptivity of mirror neurons. Generally, people with low empathy I've noticed to be generally less observant of people overall, even down to facial twitches and the like. In my case, sleep deprivation was what held a lot of mine back. Since getting somewhat more regular resting patterns that area's gone from famine to feast.
The dirty laundry thing is how I tend to see my empathy bucket.
Its good to hear youre getting sleep.
For me I wonder if its burnout and stress. I come here when I feel stressed and want to wind down, so you mostly get the worst side of me apparently.
When I get annoyed I tend to burn out faster, and so it becomes a feedback loop. When I realise things are not good for my psyche, like for example having certain long conversations here, I tend to retreat, partly because I feel I should do better, partly because I feel like itll be good for me.
