I answered Yes on only question # 9. I don’t think I am an unempathetic person. I consider myself sensible but not very sensitive.
^ there are two kinds of empathy. One type is one we can be born with and it develops with our maturation. The second is a more learned empathy.
Learned is useful in many walks in life. It has to do with the development of the frontal cortex. A trauma in childhood can interrupt the development of the frontal cortex but the person is often able to learn empathy. This is my understanding from reading lectures I have attended–it is not my field of expertise.
I have taken this test a few times over the last year. I score 18 each time. There are other quizzes and evaluations available. I always register as an empath. Why is this important to me? It has helped me understand things such as my utter emotional exhaustion after being with certain people, why my entire life I have been told “you are too sensitive” (as a criticism), how I can see someone and feel their energy and within minutes they are discussing something with me that they normally would not share with others. Smells affect me when no one else is bothered.
Having a framework has helped accept myself and manage my time and energy. I now know that my need to spend much of my day alone in quiet is just my normal. When I am social I am totally present. I “know things” before events. I now trust myself.
I had to learn my detachment. I spent decades twisting myself up about how others were feeling, until I realized it’s not my business. That has become my mantra. I do try to avoid chanting it aloud when someone’s sucking up all the emotional oxygen in the room, though. 
Wow this new “look”has ruined the flow of our conversations.
I answered yes to most of the questions, and I think the test is so much baloney… By the way, empathy is pointless in the medical world (and possibly elsewhere). I suggest anyone interested watch zdoggmd’s video “Empathy is Wrong” for a good explanation. You can’t help anyone (or do much of anything) if you are busy protecting yourself from other people’s emotions or acting in a way to reduce their suffering - or their effect on you.
Not liking the new format either. I suspect people who arent empaths say there is no such thing.
@eyemamom “I suspect people who arent empaths say there is no such thing.”
If nothing else, this statement puts the entire thing into the realm of pseudoscience.
What next? Will you claim that “only people who don’t see ‘auras’ say that there aren’t such things as ‘auras’”, “only people who cannot see leprechauns say that there are no such things as leprechauns”.
Every psychological condition has a biological mechanism. Dr. Orloff seems to have forgotten every bit of biology and physics she learned in college. One cannot “absorb” symptoms, since no human being has the capability of actually knowing what is going on in another person’s mind, without some technological enhancements. All humans have the the ability to use their own personal experience to translate how others express their own experience. What we have is a translation of a translation. I am trying to translate my physical pain into a verbal account of my pain, and then you try to translate my verbal account into your own memories of physical pain. Since people feel pain differently, and translate them differently, the idea that a person can “absorb” another’s symptoms is patently false.
Looking at the questionnaire, it is obvious that she is conflating at least three separate, and well known, conditions, which are fairly independent of each other.
A. Being an introvert. Introvert-extrovert is a spectrum, not a dichotomy, so except for very few people, most people have felt a few of those. Most of the questions just identify the characteristics of introverts.
B. Sensory Processing Disorder: most people have the physiological capability of ignoring background stimuli. For some people this is more difficult - their brain’s ability to stop processing things like the feel of clothing, background noises, etc is impaired. This also includes people who over-process stimuli, These are people whose brain reacts to minor stimuli as though they were major stimuli. So the brain can identify an itch or a touch as severe pain. Again, there is a wide range of severity of this condition. Some of the questions relate directly to this specific condition.
C. Metabolic processes. people metabolize chemicals at different speed , and have nervous systems that react differently to different chemicals. This is, again, very well known. For example, some people can down 6 espressos and have a good night’s sleep, and others will not sleep for 24 hours after one cup of weak coffee. it depends on how fast your body breaks down caffeine, and how “willing” your adenosine receptors are to bind to caffeine instead of to adenosine. It has nothing to do with how “sensitive” you are to other people’s feelings
D. Anxiety/ADD/other conditions and syndromes. Being overwhelmed by multitasking is extremely common, and is simply the result of the fact that most humans cannot actually multitask. What people do is learn how to break down individual tasks to smaller bits and do these sequentially. In general, it seems that women are better at doing that than men. Whether one is stressed out by the need to multitask is a mixture between the inability to multitask and anxiety over the high possibility of failure. ADD provides both.
As for some - they are true of almost every person on earth. There are studies which demonstrate that spending time in more natural areas is restful for all people, so EVERYBODY “replenishes in nature”.
If somebody is “afraid of becoming suffocated by intimate relationships”, they should deal with their attachment issues, independently of having chemical sensitivities. Despite this stupid article and questionnaire, these are separate issues which require different ways to deal with them. Moreover, many of these conditions require treatment or require having to learn specific coping methods for their particular condition.
What her invention of “empath” does is convince people not to deal with any of these issues, just decide that it is all because they are “empaths”, and therefore simply better than everybody else (“Empaths are the medicine the world needs”). Moreover, it is also a way for her to make money. She invents a condition, and then sells you her book on how to cope with this invented condition.
I think you nailed it @Nrdsb4. It’s not an absolute certainty of course, but there’s no question that I sense people’s feelings more acutely than others do and that they have an effect on me. Call it what you will.
zdoggmd’s video “Empathy is Wrong” is a video that my Doc H and his team show at conferences as a satirical message. No way does this large HMO agree literally with his message. My H had a good LOL watching with me–they have used this actual video.
I still find it so interesting that all I wanted to do is converse with those of us who have the same walk in the world. If you don’t believe in the message what is your point in coming here? You certainly are never going to convince someone who identifies as an empath that their experience is not different than many others and also needs to be understood.
Apparently I am an empath. I answered yes to everything, except I have no problems with pain, intimate relationships (the few I have) and multi-tasking.
So I wonder if a person who is identified as an empath would be happier with similar people, or if they would be better off hanging out with different types.
Why did I come here? I was curious about what the question meant and I love random internet quizzes! And according to the quiz, I am an empath. Except I’m not. 
Evidently an empath needs to be careful in relationships with another empath as their relationship can become intense and draining. I have had a friend here and there that I think was an empath when I was much younger and had no idea what this all meant. I think it would all come down to personality as it usually does.
I am not usually testy when nay opinions are expressed…I am blaming it on this new “look” that is upsetting my flow.
I rank 17 on the quiz and I have had the term “empath” applied to me although I don’t know that I apply it to myself. What I have learned, over time, is how to work with my personality and my strong emotions. I tune in but when things are too much I tune out a bit, at times I will use a camera lens as a ‘buffer’ between myself and an emotional event and then process it later. I absolutely have learned to head into nature when I am overwhelmed and honestly learning that about myself has made a huge difference for me and my ability to cope. I repeat the phrase “Not my circus, not my monkeys” to myself often and also have to remind myself that people can have emotions that have nothing to do with me, over and over again.
Age and maturity has helped me to cope and hopefully it will continue in that direction.
I am definitely very empathetic and an introvert but not a true empath based on other studies I have read. In some articles, highly sensitive is also discussed as part of that range and that definitely fits me.
As a teacher who works with many kids dealing with trauma, it is helpful but exhausting… Kids are willing to open up to me but it is very stressful. I also tend to notice things that I assumed everyone did but am learning that it’s not the case.
Yes, besides the need to manage emotions and such Empath’s also provide something special to many others. Many Empath’s are in helping professions such as teaching and mental health. Many of us can say a few words to another and they tell us private things about themselves. We often provide the glue in group situations.
I have used this philosophy to explain something to myself recently, about Facebook posts. Someone I know posted incredibly terrible news about the child of a person I barely know (but really like) that she is closely related to. I am devastated, think about it often, and am close to tears several times a day, thinking about this devastation to a wonderful, kind person. My friend, however, just a couple of days later, started posting pictures of her own wonderful child and his wife, dog stories, pictures of new babies, celebrations of life. This has left me thinking…what the??? How do you post this perky stuff right after the most terrible thing happened in the world to your sibling? I can’t breathe, and she’s perky and happy. The only way I can explain it is that she is not an empath.
So very sad for this suffering for you. Because that is what you are experiencing and the poster is clearly not.
We were in Glacier a few weeks ago and drove by Lake MacDonald with the dead trees from the fire two years ago. My H wanted to put the pic he took as our Wallpaper for this computer. ?!? It broke my heart to see it but he found it interesting.
My therapist, an empath, told me last week that she cried when she drove past it.
Was the link removed from the questionnaire? I was actually interested in finding out “where I land” on the Empath score continuum. Is there another link that can be posted? Something tells me the belief in Empaths is like the belief in ESP. If you believe in the possibility of either, it is because you’re convinced you have actual personal experiential knowledge, or you just like the idea of the concept. I’m very disinclined to dismiss the claims of those who feel they are empathic, but I’m also too skeptical to embrace the belief that it’s a real thing.
@poetsheart , I think they are referring to an empath as being someone who is highly sensitive to the feelings of those around them, not the science fiction definition of one who has paranormal abilities. Not Deanna Troy from Star Trek TNG?. I think if one can believe there are those who are highly insensitive, it’s easy to believe there are those who are not.