How do we experience the pain of other people?
neurosciencenews.com
neurosciencenews.com
NOBODY prepares women for this, but the cervical examinations can be extremely painful. She has an exceptionally high pain tolerance. But the excruciating pain she was in as she squeezed my hand - I felt every bit of it except the actual physical sensation. It was a flood of panic and adrenaline as I desperately wished it to be over for her sake. It was like all the reactions were there, just not the physical sensation.
(she had a c-section, hence I didn't mention the pain of delivery)
I think it's also a lesson in love. This study uses strangers but I don't think I'd react as strongly with a stranger. When my wife has required surgery in the past I'd give anything to trade places. But trade places with a stranger? Nah, I'm OK.
Not that I avoid those types of people like the plague, only a select few I try to listen to and try to make their journey as painless as possible, and being an empath for everyone you encounter is obviously draining and can sap your energy, fast.
MDMA assisted psychotherapy looks promising, and people don't run the risk of overdosing or using contaminated pills, and they're in the company of trained professionals who are also prepared with medicine to counteract the effects of the drug incase someone has adverse reactions to it.
Mental pain is the worst type of pain IMHO. Physical pain for me is bearable, since it subsides, but there is a strange thing that happens with mental pain and it's the feeling that it's going to last forever and be recursive. Imagine being permanently subjected to mental torture? That's what it feels like, but like physical pain, it subsides, only we don't believe that when we experience mental anguish.
Next up: homeless people should just start doing research on the property market and buy a house.
A person with severe PTSD would greatly benefit from being left alone in the wilderness. How come therapists didn’t think of that? Probably another Big Pharma conspiracy. /s
you're focusing on the particular means of the solo experience, which misses the point
Do not go on an unguided trip if you have no experience and have mental issues. It could help you or could traumatize you severely. Psychedelics must be taken very seriously - advising to just take them and hope for the best is dangerously foolish.
Industrialization, urban development, crony-capitalism/corporatism, profit-motive (usually involving exploitation), greed, disconnection/breakdown of communities, and dare I say it, even technology (when misused), push people further and further away from one another.
How can you (the average person) be an empath when you have bills to pay and are locked to a 9-5 including a (usually anti-social) commute via car/bus/train/etc., spend the first 18-20 couple years of your life studying in a place that loads you in confined spaces with people who probably don't want to be there and teachers who don't get paid enough, and you most likely live in a place that you (or your parents) don't own; that probably doesn't have a proper yard (with no privacy), you get minimal sunlight/outdoor time, and your place of living probably has poor sound isolation between units if you (or your parents) rent something other than a house.
Socialization and time is measured and controlled in school and in the workplace, and when you have down-time, how can you worry about somebody who has problems that you probably can't solve because 1) they are not a part of your community, 2) you lack the time, resources, or ability to help, and 3) you have enough problems of your own to solve.
In school, sports, and in most workplaces, you're taught and conditioned to compete (outperform others). This is a sink-or-swim, fragmented, and cruel world for the average person.
You can't worry about John's debt, or Joe's medical problems that they can't get fixed because they can't afford it/don't have insurance. You can't help somebody with their house or yard.
So where does community usually reside nowadays? Only in very niche circles and activities, usually non-competitive hobbies. Definitely not the classroom or workplace, probably not your neighborhood/apartment complex, the bar, or most other common gathering spots for people.
People don't smile to strangers. Nobody waves. Sure, people ask you how you're doing if they're directly interacting with you through the course of business, but any answer other than "I'm doing good" is usually met with indifference.
Most self-proclaimed/actual empaths nowadays, are people with a rare personality type and/or they are people who are heavily traumatized and truly understand the depths of pain/suffering/loneliness/etc.
The fact that another commenter is interpreting the person you're responding to as joking/memeing, highlights just how rare/unheard of such a way of being is to fathom in the modern world. And developing in such a way that you become an empath is indeed usually an anomaly/maladaptive for your own "success" in the grand scheme of things.
I wouldn't want to extrapolate too much from this, but I think this could explain why kids who are beaten or were sexual abused are more likely to go on and do it themselves? My understanding is that to cope with extreme emotional stress people often learn to blunt their emotions, so if these findings are correct, then perhaps this results in a lack of empathy for their actions later in life.
And perhaps same could be true in reverse too. I think most people who know me would say I'm an overly an emotional person and I often struggle with overwhelming empathy to the point I think you could argue my sense of empathy is misaligned.
My interpretation of what they saying is maybe different. There are people who are naturally more prone to mirroring the feelings they perceive through words, actions, faces, etc. In modern accepted terms, mirroring this behavious without reasoning or any boundaries in place would result in you splitting your experience. If you have no boundaries emotionally, physically, or mentally you risk being steam rolled by outside influence. This is a fairly well understood effect in psychology, even though the term “empath” or highly sensitive person isnt as widely regarded. In either case I think its strange that someones personal experience and they way they deal with it results in so many divsive comments.