How I Stopped Feeling Exhausted by Other People's Needs and Feelings - Tiny Buddha

An empath is described as someone highly attuned to others’ feelings and emotions. The experience of relief from that label later shifts into doubt about whether the definition fits. The focus becomes changing responses to others’ emotions so life is not managed by them. Challenges include attracting people who need support, difficulty separating from others’ stresses, and exhaustion from time with people. Advice about avoiding toxic people and using protective practices does not stop being overtaken by emotions from close relationships. A survival response called appeasing is introduced as a more significant framework for understanding and change.

"A few years later I discovered a different word that changed my life in a more significant way-appeasing. Appeasing is a survival response that gets activated when emotions or situations are too much for us. Just like the fight, flight, and freez"

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