This is rather fascinating, and I'm sure a few people here can relate to this.
"Written by Amateo Ra| Have you ever felt anxious being around other people? For some, the feelings of social anxiety can be so intense that someone can feel totally paralyzed just to be out in public. Could social anxiety’s hidden link to empathy give us a greater understanding into the lives of those affected?
Social anxiety can often be an extremely confusing, challenging and even interesting experience for many. Fear is the primary feeling generally attributed to social anxiety, and those who experience it often can’t seem to discover the origin of the social anxiety within themselves.
All logic can seem to fail in the face of social anxiety. The feelings associated may not seem to go away even with common treatments & healing techniques. Social anxiety overtime can turn into stories of being judged, not belonging or feeling so alienated that you look at Earth as the furthest thing from being at home.
A new Scientific Study recently released published on PubMed shows that people with social phobias and anxieties are hypersensitive to other peoples states of mind. People who are more socially anxious are able to discern the mental states of people much more accurately. As the study concluded:
"Results support the hypothesis that high socially anxious individuals may demonstrate a unique social-cognitive abilities profile with elevated cognitive empathy tendencies and high accuracy in affective mental state attributions."
This helps shed major light on the subject, finding a hidden link between social anxiety and being an Empath. They used specific testing to measure levels of empathy within specific individuals, and found that those same individuals demonstrated high levels of social anxiety-like behavior.
What does it all mean?
It means that the very ability to feel the energy, emotions and feelings of others can be extremely overwhelming to the point of inducing social anxiety for the average empathic person.
Most importantly, it means that if you are experiencing Social Anxiety, it could be because you are a highly sensitive person with a very special gift.
I believe this awareness can dramatically affect those who suffer from Social Anxiety, as rather than feeling like something is wrong with you and that you need to be fixed, psychologically, medically and with pharmaceuticals, you can just simply be very aware of your energy and how being around others affects you.
Being an Empath means you literally feel what other people are experiencing emotionally. You can feel it in your body, your mood, sensations and in your thoughts. You can also feel it consciously and on a subtle level without realizing it, which is what this recent study found.
As a culture we tend to be a highly emotionally illiterate species, not knowing what to do with our emotions, how to process them, and consciously relate to them. This can lead to a lot of people carrying very heavy emotional baggage or emotional pollution. And a lot of people means a lot of weight, and being an Empath you can easily feel all the unspoken things other people are carrying.
Of course, if you are around a lot of people with a lot of emotional pollution, you are going to pick up on that and feel all of that energy, thus leading to the connection to Social Anxiety.
Interestingly enough, the study also correlated empathy and social anxiety to understanding the mental state of others. Meaning, as an empath, you not only can you understand how other people feel, you can understand how they think and the frame of mind they are taking in making their decisions.
As an Empath, it can be a lot for someone to handle, as the source of their discomfort is not just the weight of their own life’s challenges and experiences, but also the energy of others all around them, both the good and the bad, all of which can be a lot to integrate and digest.
It’s worth mentioning, from experience and hearing the stories of those who have broken through social anxiety, many have done so by working on healing themselves, changing their surroundings, being careful of what environments they place themselves within and who around, as well as being more conscious of the energy they take on, spending more time in nature, and practicing clearing it, processing and integrating emotional energy, as to not get toxic with the feelings of the World.
I believe this is major news, and that more scientific studies like this are needed to give ourselves a deep glimpse into what makes us humans, full of a vast range of often incomprehensible experiences. As we get to shed light on the functions of and inner-workings of human energetics, we can create more conscious relationships toward each other.
So in all, if you are an Empath with Social Anxiety, you’re not crazy! You are normal person with a specific kind of design, purpose, and unique yet shared experience of life.
Be easy on yourself and conscious with what kind of people and surroundings you immerse yourself in, as there is a strongly likelihood you will take on what they are feeling, or trying to ignore feeling, and it’s important you don’t let it make you crazy!"
- Source:
http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/new-study-links-social-anxiety-to-being-empath/
