Dr. Cooper said,<\/p>\n
Individuals who find it necessary to withdraw when we would expect them to stay engaged may be acting out of self-preservation, even a farther reaching empathy for how they might project their overwhelm onto their loved ones.<\/p>\n
In some cases, withdrawal from extremely overstimulating situations may be the kindest and most loving thing to do, considering the lack of fair-minded critical thinking and unwillingness to engage in the essential give and take of conflict without resorting to personal attacks.<\/p>\n
The “empath shutdown” may be quite temporary. In other emotionally intense situations, the same individual may react quite calmly, rationally, and with great resolve. This complexity is inherent in the trait as it enables a broader possible range of emotional responsiveness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Therefore, highly sensitive people and empaths shut down out of self-preservation,<\/strong> not because they actually don\u2019t care. It\u2019s an extremely important truth to remember.<\/p>\nAfter all, enhanced empathy is both a gift and a curse. And it\u2019s not always easy to carry this burden.<\/p>\n
As Dr. Cooper sums it up,<\/p>\n
On the surface, it may appear that the individual is acting out of character, i.e., from being highly empathetic to seemingly low empathy. But we should bear in mind the practical reality that no two persons who identify with sensory processing sensitivity are alike.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What Is the Empath Shutdown? It is when an empath or a highly sensitive person (HSP) emotionally withdraws from an intense situation that involves conflict, violence, or suffering. In essence, it\u2019s a self-preservation and coping mechanism that helps them deal with emotional overwhelm. Why Does It Happen? Empaths and highly sensitive people are known to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":976,"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powerofmisfits.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}