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Positive Energy
How to Build Vitality and Stop the Energy Vampires
By Judith Orloff, M.D.
Like me, you may be an intuitive empath: someone who's so sensitive to energy you pick it up, but you are also drained by it. This goes way beyond feeling sympathy for a distraught friend – we actually take on their pain either emotionally or physically. To cope, we take refuge in solitude. We empaths are so attuned to others that we can feel what's going on inside of them. This can put us on energy overload and aggravate everything from chronic fatigue to overeating.
Growing up, my girlfriends couldn't wait to hit the malls, but I dreaded them. I always felt overwhelmed and exhausted around crowds, though I was clueless as to why. "What's the matter?" friends would say, shooting me the weirdest looks. All I knew was that crowded places and I just didn't mix. I'd go there feeling fine but leave nervous, depressed or with some new ache or pain. Unsuspectingly, I was a gigantic sponge, absorbing the energy of people around me.
Thank goodness, as my intuition matured I realized I had intuitive empathy. Once I learned to protect my energy, empathy has become a gift that is enhancing my compassion. Here's how empathy works: The more people per square foot, the more our energy fields intersect – thus the tendency to become overloaded in high-density areas. This aspect of intuition is the most neglected.
Empaths, unintentionally, can make even a good doctor's life hell. They manifest so many "unexplained" symptoms that frustrated physicians write them off as hypochondriacs. Empaths are notoriously misdiagnosed. Patients have come to me with obesity who've failed diets because they needed strategies other than eating to protect themselves from negative energy. Others were labeled "agoraphobic" or with "panic disorder," having received only minor relief from traditional treatments. Some were nearly housebound. They'd all say, "I dislike crowded places where there's no quick escape. Forget department stores, busy streets, elevators, tunnels. I just avoid them."