First of all, I'd like to start out with the fact that I don't believe myself to be psychic in any sense of the word. I think FD has said that he suspected or something when he first met me, and has made references since to things. All the same, I don't /feel/ psychic. None of those echos in large crowds or whatever he's spoken of before.
That said, I do seem unusally sensitive to emotion, despite my attempts to not care about things. Now, not people's feelings, per se, as I can be quite selfish sometimes,but their literal expression of emotions. This friday I found myself in the situation of having another less-than-great report card. I was in trouble, of course, but my punishment is relatively light by most standards. Even so, even though my parents barely raised their voice, I felt absolutely miserable.
Now, that's probably not all that out of the ordinary, but it's more than just that. Even when that negative emotion isn't directed at me, I feel so... nervous? Uncomfortable? Anxious? Annoyed? I'm not even sure, but it's definitely not fun. Whenever my dad gets upset over politics at the fire house, I feel it, but I really couldn't care less about politics at the fire department. My dad just hurt something. I didn't even see, as it was in the room across the hall, but I felt close to tears until he went downstairs. Now, some of that could very well be a mixture of stress over my homework and tiredness, but... it seems so extreme.
Now, why am I writing this? I'm not entirely sure. Maybe just to try and work out my own confused feelings about this. I don't want to dillude myself into thinking it's some psychic ability, because more likely than not, it isn't. For all I know, it may be perfectly normal, with one of those good ole rational explanations. Is it possible for there to be a subconscious emotional peer pressure?
Now, why am I writing this? I'm not entirely sure. Maybe just to try and work out my own confused feelings about this. I don't want to dillude myself into thinking it's some psychic ability, because more likely than not, it isn't. For all I know, it may be perfectly normal, with one of those good ole rational explanations. Is it possible for there to be a subconscious emotional peer pressure?
Am I hoping that someone reading this will help me sort it out? Maybe. I don't want to get rid of it, I don't think, as it's about the only thing keeping me from being completely selfish and apathetic. Maybe it is normal, then. Maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing. I'd just rather know.
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I get the same way... almost. I feel what other people feel, at least when it's really pronounced. It's why I love fiction; I can really lose myself in it. But I don't know if it's really the same thing. Could be just plain old empathy, right? In either case.
Maybe... Maybe... It just seems so strong. Not that I really have anything to compare it to, though...
That's the thing. But I do know what it's like to have an entire day ruined with just an implication of disapproval, especially if it's from someone I look up to. Sometimes it's worse when it's a subtle, and of course sometimes I'm probably imagining it and that's probably when it's much worse.
There /are/ rational explanations for things like this. Humans, by nature, are communal creatures. We feed in the same territorial, we commune in the same watering-holes... and it was only as a team we stood any chance against much larger and stronger predators, in the ancient world. The chances of any one human go up with those of the group... those more sensitive to the needs of others will be selected over those who aren't, because those groups of individuals who are less able to care for each other will be more likely to die. This has bred in us an instinct of compassion. An instinct to empathize with others in order to make everyone survive better. In some people it's stronger than others. I had to drop Honors Anatomy because I couldn't stand the pictures of the inside of the body. And then there's football players who slam into each other all day and just... keep on doin' it, breaking peoples limbs like its nobody's buisnuess.
There are multiple signals of these conditions. Like any other animal, we humans secrete odorless pheromones (at least, scentless to the conscious mind) that can linger around us for hours, carrying the message of our emotions to all around us. Fear, discomfort... are the strongest of these instincts, and those most closely tied into the brain. We're best at telling others about these emotions without saying anything, I mean. It's not unusual to pick up on these signals. There are visual ones too... conscious ones, auditory ones... some people are sensitive to it, and some... aren't. It's all down to the genes and the personality.
Now the body has its limits, though. The body can't sense these signals through walls, or buildings. There comes a point when biology can no longer answer. That's when you might think of looking elsewhere...
Yeah... I'm sure it's something among that mess of science... The only thing that bugs me is how quickly it goes away once things are over with... I feel like it would linger longer...
Chemicals? It really depends. If it's visual cues, it's highly likely the sensation would go away when you were no longer exposed. Emotions, though, are much longer-lived. Chemicals take awhile to dissaperate, and all that.
I couldn't imagine why the sensation would abruptly end when the situation of stress appears visibly to be over. I mean, even if it actually is, the subject should be feeling residual emotions for far longer. There's a "cool down" time from strong emotions, as you know. Most curious...
Well, like I said, it's usually less visual and more audio, but that probably doesn't matter. Most likely, it's just the fact that I can get my mind of off things easily so long as I'm not continuously reminded.
It's not that special, Kirb and it's fairly normal. While I don't have long explanations like F.D., I can tell from personal experience than I know what you mean and it's normal. As you know, I am a rather sensitive person too, though it doesn't really show over text messaging. While written words can hurt me, I'm more sensitive over talking and the tone of people's voice. If someone raise their voice ever so slightly, I feel like crying. You also had exemple of that on the latest voice chats, when things turned sour. Another exemple is how in some RPs, Sparktail (I think) shown some fear at being shouted at.
Now that I established that I am sensible to voices, I can say that I am someone who tend to listen to everything people say. It doesn't really help, but I am a curious person, so I listen to any word my ears can catch and they happen to be better than the average (probably to compensate for my poor eyesight, I guess). This more than often led to me to hear unfun things from everybody. While I can't say that I feel near crying, I do feel the emotions other are feeling, to a lesser degree. When someone say something that shows they are hurt, I feel bad. Most of the time, I'm too selfish to do anything about it (or shy or nervous or coward, depends on the situation) and I ignore it by trying to focus on something else, so the emotion dissapear quickly. Like with you Kirb, it doesn't stay for long, as long it's not something that concerns me directly. In those cases, I tend to do the opposite, which is listening to everything that is said and focusing only on that, kind of in a parnoid way. You know me well, I do either too little or too much.
Oh well... I hope that you feel much more normal after reading this. We are all sensible to a lot of things and it's different for everybody and to different levels, but it's all normal. Maybe you are a little over sensitive, but then again, do people say I'm not normal because I'm over sensitive about some things too? No. At worst, they say I'm weird, but I think everyone is a little weird. We are all unique, aren't we?
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