Hyper-empathy

Hyper-empathy describes a heightened, often uncontrollable sensitivity to the emotions and experiences of others—where a person feels not only with someone but sometimes as them. It goes beyond compassion or concern; it can feel like the boundary between self and other dissolves, as if the feelings of another person have colonised one’s inner world. For some, this produces clarity, care, or intuition; for others, it creates distress, paralysis, or an unresolvable internal war between perspectives. In neurodivergent people—particularly autistic or PDA-identifying individuals—hyper-empathy can coexist with sensory overwhelm, moral intensity, and a profound sense of responsibility that shapes how relationships, harm, and advocacy are experienced. This tag connects content exploring empathic saturation, relational ethics, emotional overload, and the cost of feeling too much, too vividly, all the time.