I tend to be very sensitive to people’s moods and personalities, and believe me, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. On the positive side, empathy and sympathy come very easily for me. I can step into someone else’s shoes easily and imagine what it is like to be them and what they must be thinking and feeling. As a result I find it pretty simple to relate to them and to help them in a time of need.
The downside to all this is that I am equally sensitive to their bad moods and negative personality traits. What essentially happens is that I sort of absorb a part of their mood for a brief period of time. This is most noticeable when said individual is stressed or worried, both states of mind that I do not myself handle all that well. ((This is probably because I already lean toward stress and worry, so experiencing someone else’s stress and worry only compounds the problem.)) When someone else is stressed, I feel that stress. When they are worried, I feel worried. When they are upset, I get upset. In almost every case what happens is that I end up expressing all these feelings with a raised voice, with tension, with a high level of crankiness.
I have been having just such a week, due in large part because I am tired and feeling pretty brain-fried. I do find that I handle stress a whole lot better when I am well-rested, something that seems to escape me all too often. Fortunately, though, it’s Thursday, and so the weekend is nearly upon us. I just have to survive a couple of more days…
