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How do I become a person who does not have empathy to becoming a person with empathy?
I want to undo and get rid of my apathy and start to learn how to sympathise and empathise with people.
Is it something that I need to teach myself?
I want to start somewhere as well as avoiding giving people the impression that I'm this sociopathic guy.
As a broad generalization, empathy is being able to put aside your own feelings and thoughts and to think and feel of someone else. If they're under duress, understanding how and why and processing what they're going through as if it was happening to you would be empathetic of you
This usually involves eye contact, reading facial expressions, and being mentally and emotionally healthy yourself. Can't plow a field with rusted up equipment, right? It takes time to be able to sense these things, and they're often very subtle. If you're just patient and humble about learning and applying these things, the empathy will come naturally, and you'll know it when you feel icy water running through your chest when someone tells you something troubling them and whatever other feelings you may have or learn to develop
Every month we get a new post from someone thinking, no, wanting validated as a psychopath/sociopath when the reality is that 9/10, the person just has too much time on their hands and are trying to convince themselves that they're interesting "on the inside" because they have nothing interesting to show on the outside.
You're not a psychopath, you're not a sociopath. It's normal not to have empathy for every person you come across because we all have shit to do. Do yourself a favour and find ways to become interesting in realistic ways because you might convince yourself that you're interesting for this angle but absolutely nobody else will share that view you have of yourself.
Having no empathy is something you cannot change and that's just how it is.
A lot of lost empathy is caused by desensitizion to trauma and tragedy. Empathy is instinct, you naturally have it, too many people train out of it but that only harms you. If you watch a lot of horror or consume a lot of abusive media you should try to refrain from doing so.
My dad used to say something along the lines of “It’s while mourning the lamb that we learn of the wolves” - emotional response is survival, it’s what protects you and gives you the desire to protect others, we would not succeed without it.
When a bird calls out a distress signal the other animals perk up - If witnessing harm does not alert you, you will be the next to get eaten.
Think of someone you know who has been having a hard time in life, and try to imagine yourself in that other person's shoes.
What you can use as a check is to ask yourself how you would like to Ben a similar situation as the person you’re looking at. The golden rule is still as valid as ever.
That's actually a good question to ask. I would say try to see every living thing as part of your family. As someone who has a lot of empathy I tend to view strangers and animals as part of my family. They all share this Earth with me, they all have right to be on this Earth, they have thoughts and feelings and should be loved.