Easily one of most misunderstood, and as a result of that, misused and overused terms out there. Empathy is not the same as kindness and friendliness. Not the same as respect, not the same as consideration or being of service to another. It is especially not the same as emotional instability or low self esteem, or even depression. Please stop confusing that. These can all be a result of empathy, but they aren't the same thing.
Empathy in itself has more to do with mind reading. Not every mind is a good read; for some you need quite a stomach, like a horror film. When someone doesn't ask you how you are, it might be because they already know.
It's silly to ask questions you don't really mean. It's what I did as a kid when I was desperate to get a conversation going. When someone tries to keep you at a distance, it might be not because they don't care how you are doing, but because they feel it as if it was themselves, and frankly, you don't feel great at all, and they have no clue how to change that.
And if they have a clue, it is specifically an empathetic person who has an inherent self-interest in you feeling better. That's something else people seem to forget. Really, seeing how many people think of themselves as being empathetic, while only ever using the word in the context of a demand, while they come across neither kind nor friendly nor considerate nor anything else from the examples above Someone's in a stark discrepancy between the way how themselves and others perceive them.
If emotions are like cancer as stated previously, then empathy turns it into a contagious form of cancer. Congratulations, I guess Actualmente tengo un trabajo apasionante ,estresante y muy muy gratificante,soy cuidadora de personas con demencias tipo Alzehimer.
