Reply #34: I can relate

[supernova]

It's good of you to help your friend, I'm sure she appreciates it.

I just don't usually enjoy her company.... a lot of it has to do with the fact that incessant talkers send my anxiety levels through the roof. If they go on and on about topics I consider boring, I feel obligated to pay attention anyway. It's energy lost.

I feel the same way about my sister in law. I love her, but I have to control how much time we spend together because I feel absolutely drained, spent afterwards. She is somewhat mentally ill and feels compelled to go on and on about her latest problems, treatments, etc.

I'm very sensitive and empathetic. Listening to someone else, it's way too easy for me to take on the emotions they are describing. Buy the time they're done, I feel like everything they've talked about has happened to me personally. Not really, of course. But I get the same emotional wallop.

The best description I have come across for this phenomenon has been recently. The writer was talking about extroverts effect on introverts. The effect was one of having spent the day giving blood. LOL! That's such an apt image. I don't know who wrote that, wish I could find the link again.