Right now I'm lying in bed at the end of week 4 with covid, with the cat. I be sent you a private mssg

Poker is just a math and psychology game, no more predatory than as any other zero sum game (Monopoly is arguably far more brutal). What's makes it parasitic are stakes that people can't afford and a high rake that makes survival dependent on relentless exploitation.

It's also the last game where, at least in multiway pots, humans still beat machines. I just admire the game too much to ever give it up. Despite the parasitism ok f the casino, I love playing.

It sounds like you are mentally healthy. The problem is when one never feels empathy (a psychopath) or when one feels too much it gets overwhelming (empath). Having no remorse in taking people's money is the first rule of poker.

I admire all hero calls. I really don't feel sorry for the loose passives fleeced by the pro, no one forced him to the table. At least in live poker, almost all the players are losing, it's only a matter of when.

Will you define empath in some detail? This is a term being bandied about quite liberally lately, kind of like with narcissist, which of course leads to overuse and misapplication. One of my fave psychologists (at least formerly) is Sam Vaknin (tons of videos) who concedes the category but is very skeptical about the term's overuse. So, I don't see you as using the term overly loosely, but still the detail would be helpful. Then I'd like to tell some stories and hear some about how it shows itself, especially in childhood developmental years.

L.

The Empath

As an Empath you feel and experience the world a lot more deeply than those around you. Occurring in an estimated 5% of the population, Empaths in a sense personify empathy being able to physically, emotionally and psychologically experience the feelings of other people on a daily basis.

Although the Empath has finely tuned intuition, compassion and listening skills, they often experience a variety of negative side effects from their gift. Not only do they frequently fluctuate in mood, but they also can develop a variety of illnesses from the multitude of emotions they carry around within them each day.

Nevertheless, Empaths are greatly valued and cherished by their friends and family for their willingness to listen, comfort and counsel those in need. In a sense, Empaths plays the role of the "sacrificial lamb", putting the needs of others above their own because they are made the most happy when others are happy.

When Empaths are away from people, however, they prefer to spend their time in nature - perhaps one of the only things that creates peace within them. If you're an Empath, you:

• Are often an emotional support to those in need. Everyone tends to open up to, and confide in, you.
• Often feel unexplainably moody, or physically ill.
• Can easily "read" other people. You see through their lies, masks and pretensions.
• Are deeply affected by the emotions of others. These emotions often linger in your mind and body.
• Sometimes develop "sympathy pain" when a person close to you is mentally or physically sick.
• Have excellent intuitive abilities. You often just know things, can predict events, and can see into the hidden nature of a person.
• Are self-sacrificial. You put others needs and happiness above your own.
• Are excellent at listening.
• Are driven to support the underdog, downcast or emotionally crippled in society.
• Have a love for nature and animals.
• Are easily overwhelmed in crowds of people, and tend to feel anxious, irritable, impatient and other varieties of emotions.
• Often feel fatigued, exhausted or 'heavy' inside.
• Find it intensely painful to watch or read about cruelty, torture, violence or tragedy.
• Are creative, solitary and spiritual.

I am much more caring and sensitive than 99% of the population(that's just the way it is, I'm not even saying that's a good thing) and it would never occur to me to label myself as an empath. In fact I constantly have to pretend I care about others needs less and put in a great effort to be less emotionally expressive to be more in line with the general population.

Hello,

I'm a empath. I rescue mice from my cat because of this.

I wish I had good things to say to you.

Being an empath has no advantages in the world. In fact it makes the world pretty painful
when you see how little so many people care. Then you have to wake up knowing
people like Putin, Kim Jong-um, Trump exist. That these people care as much about people
as they do about bugs.

If you find a way to turn it off or be less empthatic let me know

Empathy allows you to climb down into a hole to sit beside someone. To feel their pain. But this is completely useless and stupid if you climb down in the hole, get stuck there yourself and cannot help the other person as well.

I realised recently, watching someone celebrate when they won a hand, that I do not feel comfortable celebrating when I win a hand. When I win, sometimes I feel some guilt. All the time though, I don't want to celebrate. I don't even think to do it
because I didn't ever learn to express myself that way I guess. I feel that I will annoy the other person if I celebrate and am happy.

I wanted to say also that I am a chronic people-pleaser. But this is different to being an empath, which I think is more about passively picking up the same emotions and feelings as others. I had a lot of narcissism in my family, and thanks to that, I am hyper-vigilant around other people. The temptation would be to think that I could use this to be aware of what someone is feeling about their hand and therefore make the correct decision. But it's more like a painful noise that prevents me from thinking clearly. I often struggle with keeping calm and staying focused at the table. I tried to work on that recently, I did have some success with it.

There are techniques to help with emotional control, to use these for any emotion or experience one is having. With self-awareness, its possible to understand yourself, and how other people around you are affecting you.

Asocial*. You are the best person to have ever lived

You seem sadistic and no better than them

Pm pokerplayingdunces. He is very pretentious too.

Btw I am an empath and infp. People with a narcissistic parent are typically at least partial empaths.

What makes someone an empath? Is it nature or nurture?

Going from the list above, I have many of those traits. But not all the time. How I feel and behave changes a lot, depending on many factors. Like whether I am hungry, what time of day it is, if I slept well the previous night, etc.

Google says that the opposite of narcissism is in an empath. But I think there are two separate terms worse parsing; empath and echoism. In the Greek myth, narcissus fell in love with his own reflection. And echo fell in love with narcissus, but she could only ever repeat back the words he was saying.

The narcissist typically wants to be seen as so handsome/intelligent/special, whereas the echoist is afraid of such attention. But they both need the external world to 'fill themselves in'. But the empath also has some 'bad' things too, like being easily overwhelmed. Probably the terms can be used interchangeably in most cases. But just on a gut sense, being an empath feels more nature, whereas echoism is nurture,

**** Sorry its not letting me make edits.


It feels like the empath is more of a nature thing, whereas echoism is nurture. Though I can think of all sorts of ways one might develop empath traits in their formative years as well. Probably the terms can be used interchangeably in most cases, but there are differences.

I think it's nature but the environment certainly affects how it expresses itself.

I just remembered a relevant term: fawning. Like fight / flight / freeze. But its people-pleasing behaviours in order to establish a sense of safety. While the instinct may be hardwired, I think how much it shows up in someone's character is entirely a function of upbringing/nurture.

I find this very interesting in regards to the empath discussion. I have very strong traits of an empath and narcissistic traits. My general feeling is that people are over labeling themselves and others in both areas and that's problematic. I think you can have a lot of empathetic traits and not be an empath and I think you can have a lot of narcissistic traits and not be anything like a narcissist.

I would describe myself as a bit self centered and nice.
In my opinion , The internet has a problem of labeling too many as attention whores and narcissists for relatively benign behavior and on occasion just normal teen issues.

The reverse is also true; there are too many people who consider themselves a kind of super empath who really aren't as considerate or sensitive as they think they are. Guys tend to think they are "nice" guys.