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How Is Hyper Empathy Syndrome Diagnosed?

by — Last updated: 2020-10-22 in Emotional & Stress Management
Reviewed by Medical Team — 2017-09-20

Table of Contents

Learn the differences between empathy and sympathy and find out about overempathizing or hyperempathy. Explore how empathy occurs and the different areas of the brain which are involved in the emotion.

The DSM criterion for the diagnosis of hyper empathy syndrome requires the following criteria being met [5]: 

  • Significant impairment in self-identity and interpersonal abilities.
  • One or more of the pathological personality traits in the following areas; antagonism, detachment, negative affectivity, disinhibition, compulsivity and psychoticism. 
  • There will be impairments in personality functioning and the person’s personality traits are not understood as normal for the developmental stage or social-cultural environment being experienced.
  • The impairments in a person’s personality function and personality traits must not be completely owing to substance abuse or a general health condition.

How rare is hyper empathy?

Hyper empathy remains new to the psychiatric world; there is very little definite information about the disorder.

One rare documented case involved a woman who developed “hyper empathy,” after having part of her brain removed in an effort to control her severe epilepsy. [6]

The woman’s case was especially unique because removing part of the temporal lobe involves an area of the brain which recognizes emotions.  After the surgery was performed, the woman’s seizures stopped, but she reported a new type of emotional arousal which has lasted for the past thirteen years.

The woman’s sense of empathy seems to transcend from her body, she feels physical effects along with emotions, when experiencing empathetic anger or sadness.  She reported feeling these things when seeing people on television, meeting someone in person or reading about characters in a book.  She also describes an ability to decode the emotions another person is having.  The woman’s newly acquired ability to empathize with others on such a profound level has been confirmed by her family members and she ranks normal in psychological tests of empathy.

The woman’s case has been reported about all over the internet and it is the very first of its kind in the scientific literature which describes such a profound change after having parts of the frontal lobe removed. Any time a person has brain surgery for epilepsy it can result in pronounced changes, but usually, it manifests as depression or anxiety, hyper empathy is a totally new and before now, unheard of occurrence.

What did the scientific study find involving the woman with hyper empathy?

In studying the lady with hyper empathy, researchers studied the woman’s psychological health using a battery of standard tests.  Her mental health appeared to be completely normal on all scales. Additionally, researchers also analyzed how the woman responded to a questionnaire which was aimed at measuring empathy. The woman was also asked to complete a test involving 36 pictures of people’s eyes; her scores were compared to a test panel of ten other women who served as control subjects.  The woman scored above average on the empathy tests and significantly higher on the eye test than other women in the control group. [6]

READ Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): Emotional Dysregulation

Prognosis

While hyper empathy is a relatively new scientific phenomenon, it is an area which more researchers are studying and exploring.

Hyper empathy disorder could be seen as a unique and complex disorder and there so far has been only one documented case in the United States. With more research, medical science will gain a better understanding of hyper empathy disorder and find effective ways of treating the condition.
 
In less formal contexts, however, it is also quite reasonable to come to a realization — perhaps together with a therapist — that you have extremely high levels of empathy, and that your hyper empathy impacts your life in difficult ways. This can be explored even if you do not have a particular diagnostic label, and some people refer to this phenomenon as being an empath. There are ways to learn to control positive and negative emotions with hyper empathy, allowing you to get a break from other people's emotions and giving you the space you need to thrive.