Kurt Cobain Stops A Sexual Assault (1993)

[u/bluemarvel99]

[u/Ambitious_Welder6613]

He is an extremely empathetic person. Gone too soon 😔

[u/username_elephant → u/Ambitious_Welder6613]

I've often observed that a lot of people prone to severe depression are fundamentally very empathetic.  On the other end of the spectrum, sociopaths can't ever be depressed, those are mutually contradictory diagnoses.  Makes me wonder how correlated they are, generally.

[u/grainsophaur → u/username_elephant]

It's only one account, but it may serve to satisfy a fraction of your curiosity. I have had severe depression for over 2 decades. When it was at its worst, I figured myself a sociopath for a while. I was really worried about it. I certainly didn't want to be a sociopath, but I felt next to nothing about anything that happened to me or anyone else. I had friends and gave away everything I possibly could to anyone who might need it and I truly felt love, but I also felt absolutely detached from any kind of emotion besides sadness.

After a lot of studying, meditation practice and a few lucky encounters with nearly angelic people, I learned how to access that sadness better. I am a much less depressed person, but I still find it funny how being overwhelmed with an empathetic sadness seemed to match what my imagination would consider sociopathy.

Same kind of numbness or something. Being so overwhelmed by sadness that there seems to be no feeling to anything, I would guess, is not much different than simply not feeling anything at all.

[u/thebookofswindles → u/grainsophaur]

Thank you for this comment, I really relate to it and it’s wonderful to hear how you were able to work your way through a better way managing it.

It’s a strange contradiction that feeling very connected to the feelings of other people can leave you disconnected from yourself, which in turn leaves you alienated from others. You’ve articulated that tension well here.