I've known that I was a psychic empath for quite some time. My abilities started to hit me when I was about 7 years old and (unknowingly) started astral projecting on a regular basis. By the time I was 9, I was feeling everything around me, and with a father with extreme anger problems this caused me to become very depressed, physically Ill and psychotic to the point where the energy around me was so bad that I have to be hospitalized many times and people thought I was crazy. I also have the ability to communicate with spirits so the doctors also though I was schizoid. I always knew that I wasn't crazy but psychic abilities aren't held accountable in psychiatric medicine so they drugged me up from the age of about 14-16 and I was put in a state hospital for about 6 months. After I was released I stopped all of the meds and decided it was time for me to face the feelings and energies all around me, meditate, reflect astral project again, learn to distinguish what feelings were mine, and ones that were not, and learn how to ground and protect myself from the never ending torrents of energy around me.
Since then I have lived a normal life, I work for a non-profit organization helping at risk/homeless teens. Helping people has always been my greatest strength, and people naturally trust and confide in me. My life is amazing and I am grateful for all of the blessings that I have received. The only thing missing in my life now is love. When I meet someone I automatically have a picture painted in front of me who they are, their intentions, their feelings about themselves, whether they are good people or not and most people I encounter are just not what I'm looking for, they carry too much emotional baggage, or I simply do not feel anything for them in a romantic way. Do empaths even have any kind of hope for love or serious relationships? I have a tremendous amount of love to give I just cannot connect with anyone. Any type of feed back or suggestions are welcome.
Whenever I met someone at first I knew right away their full story. That was very exhausting. People always assume it is good, but it bothered me a lot.
However I realized I can turn it off to a certain degree. It is something like a decision (with your heart). I decided that whenever Î meet someone I would only recognize their story if they want me to. It is kind of like laying an ethic foundation.
Now I still have a very strong 'intuition' about someone when I meet them, but not everything is seen at first sight now.
For me it was a big relief. On the other hand, the intuition is still there and it is true, it is really an advantage to recoginze right away whether a person is right for you or not.
Hope this helps somehow.