Empathy, sympathy, and compassion can be intertwined, but they are different. I suggest that what empaths are experiencing as described here is a sympathetic response to others’ energy. That sympathy leads to compassion, which is literally suffering with the other. So the unpleasant experience isn’t based on empathy per se, but a lower level energy in which we desire to help fix what’s causing stress for the other person. This can be exacerbated when the other person is an energy vampire. Yes, they will gladly take your energy. That’s when the remedies described in this article become beneficial.