I empathize easily. This seems a coveted trait these days. Ted Talks and Psychology Today articles abound on how to increase your empathetic skills. Which would imply that empathy is a rare and precious thing, but I suspect many people empathize. How else would we have so many activists? What I think may be rare, however, is being simultaneously empathetic and introverted. It’s kind of the worst of both worlds. You feel for others but to be around them drains your soul.
To be like this, I think requires that you be binary about it. As if you know if you open the door, there is no easy closing of it. When you relate to someone else, you relate too readily, inadvertently taking on another load. So, instead, you try not to think about others. You hide in your singular spaces erecting emotion-proof walls around yourself.