What Happens When An Empath Gets Angry?

Empaths are truly gifted people in many ways. They are masters of reading body language and have no trouble reading your mind too. They innately know what you are thinking, but you are not telling, even if you are not aware of it. (1)

It is a rare gift that makes them what they are – empaths. They sense the feelings of others as if they were their own, which makes them great listeners and trouble-solvers.

Because empaths have a calm and collected nature, people tend to think empaths don’t experience strong emotions, such as anger, frustration, or rage. But this is just one of the many misconceptions about empaths. 

Empathic individuals are not immune to negative emotions. They can get angry. They can sense and absorb other people’s negative emotions, including anger. In addition, when someone has hidden or negative intentions, this can also trigger their anger.

Another instance when empaths can get angry is when they feel like they’re not being heard or their feelings aren’t being validated or acknowledged. 

An empathic individual can also get angry when something is happening which is out of their control. For example, their anger can be triggered when talking to someone who is rude to them or angry. They will try to reason with the person who is making them feel upset or treating them with disrespect while trying to understand their perspective and be supportive of their feelings.

If they manage to find a solution to the situation, the empath will be satisfied and able to move on. If not, they’ll begin getting annoyed and angry. Empaths simply can’t stand when someone isn’t reciprocating what they’re giving, such as understanding, honesty, and support.

The way empaths react when they’re angry may be more intense than the way other non-empathic people do, and their anger can manifest itself in various ways.

So, in this article, we’ll explain how empaths react when they get angry and present 10 reasons why you should never mess with this type of person. We’ll also answer the questions of whether empaths have low self-esteem and why some people, especially narcissists, hate empaths.

What Happens When An Empath Gets Angry?

8 Manifestations Of Empaths’ Anger

1. Isolation

When an empath gets overwhelmed by anger, they’d rather distance themselves from the person who caused them to be angry than feed the fire, i.e., making the situation worse. They’d try to do other things that can be done and enjoyed alone, such as reading a book, listening to music, cooking, walking in nature, or working out.

2. Giving The Silent Treatment

Giving silent treatment is another way empaths may react when they’re angry with someone. For example, they won’t talk to the person they got angry with so as to prevent the situation from escalating and inconveniencing the person involved or other people. They’d rather keep their feelings and thoughts to themselves than pick a fight with the other person and cause a bigger fuss.

3. Angry Outburst

It may be hard to imagine a person with a calm, collected, and compassionate nature to start yelling at someone and clench their fists as if they want to hit someone, but even this can happen with empaths when they’re triggered enough.

The thing is that empaths can sense and absorb the emotions and energy of other people, which can intensify their own emotions, making things more difficult for them. And these angry outbursts may be the only way they can vent their anger and frustration and let things out.

4. Emphasizing The Other Person’s Faults

It may be difficult to imagine a kind, compassionate, and caring person, as empaths are, to point out someone’s mistakes, but it’s not uncommon for empaths to do this. It’s hard to understand why an empath would do such a thing, but one possible explanation could be that this is their dark side.

When an empath has suffered enough and can no longer allow others to hurt them, they can call you out on your behavior and point out all of your mistakes and bad things you’ve said or done to them that hurt their feelings.

5. Crying Out

Although empathic individuals are great at keeping themselves in check and keeping their emotions to themselves, allowing themselves to cry their eyes out is an easy and effective way to let things out without inconveniencing or hurting others in the process.

Sometimes, there isn’t a better way of venting one’s anger than just crying out. In addition, some emotions can’t be expressed through words. We can’t always show how we feel through words. So, when we can’t use language to express our feelings, we let our tears fall to show how we’re feeling and what we’re going through.

6. Appearing Snob 

It may be rare to find an individual with a calm and compassionate nature turn into a cold, snobbish person, but, in certain situations, such as when they need to protect themselves from emotional pain, empaths can become harsh, cold, and intimidating. 

Like other people, empaths might have been embarrassed or hurt, so they’ll try to prevent that from happening again by acting cold and harsh around negative people. They can even turn into snobs to show the person involved that they are annoyed and have no intention of engaging in a conversation with them.

7. Exhaustion

When an empath becomes angry, this can make them feel emotionally, mentally, and physically drained. Remember that in addition to feeling the emotions from within themselves, empaths feel and absorb the emotions and energy of others. Try adding anger to this mix, and it’ll become clear to you why empaths can get exhausted when feeling angry.

8. Walking Out

This may not be very empath-like, but if an empath gets overwhelmed by anger, to prevent the situation from escalating and avoid inconveniencing the person involved or hurting their feelings, they may leave the room without saying a word.

10 Reasons Why You Should Never Mess With An Empath

1. They Are Natural Lie-Detectors

You may have read somewhere by now about ways to detect lies. There are many signs that can reveal when someone is lying to you: from looking you straight into your eyes and giving way more unnecessary details to the story – to their bodily subconscious movements. You can learn all these tactics. However, empaths don’t need them because they are born with this gift to spot liars and lies immediately. They can’t tell how, they just feel it in their gut. Therefore, don’t you ever lie to an empath.

2. They Can Sense Jealousy

Empaths know when you are jealous, even if you try your best to hide it. They may act like they don’t see your jealousy, but they do. Empaths sense when you are jealous of them, but they won’t confront you because they don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable. They may even be more humble around you in order not to trigger your jealousy. 

3. You Cannot Fool Them

As we said before, empaths can sense other people’s feelings, so there is no way you can fool them. They know a faker once they see it. When they sense that something is wrong with a person, they just distance themselves as prevention.

4. They Can Sense Hatred

One of the most powerful emotions that an empath can sense is hatred. This emotion transmits such intense negative energy that empaths can’t stand it. So, to avoid being affected by negativity, they will just distance themselves. However, they will not be hurt by your hatred because they are comfortable in their own skin.

5. They See Your Prejudices

If you have any hidden prejudice towards people with different skin color or sexual orientation, empaths can see this even if you, yourself, are not aware of it. Empaths don’t like shallow people full of prejudices and hatred toward people who are different from them.

6. They Know When You Are Not Okay

I believe you’ve had a conversation when someone asked you if you were okay, and you said you were okay, even if deep down you were not. Maybe you said that because you wanted to hide your emotions and avoid explaining why you were distressed. But an empath will know when you’re lying. And they will ask why you are feeling that way, offer you a listening ear, and try everything they can to help you.

7. They Hate Insincere Flattery

Empaths can sense when someone gives them false compliments and affection to gain something from them. Even if they don’t react to this, empaths can see what you are trying to do. They also hate small talk, and nothing annoys them more than flatterers.

8. They Know When Someone Is On The Wrong Path

If you are lucky to have an empath as a friend, and they are trying to warn you about something you are doing – listen to them. If they feel that something doesn’t add up or feels strange to them – believe them. Their intuition is so developed that they usually get this feeling when something is wrong.

9. They Know When You Pretend To Be Someone You Are Not

Empaths know when someone is acting around them, trying hard to be someone they are not. Empaths hate this. They hate split personalities. If you want to have an empath in your life, you should always be yourself. They will accept your flaws without doubt as long as you are not pretending.

10. They Can Identify Exploitation

Empaths are not naïve. They can see when someone is using them. They don’t tolerate any form of exploitation. If they see they are being used – they remove themselves quickly from the situation.

Do Empaths Have Low Self-Esteem?

Yes, they do. Most empathic individuals have low self-esteem since they feel and take on other people’s energy and emotions, both positive and negative. While doing that, they can’t know who they are. They can’t tell what their emotions and energy are and what emotions and energy belong to other people. They simply have trouble finding themselves and their worth.

One of the main reasons why empaths tend to have low self-esteem is that they’re natural healers. They invest a lot of energy in helping others heal their emotional wounds.

To be able to assist other people in healing their wounds, empathic individuals are sensitive to any negative emotion, weakness, or pain that others may have. They feel and absorb these things and then process and create a balance between them, and in this way, they help the person that these emotions, weaknesses, or pain belongs to overcome them.

The thing is that empathic individuals don’t have boundaries when it comes to their own energy. As a result, their energy merges with that of other people, which makes them think all the messy energy surrounding them is their own.

By focusing too much on other people and absorbing others’ energy, emotions, and pain, empaths also develop deep wounds that make it harder for them to believe in themselves and find their worth.

The best way empaths can raise their low self-esteem is to stop focusing on how other people see them and how they feel about them. There will always be those who perceive empaths in a way that’s different from the way they perceive themselves and who don’t accept them, and there’s no way for empaths to control that. That’s why empaths have to focus their attention on themselves and their well-being.

They can do this by spending quality time with themselves. In silence and alone. This will allow them to find their true self and reconnect with themselves.

Why Do People Hate Empaths?

Most probably, the main reason why some people appear to hate empaths is the mirror effect of the empath.

Empaths have the ability to sense and absorb other people’s feelings and energy. When they sense negative energy, they mirror this negativity back to its owner. Sometimes they’re not even aware that they’re doing this.

Another thing that empaths can reflect on is the things you don’t like about yourself. For example,  all have aspects of our personality or physical appearance that we don’t like. But, when you’re around an empath, there’s no point in trying to hide these things. Because not only will the empath sense them, they’ll also reflect them back to you. They’ll wave them right in your face.

Empaths can also sense when someone doesn’t like them. You may try to pretend that you like them, but they’ll sense your jealousy, hatred, or animosity towards them.

Another reason why some people instantly dislike or hate empaths is that they misinterpret their stillness. They may think the empath is unsociable, reserved, distant, or aloof when, in fact, this is only the empath’s calm and collected nature.

One more reason why some people can’t stand being around empaths is the empaths’ high-level vibrations. Some people hate being around people who ooze calmness and positivity. They simply feel more comfortable being around negative people – people with low-level vibrations.

And last but not least, one more reason why some people hate empaths is that empaths are extremely honest individuals. If there’s something they don’t like about you or the way you treat them, they’ll tell you about it. They’ll tell you the truth, even when they know that this can cost them a friendship. However, the problem is that some people don’t like to be told the truth.

Why Do Narcissists Hate Empaths?

Narcissists are self-centered, selfish, and demanding individuals who believe that they deserve special treatment, attention, and validation. In their view, they’re the ones who are special and who possess unique traits and abilities, not someone else.

Narcissists are incapable of feeling empathy, and they have no consideration for other people’s feelings and needs. They’re manipulative and envious. They enjoy controlling, sabotaging, and abusing others, and they envy other people’s happiness, kindness, individuality, and success.

Narcissists hate everyone who possesses the emotions, qualities, and abilities they don’t possess, nor will they ever possess. This is the reason why they hate empaths the most.

Narcissists hate empaths’ good, calm, and collected nature. They hate their genuine kindness, maturity, individuality, and compassion for other people’s suffering and pain.

Empaths possess the ability to heal from any psychological abuse. They can strengthen their boundaries and become happy and emotionally healthy again. And narcissists hate this. They envy this ability of empaths because they know they can never heal themselves. So they live in denial and a constant state of deep insecurity. They convince themselves that it’s not them who are the problem, but others are. (2)

Narcissists hate empaths because, unlike them, narcissists they’re not afraid to accept accountability or responsibility for their actions. They’re not afraid or ashamed to admit their mistakes and learn from them.

The narcissist is incapable of taking responsibility for anything they do. Instead, they blame others for their own mistakes and wrongdoings. Why? Because in their view, they’re always right. They’d never allow anything or anyone to make them look less smart or less successful or tarnish their reputation.

Another reason why narcissists hate empaths is that unlike empaths, who have a calm, collected nature and are positive, narcissists have dysfunctional thoughts and negative emotions and experiences all the time. They can’t find joy and fulfillment in their relationships, careers, achievements, or the simple things in life. They envy the empath their calmness, contentment, and happiness and wish they, the empath, lived in the same misery they live.

One more reason why narcissists hate empaths is that they can’t stand the fact that empaths love when other people are happy. On the other hand, when the narcissist is around cheerful and content people, they’re feeling down in the dumps. When others are feeling down in the dumps, they are beaming with happiness.

The empath is nothing like this. They like when others are joyful and emotionally fulfilled. So they take on these feelings and feel the same way.

The empath is nothing like this. They like when others are joyful and emotionally fulfilled. So they take on these feelings and feel the same way. This connection bothers the narcissist. It bothers them that they can’t enjoy other people’s happiness, and therefore they do everything in their power to destroy it.

The narcissist can’t stand being around happy people because this causes them to reflect on how unhappy they are and what a miserable life they lead. It makes them want to verbally abuse the empath, gaslight them, or pay them double-edged compliments to sabotage their happiness and contentment.

The narcissist would rather focus on hating the empath than focus on their own feelings, thoughts, and experiences because when they’re manipulating the empath, this allows them to escape from reality, and their reality is painful. So, when they are manipulating or belittling the empath, it’s like all of their misery disappears, at least for that moment.

One more reason why narcissists hate empaths is that they can’t stand the fact that empaths are genuinely good and kind and always willing to help and support others.

The only person, the narcissist, cares about is themselves. They are well aware that if they treated and felt about other people the way empaths do, this would create more opportunities for them to receive approval and attention.

Probably, the most important reason why narcissists hate empaths is that they see them as better people than they are. They envy their unique qualities and abilities. They envy their ability to build strong, deep, and meaningful relationships with others. They envy their ability to sense other people’s feelings and detect manipulators, fakers, and liars. And, in their view, they’re the ones who are special and deserving of everyone’s attention, approval, and praise, not anyone else. Not the empath. And being around the empath causes them to think that they might not be as perfect, gifted, and talented as they believe they are – something that terrifies them the most.