Dying is easy, it's living that's hard (How Feeling Deeply Changes the Way We Face Life and Death?)

Hello this is Seri 🌸.

Living as an empath and a highly sensitive person means experiencing the world in a way that can be both beautiful and incredibly challenging. We feel things more deeply—emotions, energies, even the pain and joy of others—and sometimes, this sensitivity can weigh heavily on our mental health.

It’s not just about being “too emotional” or “overreacting.” Our minds and hearts are wired to absorb more of what surrounds us, which can make everyday life feel overwhelming or even unbearable at times.

This heightened awareness can bring unique strengths, like deep empathy and a rich inner life, but it can also make us more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and feelings of isolation.

In this post, I want to share some reflections on why mental health can be harder for empaths and highly sensitive people, how excessive empathy affects us, and gentle ways I’ve learned to cope with a world that often feels too heavy to bear.

🌿 Mental Health in Highly Sensitive People and Empaths

Some people are born with hearts and senses that are simply more open to the world. These individuals are often referred to as Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) — a term coined by psychologist Dr. Elaine Aron — and they experience life with a kind of emotional and sensory depth that others may not fully understand.

Being highly sensitive is not a disorder. It’s a personality trait, a way of processing the world that can feel both beautiful and burdensome. HSPs often notice details others overlook, are deeply moved by art or music, and have a rich inner world. They also tend to be more empathetic, more intuitive, and more emotionally responsive.

However, this heightened sensitivity comes with its own challenges.

Research suggests that HSPs may be more vulnerable to:

😖Anxiety

😟Depression

🫥Emotional dysregulation

😶‍🌫️Burnout and overwhelm in social settings

Empaths — often overlapping with HSPs — take this even further. They don't just sense emotions; they absorb them. The pain of others becomes their own. This can be a powerful gift, but also a heavy burden, especially when boundaries are weak or when they are exposed to suffering without rest or support.

Over time, this can lead to:

🫩Chronic emotional exhaustion

🫨Mood instability

😣Depression or anxiety

😨Symptoms of trauma or PTSD

It’s not because something is wrong with them, it’s because the emotional volume of the world is turned up so high that they live in constant resonance.

🌊 The Weight of Excessive Empathy

While empathy is often praised as a virtue, too much empathy — especially affective empathy — can become emotionally dangerous. Affective empathy is the ability to deeply feel what another person is experiencing. For empaths and highly sensitive people, this is not a conscious choice, it happens automatically. Someone else’s sadness becomes their own, even if they’ve only just met that person. A tragic news story can leave them in tears for hours. A conflict in the room, even if unspoken, can drain them completely.

Over time, this level of emotional openness can lead to:

〰️Emotional flooding – when feelings become so intense that the nervous system goes into overdrive

〰️Compassion fatigue – especially when constantly exposed to others’ suffering without recovery time

〰️Loss of identity – when the boundary between “me” and “you” starts to blur

〰️Chronic guilt or helplessness – when they feel responsible for pain they didn’t cause and can’t fix

This emotional overwhelm can mimic or even contribute to conditions like:

😵‍💫Anxiety disorders

😔Depression

😨Panic attacks

🫨Trauma responses or dissociation

Empaths may find themselves constantly internalizing other people’s pain, without any space to process their own. And unlike cognitive empathy (which helps us understand others intellectually), affective empathy can bypass logic entirely, going straight to the heart and nervous system.

Without strong boundaries, rest, or grounding practices, excessive empathy becomes not just a weight — but a wound.

🕯 When the World’s Pain Becomes Too Much

For some of us, the greatest damage to our mental health doesn’t come from what happened to us directly but from what we witness in the world. The cruelty. The hatred. The injustice. The unbearable pain of knowing others are suffering while we are breathing in peace, even if only for a moment.

In my case, I've gone through many personal losses and dark experiences. But none of them have broken me like the weight of this world has. Seeing people attack each other for their gender, their skin color, their religion, their vulnerability, made me retreat slowly. First, I became more selective with who I let in. Then, I began isolating more deeply… not out of shyness, but out of fear. A fear that one day, someone might hurt me just for existing.

I watched the news and felt crushed by it. I saw how victims are blamed. How empathy is mocked. How pain is politicized. I heard people speak hatefully — casually — about women, Black people, Muslims, Chinese people, and others. I felt helpless, ashamed to be part of this species. At some point, it wasn’t just sadness. It was misanthropy — a heavy bitterness that convinced me maybe people are just... bad.

That’s when the suicidal thoughts began. Not only because of my own wounds, but because I couldn’t bear to live in a world this unfair. A world where even animals suffer. A world where pain is normalized. Life is already hard — sickness, accidents, disasters — but humans, with all their choices, often make it harder.

And I felt it all too much.

I still do.

🌪 The Crushing Weight of Powerlessness

What made everything worse — what truly broke me — was the realization that no matter how much I care, I cannot change the world. Not in the way I desperately wish I could. I can’t stop the wars. I can’t undo the hatred. I can’t rescue every animal or heal every child who’s crying themselves to sleep.

And when you’re a highly sensitive person, or an empath, this realization isn’t just sad. It’s devastating. Because we don’t just see suffering, we feel it. Our whole bodies react. Our minds replay what we’ve seen or heard. Our hearts ache for people we’ve never met. And when we understand that we can’t stop the pain, that no matter how much we love, some things won’t change, it begins to feel hopeless.

I remember thinking:

“If I can’t make this world better… what’s the point of staying?”

That was one of the darkest thoughts I ever had. Not because I wanted to die but because I didn’t know how to live in a world so wrong, a world I couldn’t fix, no matter how much it hurt me.

🥀 Being Soft in a World That Often Feels Too Harsh

Being soft, sensitive, and kind in today’s world can feel like a struggle all its own. Society often praises toughness, stoicism, and a kind of emotional armor while people who show vulnerability or gentleness are sometimes dismissed as “too fragile” or “too soft.”

It’s easy to feel that softness, kindness, and sensitivity are weaknesses in a world that seems to reward toughness and hardness. Sometimes, people tell us we’re “too fragile” or “too soft” when we stand up for what’s right or show our true feelings. This can make the world feel even more discouraging.

But softness is far from weakness. In fact, it is often the very source of courage and change. It is softness—the capacity to feel deeply and care truly—that has inspired countless acts of compassion, movements for human rights, and the fight for animal welfare.

Softness allows us to see injustice, to feel the pain of others, and to imagine a better world. It is the quiet but powerful fuel for standing up, speaking out, and protecting what is precious.

Being soft is not only a gift, it is useful and necessary. Without it, there would be no empathy, no kindness, no real connection.

So even when the world feels harsh and dismissive, your softness is your strength. It is what makes you a protector of beauty, a bearer of hope, and a gentle warrior for good.

🌸 How I Cope (Even When I Don’t Want To)

I’m still here, even though sometimes I don’t know why.

The truth is, dying often feels easier than living. Life comes with endless struggles — emotional pain, injustice, loneliness, physical exhaustion — and even when I’m safe, I never feel at peace, because the pain of the world clings to me like fog. Death no longer scares me. It used to, especially when I feared what might come after. But now, I see it more as a release. Quiet. Still. A way out of the storm.

But despite that… I keep breathing.

Why?

Because even in the darkness, I’ve created ways to survive.

I’m lucky in one way: I have a loving family. They don’t always understand why certain things affect me so deeply : why injustice on the news breaks me more than a personal fight, why I cry over someone I’ve never met. But their presence, their care, still gives me a thread to hold onto.

Some friends do understand a little better. But finding someone who feels as much as I do… that’s rare. I often feel alone in the intensity of what I carry.

That’s why I’ve built my own quiet, protective world.

I fill it with softness: pink colors, cute things, plushies, and gentle music. I have many hobbies that I do alone now such as — writing, aerial dance, imagining other worlds — because they bring me peace. And more than anything, I retreat into my inner world, a safe space in my mind where I can still believe in kindness, in magic, in something softer than reality.

For years, I’ve stopped watching the news. I can’t handle it. Even on social media, I try to limit myself. I keep Instagram, mostly, but I avoid anything too harsh. People might say I’m escaping but honestly, this is how I survive. If I absorbed every tragedy, I would break completely. I already feel so much.

🌑 Is It Wrong to Want to Die Young When the World Feels So Heavy?

People often say that life is a gift.

But for some of us — especially those who feel too much, too deeply — life can feel like a burden we never asked to carry. Not because we’re weak. But because we’re tired. Tired of witnessing suffering, of feeling powerless, of existing in a world where cruelty is normal and kindness is treated like weakness.

I’ve had the thought more than once:

“Maybe I’ll live until 30 or 35… then I’ll stop. Maybe that’s enough.”

Not because I want to give up completely. But because it feels too long to carry this heaviness for 70 or 80 years. The idea of living that long in a world that doesn’t get softer, it exhausts me. Sometimes death doesn’t feel like a tragedy, but more like a homecoming. A return to stillness.

I don’t fear it anymore.

I accept that it will come, one day. And somehow, that acceptance brings me a strange kind of peace. A peace that says: You don’t have to save the world. You don’t even have to endure it forever. You just have to live for today.

But still, I wonder… is it wrong to think like this?

And the answer I found is: maybe not wrong, just human.

For people who are hypersensitive, who carry the pain of others in their own hearts, wanting rest is not a failure. It’s a sign that they care so much, it hurts. It means we love the world enough to break from it. And maybe that’s not something to be ashamed of —maybe it’s a deep, sorrowful kind of love.

🌿 Living for Small Joys in a Big, Broken World

When the world feels too heavy, when pain and injustice flood your heart, it’s okay to step back. It’s okay to protect your own fragile soul.

You don’t have to fix everything. You don’t have to carry all the pain. Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is to care for yourself first.

Here are some gentle ways I’ve found to survive and even find moments of peace:

Protect your energy by setting boundaries. It’s okay to avoid the news, social media, or people who drain you. Your mental health matters more than being “informed” or “popular.”

Surround yourself with kindness. Even if family or friends don’t fully understand, cherish the ones who listen, who accept your feelings without judgment.

Create your own small world. Whether it’s cute things, soft colors, hobbies, or an inner mental sanctuary, build spaces that bring you comfort and light.

Celebrate tiny joys. A warm cup of tea, a favorite song, a moment in nature, these small acts can feel like lifelines when the big picture is overwhelming.

Allow yourself to feel everything without guilt. Your sensitivity is a strength, even when it feels like a burden.

Remember: You don’t have to save the world. Maybe your purpose is simply to protect the beauty you find around you : in a smile, a flower, a quiet moment of peace.

Living with intense empathy is hard. But it also means you carry a rare gift, the ability to see and care deeply. So please be gentle with yourself. You are enough, just as you are.

🌷What If the Purpose Is Not to Save the World, But to Protect Beauty Where We Can?

For empaths and highly sensitive people, feeling the world’s pain deeply can be exhausting and overwhelming. It’s natural to want to fix everything, to make the world a kinder place. But sometimes, that expectation is simply too much to carry.

Maybe our real purpose isn’t to save the whole world. Maybe it’s enough—necessary even—to protect the small pieces of beauty and kindness that we come across in daily life.

The world can be harsh and unfair, and problems are everywhere. But focusing on small, manageable moments like a kind gesture, a quiet moment with something you love, or a space that feels safe, can help us hold on.

Protecting these small pockets of goodness isn’t giving up. It’s a quiet, brave way to survive and find meaning when things feel too heavy.

So, instead of trying to carry the whole weight of the world, try protecting what you can : the beauty and peace that nourish your spirit. That is a valuable and worthy purpose.