Empathy Attack

The phenomenon of becoming overwhelmed by empathy, often regarding a personal tragedy, sometimes resulting in sobbing about issues and events that have no direct connection to the person suffering the empathy attack, as if overtaken by the feelings and/or experiences of another person that one has compassion for.

I woke up last night and had an empathy attack when I thought about my friend’s loss, and couldn’t stop crying even though it had nothing to do with me. No one should have to go through what they went through.