Has having life been done to you increased your empathy or sympathy for others?

”...having life been done to you” implies a lack of responsibility for one’s reactions to the world. A view of life in that manner would tend to decrease empathy for people, viewing them as anonymous agents of some process.

Taking responsibility, on the other hand, for dealing with the vicissitudes of life enhances one’s ability to see parallels in other’s lives, which in turn can lead to empathy and identification.

@zenvelo was tounge in cheek. Just mild teasing. Sorry : (

I have physical disabilities which “happened to me” which are not the result of anything I did, or should have.
Life has been done to me deep, painful, and without a kiss.

It has changed how I respond to others, but not in one size fits all style.

It started with me having very little patience for anyone or anything, including myself. No, especially myself.
Over time that evolved.
I tended to have more and more patience with children, impaired people, and certain randomly occurring events.
People who had a great deal more to work with, mentally, physically, financially than me, I developed a total lack of patience for.

Now, colors have mostly run in together, and there’s fewer defined lines where I feel impatience. It fluxes a lot more with my pain levels the past few weeks.

As far as compassion goes, I have always had that. It is pure age and experience which has shown me more about who needs my compassion, and who I should not waste the energy on.

As I get older, I find I am both more and less sympathetic/empathetic of others. I have many more experiences in my life so I have a larger frame of reference that allows more understanding. But I also have been through a lot that I know others can too, so I am less tolerant of excuses. Just because someone says “poor me” doesn’t mean I am going to give them sympathy.