No! I cry when I hear an ambulance, for me it means someone is hurting, and I do not like that.

As others have said, I think it is possible in some circumstances, but certainly not all, and depends a great deal on one's ability to separate themselves from the other. In order to truly empathize, you have to be willing to look at a situation from someone else's set of circumstances and experiences, and share their feelings, which is also dependent upon the others ability to effectively express them. Some are far better at achieving this than others.

I'm going on a limb here and say no. There are certain experiences in life that one cannot truly relate to unless one has had direct experience with such, in particular physical and mental ailments.

Many years back I knew a guy who suffered from crippling depression, and while I could lend him a sympathetic ear so he could vent a little, I could not fully relate to his experiences as I had never dealt with depression of that sort. I can somewhat imagine how horrible it must be for someone like that day to day to be dealing with constant thoughts of suicide.

On the flip side, I do not expect anyone else to be able to fully relate to what I went through about this time last year when I was stricken with Type 1 Diabetes and came close to dying, unless that is they too have dealt with T1D as I did and know personally what it's like. We can always attempt to put ourselves in the shoes of another to try to understand what they are going through, but it's still not quite the same as firsthand experience. So I say no, we cannot fully empathize to that extent, but there's a chance I could be wrong about that though.

People experience many different things in their lives, not all the same, but some are similar... So I think its possible to empathize to a certain extent depending on the trauma involved...

I don't think you need to have experienced the same hardship as the person. It would certainly make it easier because it would help you to understand what it's like but all a person really needs to empathize is the ability to recognize suffering in others and and a willingness to imagine the pain they are suffering.

I think it's possible to do at some degree. To fully understand it, a person would have go through something similar. Like how religion has tramatised some of the people in this community. I know at this point I will never go back to religion. I don't think I would be happy with a religious partner.

I think there is a difference between empathise and understand. To understand I think you have to have also experienced it, as vets might tell you. To empathise you just have to be willing to open yourself to the emotion they are experiencing and be willing to sit with them while they experience it without trying to protect yourself. To mourn with them. To SEE them.

Yes, but to a very limited extent.