Jambo! (means hello in Swahili) Arielle,

I am so sorry you are having trouble with being empathic.  I think I know exactly how you feel.  Feeling a call to duty to serve humanity is a very powerful pull.  It can be a blessing and a curse, or atleast seem like a curse!  All empaths who feel the call to duty are "earth angels" for lack of better terminology.  Actually, I dreamed this phrase 'earth angel".  Then I looked it up on the internet and found that others were using the same phrase and it meant nearly the same thing that my dream revealed, which is the case with my dreams 99% of the time.  Being an empath, psychic and capable of doing other stuff, I can give you some pointers on how to shield your emotional self from the debilitating effects that can come with being an empathic being.  First, you must create a psychological shield around and inside your thoughts and emotions.  To do this, you must change how you view the suffering of others.  For instance, don't give a free for all emotional reaction to what suffering you perceive to be in affect to any given human being.  Know that not all are worthy of you empathy.  And know that much (not all) of the suffering you perceive to be has been earned by the actions of the being who is in the situation.  Based on our actions, in this lifetime or another lifetime, we create our circumstances.  And even though this may not be the case always, we empaths are not here to suffer severely for the sake of others (i.e. the sacrificial lamb syndrome or martyr if you will) but to have a deeper innerstanding than many, so that we are more willing to come to the aid of others in order to bring more love and balance to humanity and the universe.  I wrote the rest of this comment in another post...One Love, Ipriama

Here is the rest of my comment to you Arielle...

Creating a shield around and inside your thoughts and emotions regarding other beings is a necessary thing to preserve your wholistic health, so that you may serve willingly and be genuinely helpful and useful in the greater universal (Creator's) plan of things.  Without this shield, one can and probably will become ill.  Part of creating a shield is to change the way you think about sufferance.  There is good and bad in all things.  Try to see the direct opposite of whatever your viewpoint is at the time of feeling anxious about what you feel.  Sometimes changing how you think about any given thing is all it takes to relieve the anxiety and free yourself.  Finding the center or balance between how you think about something, most times is all it takes to rebalance.  Even though, it may seem that as empaths we don't think, we just feel, the truth is, there is always deep-seated thoughts and emotions at the very base of how and why we react the way we do to what we see and feel.  Once you can truly wrap you heart and head around this idea, I think being an empath will become much more bearable for you.  I've been where you are...and often rebalance myself even now.  I hope this is helpful and useful for you Arielle.  May peacefulness and tranquility be yours...

One Love,

Ipriama