Sympathy Depression

So I've heard of sympathy pains. Typically when a woman is pregnant, sometimes her husband will complain of similar aches and pains. It's a strange concept all around - but i seem to be extremely sympathetic to people around me.

I remember one time my college boyfriend twisted his ankle when we were outside playing basketball at my parents house over a holiday break. I was fine - but i remember later that day feeling extreme pain in my ankle. To the point where i was limping. Weird.

Recently, one of my co-workers has been complaining about serious knee pain (she had knee surgery in highschool or college) and then slowly, my knee started feeling like it was in pain all the time. I'd wake up inspecting it and wondering if i needed to go to the doctor. She went to see her surgeon over the thanksgiving break and she has a stress fracture. Hope my sympathy pains don't extend that far.

So now i think i'm experiencing sympathy depression. My fiance is totally miserable at his job, and has been for a year. But it's not exactly a great time to find a new job, even though he's been trying. So it's been a painful year in a lot of ways for him. He took a step down just to have a job when he relocated here a year ago thinking that he'd at least be making some money while he found something else. But it's just been a difficult market to find something better in the creative industry. So as the year has progressed, he's become more and more depressed about his work situation and i in turn am starting to feel depressed. He doesn't want to go to work in the morning - well neither do i. Nothing interesting happened at his work, well, nothing for me, either.

Boo.

I need to figure out a way to deflect other peoples pains and emotions from seeping under my skin. I mean - in a lot of way i think i'm having EMPATHY pains because it feels like i'm suffering from the same thing they are instead of just feeling bad that they are feeling bad.

My fiance said that one thing he noticed immediately about me is that i really take on the emotions of others. When someone else is upset, I'm upset, too - and i take things really hard when others aren't happy. So maybe it's just a personality trait i have. I guess sometimes it's a good thing - it probably makes me an excellent friend. :)

But it's sort of tiring - and ultimately, depressing in my current situation.

Dear Santa,
Please give my fiance a new job for Christmas.

Love,
Your empathetic little dre elf.