I don't know where I fit in with the whole Empath topic.
I guess I never really thought my personal feelings towards emotions I sense around me had anything to do with me 'taking the other persons emotions as my own'. I'm not sure how much 'empathing' there is actually going on - it's more I pick up on vibes, and said vibes impact my own outlook/mental state.
And I have no awareness of hidden illnesses or anything like that, and wouldn't say I'm very extreme in being affected by people walking into a room and my sensing what they're feeling -- because I think it's a huge stretch for me personally to be able to do that. So I can't relate to that aspect of The Empath. Or I might 'guess'/sense that they're mad/unhappy/whatever, but an individual doesn't affect me as much as a group of people - and the group mentality.
I never thought of it in this way: Person A is feeling sad. Because Person A is sad, I am now sad for the same reason. It's more, person A is sad. I in turn mellow down and my thoughts move towards things that make me sad. Whereas if person A was happy and giddy, my thoughts could easily be directed towards more happy/optimistic ones, so I in turn become happy.
But as I'm typing this out, perhaps I do take on others' emotions. For example, anxiety in another person immediately makes me anxious. It's one reason I have such a hard time being with my mother for an extended period -- she makes me tense, because SHE'S tense. It's odd. Or in a previous job setting, the majority of people were incredibly cynical, bitter, whiney, and negative, and being in that setting just ate away at me, I was a half-shell of existance, and I became cynical as well. I hated the setting, I hated becoming this way. But I never thought I was 'taking on' others feelings BECAUSE they were that way - so I'm not sure empathy was a factor in it - it was more that the negative energy around me forced me inward and forced my thoughts/feelings in a negative direction. But I suppose I became cynical because I saw truth in WHY the people around me were cynical, so maybe that is empathy. I dunno.
It's like the mood of the person I'm with or the enviroment I'm in DOES impact my own mood, but I never equated it to me taking on everyone elses' moods, I thought it was other peoples' moods impacting where my own mental state/thoughts/feelings turn to.