Flooded With Empathy

I'm looking for anyone who's experiencing something similar to me. Please comment if you have anything to share, but nothing negative.

I'm empathic. I discovered this about a year ago when I was really getting upset from being around stressed out and high-strung people. At first I didn't know why I felt so strange, but as I researched more and paid attention to little details I realized that I could feel what others felt with surprising accuracy.

For a while that really upset me. I was so pulled down by the emotion of others that when I contemplated how I felt about something I would draw a blank. I didn't even know what I was thinking.

Then it became something more than just emotions. It became thoughts. Little thoughts would pop into my head, or tunes of songs that would spring from nowhere. I didn't realize how bad that had become until I started paying attention to it. Almost every other thought I had was not mine, but someone else's.

I made a point of asking my family "Hey, were you just thinking of this?" More often than not the answer would be, "How'd you know that?"

I would say something like, "Oh, I just had a feeling," and that was true, but it was so much more.

Now it's the summer, and I've given myself this time to be away from everyone except my family. Sometimes it's hard to explain why I don't like being in crowds or even around my friends, and typically people think I'm introverted. I struggle with the feeling that no one really knows me because I know people on such a different level than just face to face conversation.

So this is me trying to find others like me. Is anyone else experiencing this? If anyone has tips on how to get empathy under control I'd really appreciate it.