When your partner asks you what you want for dinner, you tell them that you’ll eat anything. Perhaps you’re the agreeable one in the friend group who’s always down to do whatever others want. Maybe you’d rather hop into a freezing lake than disagree with a coworker. Or, you hate being the center of attention (others singing, “Happy Birthday” to you is a nightmare) or want to be perceived as the “easygoing” friend who doesn’t have needs.
To be clear, these feelings and behaviors are nothing to be ashamed of, but putting a word to what they may signify can be helpful for managing them. That word is “echoism.”
What is echoism?
Echoists, or people who experience echoism, are… exactly what they sound like. “It’s a person who tends to mimic or reflect the feelings, opinions, or desires of others instead of expressing their own individual thoughts and emotions,” says Jamie Genatt, LCSW, psychotherapist and owner of Realistic Remedies.
Generally, they have difficulty engaging in behaviors that bring attention to their needs and differences. “An echoist is a person who struggles to express themselves, receive pra
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