I was late to the Pretty Little Liars obsession, having only started watching it about 18 months ago. I was instantly hooked, as I think most people are, and blew threw episode after episode in quick succession.

And then I started losing sleep.

No, not because I was staying up until the stupid hours of the morning watching Netflix, as most people would suspect, but I slowly realised that the show was affecting me detrimentally, and only recently have I discovered exactly why.

I have always felt like I absorb feelings and emotions from things going on around me; not only do I cry at basically any moment during most films, but I also get particularly stressed watching stressful situations on tv, and it turns out I’m not alone in this. I am an empath.

During the start of PLL, this worked in my favour. I became intrigued and excited as the girls set out to discover what was going on in Rosewood, I got caught up in the girls’ relationships and wanted to keep watching as they became pro-active in investigated the disappearance of Alison and schemed about the true identity of A. I felt a particular affinity with Spencer (also Troian Bellisario is STUNNING like how is she 30?!), and as her curiosity peaked, so did mine.

However, getting swept up in the episodes was affecting me. I was struggling to sleep through the night after particularly eventful episodes and scenes were leaking into my dreams, and I started to put this down to the show. In order to compromise, I started only watching episodes during the day, instead of directly before bed, and this helped a little, but as the series went by and the plots became more twisted and stories became more dangerous, I was still experiencing problems, so I took breaks – only watching an episode a day, or watching a few episodes then taking a week away etc.

And that’s where I am now, on a break that has lasted months. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve watched any episodes this year. I’m midway through season 5, and every now and then I think about going back to it, but the thought of it still makes me a little nervous, which drives me a little crazy because I feel so behind!

I have, however, managed to avoid all spoilers of what’s to come, which I think it pretty impressive considering the show is on about season 7 now (is this right?) and I know that there have been a lot of big revelations – I just don’t know what they are, ha! Occasionally I see ‘#PLL’ in a tweet and I just scroll straight on past..

Is anyone else an empath? I’d love to hear from you!

Twitter / Bloglovin / Instagram

PS. If you drop a spoiler on me I will cry. Be kind.