Alright so I have had my own understanding of what empathy means.

Empathy is the "ability" or a "sixth sense" to understand and "feel" what other individuals are feeling. Which includes being able to relate to another persons situation, thoughts and/or emotions.
Also a certain level of "caring" for other people. Meaning that you may enjoy helping other people a little bit more than average.

Problems that could arise because of "too much" empathy.

Well maybe being a little too sensitive to other people. And a target for "energy vampires" , you could care to much about other people that you would not have time for yourself.
Or maybe notice too many of other peoples problems and feel overwhelmed , possibly even getting depressed for other peoples problems or getting a feeling of helplessness.

Ok. So this was my understanding of empathy. And all the problems that empathy could bring could easily be "fixed" or healed . As simple as learning to say "No" , so as not to get overwhelmed and let yourself some time to rest. Also coming to the realization that you can't help everyone and truly seeing that if you help ONE person , you could have just changed a whole world. As for too much sensitivity we'll you just have to learn to cope with it. A person can go blind and resent it for the rest of his life....or come to terms with it and accept it on the first day, who do you think will live a happier life?

Now here's the "problem" I keep bumping with people and reading about people on a number of websites that complain about how "bad" and difficult it is to live with over sensitive empathy. Some people say that they have to "shield" themselves form other people, others say that because of sensitive empathy they had a difficult childhood (bully's, problematic parents and/or mean people in general) .

And this I do not understand....the first problem about the " shielding" I already know how to fix...I dont know how to successfully explain in however. The second I still don't know what are they trying to say (about the difficult childhood) are they saying that if they where not so emphatically strong they would not have been affected? Of course not....so what are they saying?

Maybe all of my understanding is a bit off...could somebody explain to me the definition of empathy please? And why so many people think of it as a problem or difficulty. Personally I think I'm a very empathic individual and to prove it I even took a small quiz and it told me I was "very" empathic (yay, lol) . My point is I have never seen it as a disadvantage or issue. And only as a very helpful trait that has helped me countless times.

Sorry for making this so long.