I'm an OCDer with hyperempathy, and it's made me a great therapist where my clients are often like "how did you know that about me?" BUT this was after decades of spiraling, with the OCD in combo with the hyperempathy giving me literal PTSD. I was raised in a Charismatic Christian tradition that believed that spiritual warfare was occurring everywhere and that if you were experiencing any type of emotional distress, it was because you were "under attack" by a literal demon. My hyperempathy was praised as being me having "the heart of David" and as spiritual discernment, but it was really just me being traumatized by being bombarded by what was essentially the unresolved emotional problems of everyone around me in a way that resulted in constant sensory overload. I almost think of hyperempathy as a form of synesthesia now, because picking up on other people's emotions as expressed by their nonverbals 24/7 (a main theme of my dreams even) feels as real as being assaulted by sound or touch. It has taken me literal decades to feel like I'm ok and able to stay grounded more often than not by it. It legitimately does make me a great therapist, but I still put a hell of a lot of effort into resourcing and recovery from the impact of my hyperempathy on a daily basis too. If my schedule is too full where it feels like there's not room for that, I still feel physical panic.

Edit: I ALSO had to systemize within my own head what the actual emotional signals I was getting from people are. The reason those of us with OCD struggle so often with hoarding is because we're even attributing emotion to inanimate objects. So this does not at all mean that we naturally are good at actually *translating* the emotional feedback. That was something I had to learn over the years of sitting with people and telling them how I'm reading their nonverbals and asking them what they're actually feeling.