Actually, you know, I could afford to keep that in mind more often. I've suffered with poor self esteem in the past myself, and so I know just about everyone can use reassurance sometimes. It's just a matter of figuring out how to validate someone else's insecurity without creeping them out and also without becoming an enabling crutch that they lean on more than is healthy or appropriate.

Empathy can be toxic if I'm misreading, too... It's possible to honestly believe I'm attempting to reassure someone and end up saying something that only exacerbates their insecurities x_x I don't even know how it turns out like that, probably because I'm just not very good or practiced at socializing. But usually I've tended to err on the side of caution and keep my mouth shut.

I dunno. I'll have to think on it more as to whether or not I want to try proactively engaging on that again now...