Why Do We Need to Receive Empathy?

I have come from a very abusive and neglectful background that resembled slavery and so many simple things that are obvious to others are not to me. One of those is "why do we need to receive empathy?" I'm so used to paying attention the needs of others over my own, I often find myself unwittingly having people in my life that our not empathetic or caring. They tend to not like when I seek their input on feelings or are dismissive.

I have searched the internet and am well read, but I have not found anything on why do need to receive empathy.

I have had a tendency to feel guilty about expecting empathy from others. I think that needing others to care about me or pay attention to me somehow makes me "needy" or "too sensitive." It also implies that I depend upon others for their approval. All these are bad things or are they?

As humans, why do we seek empathy from others? Clearly we are social creatures, and we need others. It is easy to believe that needing others is a sign of weakness because needing others makes us vulnerable and we can get hurt when we are rejected. It's easier to say "We should take responsibility for our feelings" rather than admit we need others.

Wanting empathy for others, I have discovered, is a good thing for them. We want empathy most when we are experiencing strong emotions, and we tend to want it from people we trust and care about. When we have strong emotions we struggle to understand what exactly it is that we are feeling and how do we want to deal with that in the context ourselves and the world at large. We want to clarify our feelings and gain perspective so that we can behave wisely.

If I am angry at an employee because I believe they are not respecting me, that's important. How I deal with that affects a lot of people: my company, the finances, the employee and their family, and my own family. I want empathy because it helps me act responsibly. When others can relate to my feelings and enter my emotional world, what they are doing is helping me better understand what is going on within me and how that affects both myself and the world at large. This is in society's best interest.

In fact what I have learned, is that expecting empathy from others is actually respectful to others.