Empathy. With a twist?

My housemate is lacking the emapthy gene. She told me this when we first talked about moving in together, and, to be honest, I dismissed it. But it's true! And it is frustrating as hell.

When I tell her things - I get a one-upmanship response.

"You're homesick? Try living in New Zealand for 6 years."

"You had a bad day? That's nothing compared to my day..."

I never realized the comfort in a simple "Oh, that sucks". or "Man, sorry."


KST sent me this classic one-upmanship interaction - Luh Luh Love It!

“Mrs. Smith’s cat died last week, it was 11 years old”
“Well, my cat died this morning and it was 17”
“That cat was like her child”
“Well, I gave birth to my cat”

There's really just no response to one-upmanship, is there? I don't feel like playing the game, so usually I don't respond at well.