AS Quotient Empathy

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I'm wondering, what's with the question on the AS Quotient that asks
"Can you imagine yourself as someone else?"
Do people with AS/ASD say "yes" or "no"?

Is it common to have an empathy disorder (empathising too much) associated with being AS/ASD?

Just wondering!

It is possible that some with autism are sensitive to emotion.
As for an empathy disorder, I don't think it exists only by itself.

I only wrote "empathy disorder" because that's how I heard it phrased once.

What I mean (as in a definition) is a over the top interpretation of an emotion. Such as a person can almost "become" another by "picturing" themselves as the other person.
Example: A boy's sister has just had a bad break-up. He can imagine himself as her so much that he himself feels as if it was him who just had a bad break up.

I was mainly wondering if you have something like this "empathy disorder" does this add to the AQ score?
If you answer yes to the question in the first post does this add to the AQ score?

No.

While:
- I can imagine myself in someone else?s role (e.g., ?if I were the president of the US, I would do this or if I were in charge of this project I would do that?) and
- I can put myself in someone else?s situation (e.g., ?if that were to happen to me, this is how I would feel and this is what I would do?)

Yet:
- I have never imagined myself as someone else. I haven?t tried.
- Even if I wanted to, I am not certain how I would go about doing it.

I think (as far as I know) all people can put themselves in "what if" situations if they are simpler enough.
What I mean is some people I know lack the ability to think about "what if's" that are not reality based while others have no trouble

So, I think most people can think "as president I would". "My doctor's wrong, if I was him I'd..." etc.
But what I'm getting at is EMPATHY, its different.
It's putting yourself in the "emotional place" of another, not their "physical place".
An "emotional place" means an emotion such as sadness while a "physical place" can be a position of power such as president or a situation.

So, by this I mean can you EMPATHISE with another person and put yourself in their "emotional place"?
Most NT's can to a certain degree. Such as your mother might sympathise with you having to get your wisdom teeth out (especially if she herself had done that before when she was younger).

However, my point for this TOPIC was that I was wondering if on the AQ,[b] did saying "YES" to the question on the test ADD to my AS score?[/b]

No, I do not empathize too much.

I never imagined myself being a different person, I have only ever imagined myself being myself, but with different traits or in a different situation. It's always me being me, though, never me pretending to be in someone else's body entirely. I do not want to be anyone but me, if anything I sometimes would like to be in the position of someone else (as in: a position of power or dominance or status).

At times I feel like I can care very much about someone else, but it's always only a select group of people I care about. They sort of have to 'prove' themselves to me before I start to somewhat care for them, if that makes any sense? And that's when the empathy kicks in.

Can NTs imagine themselves as a person living with Asperger's or Autism?

Some can, but a lot can't. That is why we get so misunderstood and treated so poorly. It all comes from lack of understanding and sometimes lack of caring.

I can imagine myself as basically anyone. A lot of people find it hard to imagine how it is for an Alzheimer's patient. The Alzheimer's support team know she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's and literally has the memory of a goldfish, but they will phone her up to arrange appointments as though she's mentally able to manage these things. She's not even capable of accomplishing very simple tasks like getting a notepad and pen to write things down. We all take our brain for granted and so often make mistakes when dealing with a person who's train of thought has narrowed completely.

A lot of people get frustrated and confused about it, but I can actually see how it really must feel to lose your train of thought and not be able to accomplish such simple tasks you learned when you was a toddler.

All this empathy and Autism thing often riles me. On WP the definition of empathy seems to change each time. Sometimes it means ''you don't have empathy if you feel awkward when somebody is crying, no matter how strongly you can feel other people's emotions''. I've heard of a lot of people saying they feel awkward when somebody's crying, like they don't know what to do. I feel other people's emotions, and I cry when they cry, but not everybody is like that though. I think I'm a bit TOO empathetic, which ironically can cause more social awkwardness. If I have arranged to meet somebody, then something really urgent sprung up, I would find it so hard to contact that person to tell them I can't make it, because I would worry that they will be disappointed, and if they sound quite disappointed I can then feel their disappointment myself, then feel bad and awkward all day. So that means that I have a lot of trouble saying no to people, and so would put the arrangement before the urgent situation, just to not disappoint that person. I have enough of my own emotions, and feeling other people's emotions as well just makes life very difficult sometimes. Surely not every NT man and woman out there feel like that all the time.

The AQ test includes the question: ?I find it difficult to imagine what it would be like to be someone else.?, which is worded differently than in your initial post.

Anyways, you get 1 point for answering Definitely Agree or Slightly Agree. As a note, I would have answered ?YES? to this question.

Animals & other life forms = yes
Most people = no

edit:
I'm adding this as it might be surprising to some people, and possibly revealing of something significant as far as this subject is concerned.

There have been a great many times when I have felt things ( better described as states than emotions ) from plants more so than the majority of people that have been around me.
I was naturally drawn to plants as a child and have always been a gardener since I was around 7 years old I think.

I find it very offensive when I observe people treating other life forms like they are some kind of decoration put on earth to serve them.

Last edited by olympiadis on 14 Sep 2014, 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I tend to feel a lot of emotions when someone is feeling down or angry. The way I react to it often has a very negative effect, which often makes it hard for me. I don't always know how to express the emotions I feel, but I do feel them.

another thing is that the empathy isn't something you can control but just happens. not a hypothetical "what if" situation but something you can't control

I have imagined myself as other people from time to time, but not completely. I can picture myself in their life or their circumstances, but still with my own thoughts and feelings. So I wouldn't say that I have too much empathy at all. When people around me are upset or in pain, my instinct is to remove myself from the situation.

This is for a variety of reasons: any display of uncontrolled emotion makes me very uncomfortable, many things people get worked up about are not important to me, and if they chose to involve themselves in a risky situation then I'm unlikely to sympathize with them. I've spent my whole life avoiding those things and it's really not that hard. If someone is dealt an unfortunate blow out of nowhere and had no reason to expect it, that's different. Then I really do feel bad for them, to the point that it adds to my depression sometimes.

[Not sure if I have it or not]

I don't think I "empathise". I just feel a lot of pity for most people without an apparent reason.

I applied the same reasoning to those questions.

Woah, Olympiadis!
I cannot believe it, I have NEVER met another person besides my self who empathized with plants! I love plants, to me they have personalities and I cannot stand it when I see a really neglected one or a discarded one. I often bring them home and rehabilitate them. I have lots of plants, and a garden too, plus flower beds. I feel guilty if I don't get out and collect seeds, or if I don't re-plant cuttings that were necessary to make.

Do you also have feelings about or interactions with inanimate objects?

Hey, I feel the same way about plants like you two!
I can feel that they are aware of me and sometimes I pick up their moods, like they all have their own personality.
Sometimes they seem to be more aware than humans or animals, who often appear to be switched on 'auto-pilot' (especially my mother).
And I find harvesting carrots as difficult as beheading a rooster or killing a fish, it feels so awful to do that.
I'm very protective about my garden, and I feel sorry for the weeds when I have to pull them out,
many of them are healing herbs and I respect them all, but I can't let all of them grow. Fortunately I can temporarily switch this empathy off when I have to, or I think I can kind of numb myself to it.
When I was a kid it often felt as if inanimate objects were looking at me, they seemed to have some weird form of consciousness too.