It's the empathy issue!

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So I have a new therapist... She thinks I'm being easily mislead because I am VERY empathetic! I asked why (I) and others have thought I was on the spectrum. She said "because you have an incredibly high IQ and you seem to have obsessions and people automatically think intellectual people are autistic but you have way too much empathy to be autistic"

Okay... I am really gullible but is gulliblity high empathy?

It's the empathy issue! Commence discussion!! !

Oh, she says empathetic people can put themselves in others shoes so well that they see the reasoning behind their views and they get confused.

Oh dear... Here, read this. We do not lack empathy in the way most people think (emotional empathy). Many of us have more. In fact there are other studies that suggest empathy is not the problem, but ToM.

Anyway ... you can care about other people and still be on the Spectrum!

That's ToM.

Your new therapists sounds like she's incompetent.

In common speech "empathy" and "sympathy" are used more or less interchangeably. But in psychology the two words mean different things. Empathy is theory of mind ( aka 'cognitive empathy')., and sympathy is concern for others, or "affective empathy".

An autistic my sympathize with someone but not understand where the person is coming from, and thus not be able detect lies and deceit, and fall victim.

Why does this "no empathy" falsehood persist and persist?. So many autistics are getting un and misdiagnosed because of this "theory".


^^^^
This

I would guess that if you surveyed autistic people, you would find a lot of people, including me, who think of themselves as hyper-empathetic.

I would also guess that the no empathy stereotype comes from outside non-autistic people, like psychologists, who only see that we do not always respond the way we are expected to in certain situations without really understanding why. If I see someone get hurt, it's almost debilitating for me because I feel so strongly with the hurt person. If a third person were to observe my reaction, they would see me freeze and shut down when the "correct" response is to go and offer help. I can never get myself together fast enough to offer help, so it probably seems lacking in empathy.

I hate this part of autism. People get caring about others mixed up with empathy. So you get accused of having no empathy and people think that you don't care about others. It's an understanding issue not an emotional issue.

she seems ot be confusing empathy with the ability to put youreslf in others shoes there is a difference between being good at that and having high empathy levels. Empathy is an emotion.

Good point, wolf.

Hmm..wolf. I like that. And thanks.

It really does get tiresome hearing people talk about ASDers being "uncaring" or robots. I was just talking to my therapist this morning about this. People often think I'm uncaring or I'm mad, upset, etc, when I'm not. The opposite is usually true. I can be in a great mood and someone will think I'm upset. She says it's probably a body language issue and people not knowing what to do with my literal, analytical, and blunt speech. Apparently logical replies to situations other people find emotional is not practical but heartless. Meh. She wants to go through some roleplaying sessions. Not sure how I feel about that. And I will make myself stop there as to not derail the thread....

The therapist says basically I see other's points of view, even if they are lying, so well that I see the point of view and believe it. She called it empathy because she thought "gullible" wasn't a nice word.

I just get WAY too confused because some people swear I'm autistic and others swear I am not... EVERYONE agrees I am intelligent but since I cannot observe my own behavior from outside myself I can't "see" how abnormal my own behavior is.

I did have it confirmed I have a terrible muscle weakness disorder that if I want definitely diagnosed I would have to see a specialist. Also part of my history my mother and father were both diagnosed with mental illness and also my mother was taking psych meds while she was pregnant so something likely genetic is affecting my mind and body. A couple of times ANA antibodies were found in my blood suggesting an autoimmune disorder that was later assumed to be related to my thyroid disfunction but was never proven true. I don't know if these muscle and thyroid problems could be related to my mind problems somehow?

Oh, when I was a teenager they used to think I had this because I had a rash like that, arthritis and ANA but later did further testing and ruled it out somehow: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemi ... thematosus

Edit: I remember that they said a few years ago my muscle weakness was probably caused by a "connective tissue disease" which includes lupus according to an article I just read... Hmm I really need to see a rheumentologist then? (I need to find a forum on that stuff!)

My recommendation would be to see the specialist (rheumatologist, etc). Whatever the diagnosis, it sounds like you have a chronic illness. It is always better to learn about the illness and figure out how to manage it, than to just try to ignore it.

However, this is a lifelong undertaking. If you don't feel you can cope with this right now, put it in your mental calendar to do it X months in the future.

I wasn't aware that gullibility and empathy were in any way related.

Does you therapist have some form of I'd she can show you to prove who she is?