Do you think inanimate objects are alive?

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I actually don't have the problem with letting things go. I've analyzed this recently and came up with the reason that it's due to desensitization because of how I was raised. When I was a young child, every couple of months my mom would come into my room with a trash bag and just start throwing away stuff that I didn't use much or was old or ect and I had to beg for certain things that I really liked. It was traumatic but I think it helped me to prioritize and see which things are really worth keeping. So now, although I love my stuffed animals, I am capable of throwing them away when they get ratty and disgusting-looking or I just don't use them much any more or ect.

Yes! Well, I know they aren't, but I say 'sorry' to them etc. I once tore up an origami boat because it wouldn't sailproperly and as soon as I did so, I felt immensely guilty.

I would love to know if this is related to ASDs.

OMG, I love my cars so mach!
My first car was a Subaru Justy, and I loved it so mach.
It died because of a bad engine replacment... I chenged its 1000cc. engine with a 1200cc. one, that didn't play well with the rest of the car's iner stuff...
I'm still working on getting over my last car, and I didn't even like it, as no car could replace my Justy...

for me they are more alive than people. or my attachment to them FEELS more alive and intense thatn my attachments to people do.
I spend most of my time turning animate things into inanimate art things. the latter is my preferred population and the particular process of transformation has an intensity that is unparallelled in my life.

Used to think my stuffed animals had feelings and were upset if I had a new stuffed animal that I paid attention to. I had 98 stuffed animals and one night couldn't sleep because I thought they all felt left out so I piled all 98 stuffed animals on my bed and fell asleep.

No.

I always assumed I was the only one that did this.

Intellectually I know that inanimate objects are not alive. However... I still act as if they are. I can't help it. I've always known I was weird, and this was one of those things I couldn't tell anyone about because its was just TOO weird.

Normal people love their cats and cry when they die.
Normal people do not cry when they get a new car because they feel like their old car feels unwanted and unloved. They don't think about that car 15 years later and still cry.
Normal people do not hesitate to throw away two peas left on their plate because for a second they wonder if it would be better to throw them away, or be better to eat them so they can be with their friends.

Of course, the word normal is subjective.

As a child I was very connected to the animals on the farm. They were the only friends I had and really I didn't need anyone else. I sang to them, and hugged them. I cried to them. When I was having a bad day, you could always find me in the cow pasture talking to them. Slaughter day was the worst day for me. I still carry the memories of them with me. I still think about them. Its that same way I thought of the animals, that I think of inanimate objects. To me, they have feelings. My plants are sad when I don't water them. When they die, I feel like I've failed them. I feel shame. I cry. Sometimes I keep a part of their leaves to remember them by.

When I was little I would kiss and hug my stuffed animals and dolls at night one by one. I didn't play with them. But I did line them up and give each of them the exact same attention. If I kissed one a little too long though, I just knew that my other stuffies would notice and be hurt. I knew they'd be crying on the inside. So I had to go back and fix it and make the love I gave them equal.

I have a hard time throwing away things because of this.

My family knows that if I hesitate with my dinner plate, I'm silently asking if someone can please eat the last bite on my plate because I'm too full and I can't bear to throw it out. Its destiny was to be my food and to be so unwanted and so unloved that it gets cooked but then thrown away... well that thought is too hard to bare. Someone usually eats the piece for me before panic sets in. If I have to throw it away its done by self talking my way through it and telling myself that its ok. Its just food. It doesn't care. Its not alive. Etc.

We moved a year ago and it was so hard for me. We spent only 6 years in that house and it was a POS, but it was our home. I cried the day we left, and I couldn't go in it empty. We had to clean it, but my husband went back to do it because I couldn't stand to see the house with all our things gone. I cried for weeks. Even though our new place is awesome! My autistic daughter still cries about it. We both wave at the house when we drive by it now and say, "Hello old house!"

Gosh. I guess I could go on all day about this subject. Ya, I do it.

I still think my stuffed bears are alive, and I didn't even think they were alive when I first had them when I was a baby, but then I grew to believe that they were alive.

There is a picture of a young chinese girl (very old) I found framed by a water painter sometimes in the 80's which is very eerie. I have it covered in a cloth and "resting" on my shelf where she's safe, lol.

Otherwise I have bad dreams.... last time she invaded my dream all I saw was white and no words... but buzzing in my head in the dream. I said, thank you for visiting but please don't invade my dreams, mostly because I was fully aware it was a dream and aware what was next to me. And she went away...

Being polite to objects = helpful.

No but I don't like to change clothes in front of pictures of people because I feel like they are watching me. I know the pictures aren't alive but I still get that feeling.

Hmmm, I should mention that to my therapist next time I see him.

No I don't think inanimate objects are alive but perhaps some spirits like to inhabit them ^_^

i often apologize for hitting an object. i used to feel really sorry about breaking glasses and plates. i still feel really sad when a glass breaks. especially when the glass bounces when it first hits the ground and then shatters on the second hit. i could've saved it but i wasn't quick enough. poor glass.

Wow! Now this is one that I've never thought of as part of my Asperger's. Whenever I walk past a plant I have a strong urge to touch it because I think it itches and can't scratch itself. Not only that, but if there are several plants in the room, I feel I have to touch all of them or else I wouldn't be being fair to them and they'd feel bad. Just for the record I know that these things aren't actually happening, but still, that's what goes through my mind and if nobody else is in the room I'll go around and touch every single plant.

And this is something that I'm not alone in thinking? Yea! I really thought that I was the only one. We should get a secret handshack or something so we can spot each other out on the street.

Anthromorphic things like my soft toy animals I do feel are somehow alive in exactly the way you state. Other objects I don't exactly attribute feelings to in the same way, but I nevertheless feel as if they have - for want of a better word - a soul of some kind. I can't understand how people can just throw things away that they've had for many years.

Normal/NT people are certainly capable of becoming attached to objects, but it strikes me that the difference is that they're more attached to the object for what it symbolizes rather than the object in itself. Like someone might consider a piece of jewellery precious because it belonged to their late mother, or they might keep a stuffed toy because their boyfriend won it for them at a fairground on their first date. They're attached to the object because of the memories (of other people) that it stimulates, not because they love the physical object.

^ That's an excellent point!! As I was reading this yesterday I was thinking about how my NT husband is a clutterbug and can't seem to ever throw something away. But his reason is that he doesn't remember his childhood much so the objects help to bring back the memories or something to that effect.

Yes, I can relate to the most of you here...
I know that so well...

The whole world appears to me alive ever since.

Whe I was little I cried my heart out when an object broke or got treated mean by an adult.

When an object broke that I loved dearly and used to sleep with, I was unhappy for weeks!


I never lost this kind of thinking and feeling.

I feel deeply connected to metal. When I polish a workpiece - I do that for a living - I think it feels good when I do a good job on it, and it will do a good job at the customer, when I treated it right.

Failing feels horrible to me, and they know the failing is for me the worst punishment for having failed. I feel sorry when I messed up and cry inside, but don't show off too much, I know the least NTs would understand.