Can Empathy Be a Valid Trait, Too?

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I'm personally starting to think that, despite what most would think, Asperger's sufferers can respond to their sensitivity by being the most empathetic at times. If we are neurologically sensitive as we are being painted, then surely, we can't all be silent emotionally to other's needs and feelings outside of our own.

All I know is that since I have met a friend of mine, I found myself being openly empathetic to those with depression, pain and anything of that nature. I'm also very confrontational about those who aim to shatter anything spiritual, and I am also very sensitive to energy (good and bad) in a room.

The sites all say that those with Aspergers can be more mental than emotional, but I just don't see how that can be true, if I feel like the most patient and empathetic person I know.

Thoughts?

There is empathy and sympathy. Plenty of autis and aspies are pretty good at displaying sympathy.
Sympathy is not the same as empathy though.

Also, different forms of empathy exist. There is cognitive empathy on the one hand and affective empathy on the other. Aspies (especially the females) are a lot of the times highly affectively empathic. When it comes to cognitive empathy however, not so much. For psychopaths it is exactly the other way around.

explain the difference?

so is it one can't experience empathy unless they experienced it too? so like unless you've been shot you can't have empathy for gunshot victims?

I have always had deep empathy streak. But it often is hidden as I avoid social gatherings and interactions in general. Once in a while I feel moved to make a special effort and people are often surprised.

I have trouble understanding the concept of empathy, but I've been told that I can be very empathetic. I know that when I was young, about 1-1/2 or 2 years old, my mother and my grandparents on her side were involved in a serious car accident, and even though I wasn't anywhere near that accident, I was deeply affected as well. My grandmother took the brunt of the impact, with what I believe were back, brain, spinal, and leg injuries. My mother came out of it with back injuries and PTSD, as well as newly-developed phobias and from what I can tell, an anxiety disorder. I'm not sure how my grandfather was affected, but as far as I know he didn't suffer any serious injuries. He was probably quite shaken up though.

Before the accident, I was a fairly happy little kid, albeit non-verbal and with a strangely high pain threshhold (these were some of the first signs that I was on the spectrum). After the accident, I developed severe separation anxiety, and as a result I became extremely attached to my mother. It wasn't until I was about 5-1/2 that I started to shed this separation anxiety.

Strange, huh?