millie wrote:
I agree with this. I cannot connect with others and also have a lot of sensory problems and hypersensitivity that makes it hard to be around others.
I have no shortage of my own feelings. But my own feelings as a reaction to others and to external stimuli have little to do with others and are very encased in my own being. I hope that makes sense.
If someone is crying before me i am often stony and cold.
I have long known that i am better one on one but cannot cope with groups because i get so intensely overwhelmed.
Same here. I can get overwhelmed by the strength of my own feelings.
However, I don't agree with this theory; I don't think aspies have zero empathy, but we do lack it (empathy being defined as the ability to understand other peoples emotions). I certainly never get overwhelmed by experiencing the emotions of other people (which is tied in with reading their body language and vocal tone really well - something aspies CAN'T do), often more the opposite. I only very occasionally understand what another person is feeling, and then I can emphasize with them and feel their emotion to some extent.
Basically; to feel another persons emotions, you have to know what those emotions are. To know what those emotions are, you have to be able to read their body language and register their vocal tone. This is why the theory strikes me as wrong; because the very definition of aspergers is linked to NOT being able to read body language and thus LACKING empathy (not lacking kindness, or lacking caring about the welfare of others, but lacking the ability to intuitively understand what other people are feeling - this is what empathy is).
Wasn't there some oppositional disorder to Aspergers (Williams or something like that) which was more to do with feeling empathy too strongly?
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Into the dark...
14 Jun 2009, 7:21 am
