• Replies 3 replies
  • Subscribers 82 subscribers
  • Views 1573 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Interesting read - NICE guidelines for ASD in Adults (esp. bits about empathy....)

I'm done with Christmas Cards

Well this is an interesting document. Haven't read it all yet, but there's good intro on the necessity of having both Social Communication issues *and* Repetitive Behaviours / Insistence on Sameness, and interesting comments on empathy (lines 22-30 page 18).

NICE Guidance

" .... in people with autism it is the cognitive component of empathy that is impaired (‘theory of mind’ or recognizing what others 25 may be thinking or feeling) whilst affective empathy (having an appropriate emotional reaction to/caring about other’s feelings) may be intact."

I *believe* I'm the other way round; I believe I have cognitive empathy but little affective empathy (but I have little affective anything to be honest!). So maybe I do need to look for an explanation for my life that isn't autism............rather than making the case for Repetitive Behaviours that are masked and were missed in the diagnostic interview.

Still looking forward to ADOS and its results though!

  • in reply to qwerty

    Hi Qwerty, yes, and I score above threshold on a test for it that I found. I've just made a list of "for and against" ASD & about to post....

  • For me, it's not that I lack empathy (I am quite the emotional type), but the ability to read (pick up signals) about other peoples behaviour or situation which leaves me in a state of confusion.

    As an adult I am able to mask this problem because I have obsessionary interests in human behaviour and psychology, and am neurotic so am hypervigilant and aware of my surroundings.Despite this however, I still exhibit a marked delay when something bad happens, I do not react in shock and quick to aid a person in need; and even if I did I would not know how to go about it, and will feel very awkward.

    A recent example was with my mother. She was out of breathe and required someone to take over from what she was doing, but I was confused iin thinking she was being melodramatic.

    I discovered that I struggle in reading signals when I am fixated on performing a task. Everything else fades away and I can't concentrate on anything else, if my attention shifts the sequence of what I was doing goes out of sync.