As a child did you think 'things's had feelings?
Like toy cars, buildings, roads, plants, cups, etc?
I keep reading how child autists see people as inanimate objects. But I'm unsure if that's true. I was terrified/bewildered by new people, but also I felt objects were animate and had feelings. So in a room with people it seemed fair I gave attention to the ignored. It's also why I felt some days we had to go on a certain road, because it wasn't fair to ignore it, or maybe if we always used one road it won't be upsetting for it if we used a different road. When I stimmed, I had to finish my stim before answering someone because it wouldn't be fair on the parts I hadn't done, and it was too much to stim and answer.
I can still sometimes feel bad when I get rid of something, that it'll now it's unloved. Is that why some of us hoard?
Is this a being a kid thing? Or an autism thing? Or me? I feel it's not that I lacked empathy, it's that it extended to everything and so dividing my empathy up meant there wasn't much for humans.