Autistic empathy

This feels like a really strange post. Did someone hack this account?

Blunt and insensitive, yes. But if I replace Autistic with Traumatised ADHD, the rest makes sense. But the traumatised Autistics of varying intellect I know, can be selfish, a bit dull, we can be egotistical for lack of feeling seen, but deceptive? We can be withdrawn and have difficult connecting or relating with others and responding as expected (empathy) due to difficulty with language. And while ignorance can be bliss it's also well good for the Dunning Kruger effect.  Add intensity of interest and poor insight, lack of mentorship... 

Who and how many others are you talking about here. 

Empathy used to be understood as Emotional Contagion. A sort of mass hypnosis of 'feeling'. Sympathy and Compassion are more useful.

But I do think it's good to remember, Diagnostics are all topsy turvy right now. Trauma is misapplied to Autism, therapists who haven't spent decades in deep psychoanalytic study don't know the difference between ADHD and Autism let alone what separates autistic from psychotic, which is why Francesca Happé has to speak on this. I'm relatively certain there's probably a good amount of kids who are introverts without added language barriers, some with trauma, currently misdiagnosed Autistic.

This feels like a really strange post. Did someone hack this account?

Blunt and insensitive, yes. But if I replace Autistic with Traumatised ADHD, the rest makes sense. But the traumatised Autistics of varying intellect I know, can be selfish, a bit dull, we can be egotistical for lack of feeling seen, but deceptive? We can be withdrawn and have difficult connecting or relating with others and responding as expected (empathy) due to difficulty with language. And while ignorance can be bliss it's also well good for the Dunning Kruger effect.  Add intensity of interest and poor insight, lack of mentorship... 

Who and how many others are you talking about here. 

Empathy used to be understood as Emotional Contagion. A sort of mass hypnosis of 'feeling'. Sympathy and Compassion are more useful.

But I do think it's good to remember, Diagnostics are all topsy turvy right now. Trauma is misapplied to Autism, therapists who haven't spent decades in deep psychoanalytic study don't know the difference between ADHD and Autism let alone what separates autistic from psychotic, which is why Francesca Happé has to speak on this. I'm relatively certain there's probably a good amount of kids who are introverts without added language barriers, some with trauma, currently misdiagnosed Autistic.

JuniperFromGallifrey said:

This feels like a really strange post.

The dissonance of repeatedly using "they" for "we" always flags as "strange" to me......but posts that are frustrated about "them" are not unusual for "us" here.  Often, a bun fight ensues......so I'll be seeing myself away from this thread now.....its a lovely evening out there.

I don't think autists are any more likely to lie, manipulate, be devious and destructive than anybody else. So many of us struggle with communication I can understand why one would think it deliberate, I'm quite a blunt person, particularly with people I know, but this is a much a social class thing as an autistic one. If you've had trauma's in your life then it can and will make you distrustful of others, you may agree with them because you're afraid not too, or appear devious and manipulative as you try and find out if this person is worth putting the effort into. Of course a lot of it maybe a mispleaced sense of humour, this is something I've come across amoung other autists from time to time. I think it might also be an age thing?

Empathy is a strange thing, as is compassion and they're often misunderstood in my opinion, many people think empathy is similar to some kind of telepthy and that anyone who's generally empathetic will know exactly what someone is feeling and why and be able to respond in a way that makes things better. Compassion gets mixed up with sympathy and they're very different, it can be compassionate to give someone a verbal kick up the backside, to call them out on hurtful, spiteful and behaviours that harm others as well as the person saying things. Compassion isn't saying "there, there, never mind", it's often about admitting the limits of what you can do to help and just being there for someone, metaphorically holding their hair out of the way whilst they emotionally vomit.

I try to be both empathetic and compassionate, neither are easy, neither mean I have to be a doormat, to be empathetic and compassionate to others mean I must be those things to myself first ad that's often very difficult as we're so often brought up to not think of ourselves, but only others.

Well good post. I just find it interesting that’s all. I truly want for autistic people to get better. It is a disease of the mind. I’m not being funny and no one hacked my account but we need to help these people before things get out of hand. I believe when autistic people are aggressive and hurt others they truly don’t mean it. Instead it is the disease in their heads that is making them do it. I have been aggressive in the past and have known other autistic people to be aggressive and violent. I had a friend who was autistic. In one of his moments of carelessness he cut me with a peice of glass and I still have a scar from it till this day. I didn’t press charges because I know he didn’t mean it it was the sickness in his mind that made him do it I know that. So I discontinued contacts. He was not affected emotionally by his actions. He laughed about it. Hey I don’t know what went through his head. I am owning it. This is a disease I have. A disease of the mind. I am ill. I am sick. I want to be healthy whatever that is.