Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all,
I'm new to this community and excited reading many stories in the community.Recently I've been reading several articles about 'double empathy problems' and I've learnt about 'emotional empathy' which autistic people tend to be good at, that we can feel the same as other people (highly empathetic). But autistic people are not good at 'cognitive empathy' (the famous 'theory of mind' thing), where we're bad at cognitively prospecting people's emotions or thoughts.
I feel that this describes me exactly. I think I'm very empathetic (or sympathetic). I cry when I watch films or even trailers. I think I can tell when people get angry or uncomfortable when I'm with them (but I don't know why, but I can't do that with text only or voice only communication. I think I need face and body language to feel it). But I don't know at all how to fix it or approach it for them.
Now I'm curious about other people's experiences with this. I read several community chats here about empathy and what I thought was there're both people (who think themselves highly empathetic or not at all). Do you have any thoughts or stories?
Thank you.
Hi Zoey,
I have high emotional empathy - to the point that is is a bit of an issue. My assessor had to give me some tips about it because I take on my wife's moods very easily. Not amazing advice - just stuff like do star jumps when sad.
I get teary eyed at films, cartoons and even YouTube dog videos - especial where a child gets a new dog and cries their eyes out!
But, yes, any read-between-the-lines verbal emotion passes me by completely.
It is a fascinating subject, and I would like to know more about it - because it is so easy for a neuro typical to think that we are contradicting ourselves, because they don't get it. And because I don't really get it, I can't explain. But research is being done, I think.
Ohhh same here, highly emotional but can't read between the lines. or sometimes I feeel I don't want to read between the lines (why people don't just mention it? I don't understand why it should be hidden between the line if it's important...)
I think about what I would feel if such a thing were said to me, or done to me and act from there, I don't always get it right, but I do most of the time.