Feeling others emotions in the room

I have alexithymia and many of my own emotions are a bit of a mystery to me but I can "feel" the mood of the room very quickly. I don't know if it's a learnt response or whether my empathy antenna is turned way up. I find large groups or busy situations particularly difficult.

I also pick up on the general disposition of individuals and know who to avoid if possible.

Autismman said:

Does anyone ever experience an unease around people sometimes in the sense that if they are on edge or stressed or maybe even going through some personal struggles this is passed onto you and makes you unsettled also.

A lot of this is because communication is only partially verbal and there are loads of other behavioral and visual cues that you may not conciously notice but have probably been informed subconciously by.

The way the person looks about, their stance, how they move their hands, nervous movements (flicking hair, chewing nails, frequent eye movements etc) and the behaviour of others around them - all these are clues you may not realise your autistic senses are absorbing.

Empathy is also quite an autistic trait so picking up on the feeling without realising it will often have you mirroring it to them as well.

We are complicated things us humans.

I'm able to pick up on everyone's emotions when I'm in a room full of people.  If someone's in a bad mood, I can feel it.  When I'm at a party, I feel all these emotions coming at me.

There is a lot of injustice in this world which is another thing that I struggle with and have to tune out a bit at times because the feeling of helplessness is overwhelming. I can’t logically produce any answer as to why the world commits evil acts. It’s more of a feeling of negative energy, I find it hard to empathise unless I have something to go by personally like a shared or similar experience with the person who’s giving out the vibes. I think I have become good at reading others in person as if they fall into a “personality” type that can be categorised. Of course nothing is this black and white, people are people, no one’s truly defined by a hunch or someone else’s idea of them. I think autistic people tend to do a lot more people watching than people talking perhaps this is just part of that. 

This describes an empath I think? I have been called an empath many times and I’ve read up about it but can’t really find out why some people have it. If someone cries in my company I do struggle with knowing how to react but always end up getting tears in my eyes too. All the recent news about Gaza, I feel a lot of pain for those people, it feels terrible inside my body. Is this what you mean. 

I wonder if autism causes trauma itself because of the overwhelming emotions and not knowing how to process them or communicate them to others especially doctors and other mental health care professionals. It could well be a trauma response you are right, perhaps the lack of being able to identify yourself in others is half of it or feeling able to relax and be yourself. 

I've notice it, too. We're probably always on the lookout for others disapproving of us, so we tend to be sensitive to the mood in the room when it's a bit edgy. We know when to avoid walking on eggshells. I wonder if it's more something like cPTSD hypervigilance?