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Awareness of others

Lotus

I've heard that people on the Autistic spectrum tend to live in a world of their own and have little ability to empathise. 

But from my observations it appears that me and my partner (both Aspies) are much more aware of the people around us than most other people, who will sometimes exhibit ignorant behaviour like trying to walk straight through you instead of moving to one side on the pavement to allow you to pass. We also feel emotional empathy strongly when someone is in distress, whereas I've seen people in so called "caring professions" who didn't seem to care at all.

Maybe we on the Autistic spectrum all have this hyper-sensitivity to other people and emotional empathy, but it overloads some to the extent that they block it out, either by "shutting down", which restricts their communication abilities, or by making their own noise, repetitive movements, etc

What do you think? 

Parents

  • Hi,

    Sorry Pixiefox, I did not reply sooner, have only just realised your question. My comments stem from a situation with a friend of my father's partner. She had been renting for a long time and was asked to leave because the landlord wanted to sell. She left and landlord refused to return her deposit because the shed needed replacing and they had to mow the lawn.

    This was totally unfair as it was down to the landlord to maintain the shed, which was in a worse state when she moved in. The landlord just turned up several days before she had arranged to leave, and mowed the lawn without her knowledge.

    I was furious about it, and passed messages to my father on how to challenge and deal with it. Around this time I was going through my diagnosis. As I have heard from other's, I couldn't relate to not being able to empathise. I discussed this situation with someone later, and realised although my feelings were similar too the tennant, my anger and frustration was not the same as hers. With this very black and white view of what is right and wrong.

    My thoughts are changing on this, we can empathise to a certain degree with an NT but not able to on the same wavelength; there will be things we feel much stronger about, other things less stronger. I realised with the tennant, I was reacting to how I would feel in that situation, but that is not the same as she felt. I was absolutely furious and disgusted about the situation; while she was angry and frustrated about it, which is similar, she was more dismissive of the situation.

    I believe we can be empathetic with someone else on the spectrum with similar traits to yours; but with other people, our capability is diminished. I have this situation at work when my ex-line manager has aspergers (my opinion), we are very much in-tune with each other's thoughts and feelings.

    Anyway, just rambling my thoughts. I think the same applies to NT's, they are not able to fully empathise with us, it's just their feelings and thoughts are more likely to be in-tune with someone else.

    I must stress, this is just purely my thoughs, I have not researched this, and am no authority on the subject. Just past of discovery after my diagnosis

    Random

Reply

  • Hi,

    Sorry Pixiefox, I did not reply sooner, have only just realised your question. My comments stem from a situation with a friend of my father's partner. She had been renting for a long time and was asked to leave because the landlord wanted to sell. She left and landlord refused to return her deposit because the shed needed replacing and they had to mow the lawn.

    This was totally unfair as it was down to the landlord to maintain the shed, which was in a worse state when she moved in. The landlord just turned up several days before she had arranged to leave, and mowed the lawn without her knowledge.

    I was furious about it, and passed messages to my father on how to challenge and deal with it. Around this time I was going through my diagnosis. As I have heard from other's, I couldn't relate to not being able to empathise. I discussed this situation with someone later, and realised although my feelings were similar too the tennant, my anger and frustration was not the same as hers. With this very black and white view of what is right and wrong.

    My thoughts are changing on this, we can empathise to a certain degree with an NT but not able to on the same wavelength; there will be things we feel much stronger about, other things less stronger. I realised with the tennant, I was reacting to how I would feel in that situation, but that is not the same as she felt. I was absolutely furious and disgusted about the situation; while she was angry and frustrated about it, which is similar, she was more dismissive of the situation.

    I believe we can be empathetic with someone else on the spectrum with similar traits to yours; but with other people, our capability is diminished. I have this situation at work when my ex-line manager has aspergers (my opinion), we are very much in-tune with each other's thoughts and feelings.

    Anyway, just rambling my thoughts. I think the same applies to NT's, they are not able to fully empathise with us, it's just their feelings and thoughts are more likely to be in-tune with someone else.

    I must stress, this is just purely my thoughs, I have not researched this, and am no authority on the subject. Just past of discovery after my diagnosis

    Random

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