Unnatural lack of fear

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I am constantly warned that I make unwise decisions in potentially dangerous situations.

For example, when walking through a parking lot, I will continue walking (though others with me have stopped) when a car is coming our way. I do put some thought into my actions (I wouldn't step in front of the car if I knew it didn't have time enough to stop), but when I judge they have plenty of stopping distance, I will continue on while others won't.

Another example, I seem to have no fear when it comes to animals. I have never been afraid of dogs or any other animal. Not too long ago, I came home early from work because a pit bull got itself trapped in my back yard and was growling and scaring my sister. I approached it without fear (it ended up being just a scared, full-grown, puppy) and leashed it and took it home. Also, when campling at Yellowstone a few years ago, I came within a few feet of many wild animals (we woke up to bison right outside our tent, and on the road out there was a coyote stalking something). I got close for pictures, while everyone else was cowering in the car.

These are the only examples to come to mind at this time, I was just wondering if anyone else seemed to have a, perhaps unwise, lack of fear towards things.

I am not sure if this is the same but...

When I was a toddler I had a total lack of fear. I was not afraid of anything. The dark, horror movies, you name it. I actually had to learn fear and why people are afraid of things.

Me too! I sometimes find others being too cautious, but hey, there's nothing wrong with being a little overly cautious and there are some things that are rare that can happen such as you tripping to the ground as you cross and you will be thankful that you were cautious if that ever happened.

Yes. As a child, I constantly put myself at risk without even realizing it. One time, I climbed the roof of my five-storey apartment building with my neighbor (same age as me) as a child and then came too close to the edge without realizing it. I just wanted to look down. She didn't say anything to me, but told my mom afterwards. My mom then gave me a lecture in a scolding voice. It was a very tense and unpleasant situation.

I am still like that.

I suspect that you are fairly young. Many people have to get into accidents before they start being careful.

I am in my 50's. I have done things like hang gliding and sport parachuting that are considered dangerous, but I have always taken great care when doing them. What I consider most dangerous is any activity which involves a large number of unknown variables. These activities could include anything involving other people or animals. Driving and horse back riding seem more dangerous to me than the sports I mentioned because other people (or animals) are involved which introduces a big unknown variable. Predicting the actions of other people or animals is an inexact science at best, but is probably even more difficult for an aspie due to problems with theory of mind.

Yep. I am very much like that... always have been. Fear is just another emotion that I seem to 'do' wrong. Dogs, heights... I can relate to both as I have done things like those all of my life. I remember my mother telling me that when I was two, she found me one one morning sitting on top of the refrigerator. I was always scaring her as a child when I would do things like swing from the pine tree to the roof of our house. This past Sunday I tied an escaped pit bull up in my yard so it would not go after someone's cat or dog. I did not know this dog, so I did not know if it was animal aggressive... I just assumed it was and erred on the side of caution. I seem to have a lot of dog encounters. I cannot tolerate people physically fighting, so I have found myself in the middle of fights, pulling people off of another more times than I can count. I do not know I am doing it until I am in the middle of it and it is almost over. I just do things like that on automatic. I think that one is due to my training though. I do not know for sure. I nearly drowned once, that did not bother me... everyone's reactions after the event were what got to me and freaked me out. When I had my surgery, I was not afraid going into that, but I was afraid of all the lights and commotion when I came out of being unconscious. I do not seem to know to be afraid when I am supposed to be and not afraid when I should not be. I have it all mixed up I think. Very rarely do I get fear right.

I don't know if it's the same but I remember being in my late teens and a group of friends and I were in a sand pit near some train tracks and everyone was afraid to light on fire a bunch of model rocket engines because it might start something else on fire, make a bog boom that would alert the police or hurt someone or a combination of all those. I stepped up and lit them thinking everyone else was chicken or I wanted to show off my bravery and bad-assedness.

In a crowd, I'm able to ask hard questions like the time I went to Job Corps in Vermont. A lot of people was thinking that termination of students was race-based. That is, the hispanics and black students were being expelled more than whites or asians. We were having an assembly and the director asked if anyone had any questions. I stood up and asked, "how do you respond to the notion that terminated based upon race?" a lot of students in the auditorium became pretty rowdy because it was a question on their minds that they were afraid to ask.

I wish I didn't have fear in everyday situations like going back to school.

I wouldn't have climbed roofs as I had a major fear of heights. I remember begging my parents not to take me up the CN tower cause I didn't want to be inside such a tall building...lol.

"Fairly young" is subjective, I am 28, don't know if that fits your definition.



I agree with the unpredictability of people, however I find animals easy to read. They don't tend to hide what they are feeling.

I'd say under 30

I agree that animals are more predicable and easier to read, but sometimes they react too fast for you to avoid injury. My family were visiting a shelter for abandoned animals that my nephew used to work as a volunteer. He gave us a private tour which included getting close to a tiger. My sister in law was staring too long and caused the tiger to try to slash us with its claws. We were right next to the chain link fence, but no one was hurt. We all learned not to do that to tigers, but other animals might behave differently. Even experts in animal behavior can get burned. Was it Sigfried or Roy who got mauled by their tiger?