Dont feel grief over loss of loved ones

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SteamPowerDev
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13 Nov 2010, 7:23 pm

I don't feel grief either. Generally when people die I have to fake getting upset. I generally can't cry at such occasions, but I can look sad. I don't feel grief, but I do miss them. Just not to the point of crying or getting upset, unless it's expected.

I had a friend drown almost a year ago today, my best friend called me up in tears to tell me that he had drowned. My first thought was "oh, I should probably sound upset, I hope this doesn't take long I wanted to watch some TV."



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13 Nov 2010, 7:28 pm

ediself wrote:
shadi2, i think you got it wrong, it's a lot easier to cry for a pet than for your own father, because generally they're dead because you didn't care for them good enough. i had a real bond with my dad, and he still is the most important person that i have known, (up there with my kids) but the grief part is just.....i'm not sure how to express it but, the love i had with my father was not gone. he was gone. i would have been more upset if he had been suffering in the hospital. but once you're dead....you don't know you're dead! i don't know how to explain this anyway. i'm weird.


Yes you're right when you're dead you're dead, i.e. you don't suffer anymore. My mom died suddenly and eventho I was sad that she died I was glad that she didn't suffer. When you think about it you realise that grieving can actually be a little selfish in a way, like grieving for my mother for example, it is me who misses her, me who would like her to be there for me and be able to communicate with her, it is a lot more about my own needs then hers finally.



ediself
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13 Nov 2010, 7:31 pm

SteamPowerDev wrote:
I had a friend drown almost a year ago today, my best friend called me up in tears to tell me that he had drowned. My first thought was "oh, I should probably sound upset, I hope this doesn't take long I wanted to watch some TV."


oh i know the feeling.....oh god i feel like such a monster right now! i do feel like this. sorry for calling myself monster over your words though, i bet it will put you in a great mood.
i felt this more than once. "oh no, i'm gonna have to put on a really sad face now, and i had a joke to tell.." :lol:

edit to answer:i had this thought about the selfishness of grief yeah...it does feel like self pity. at least it looks like it to me.but you never know, they could be imagining how death felt for the dead person, if he was scared, i don't know, all they say is they miss them just like us.so i don't know what they think about it.
edit 2 ( :lol: ) sorry for calling you "they"i forgot you identify more as an NT....so yeah then! i was right about the "woe is me"part!! im a mind reader......gonna make good money out of it soon :lol:



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13 Nov 2010, 7:40 pm

I don't really feel grief. When my grandpa died, it was in the evening and I did feel upset for a while. By the time it was fully dark I was feeling happy again. I felt a little bit sad a couple of times the next couple of days, then quit feeling sad about it altogether. That's my most recent loss and the one I grieved the most about.

Our priest died and I was upset for five or ten minutes.

My OT's pet cat died and I was sad for the whole night and the next day, and understood full well why anyone would continue to be upset. Though I personally was quick to not feel sad anymore, I would say I continued to miss him for some time. I also wished our priest hadn't died because I was used to hearing his voice on Sunday and didn't want it to be different. But the cat, I really wanted the cat because I wanted the cat. I would've been happy with a recording of the liturgy. But I still got over the cat.

My cousin died and I didn't care.

I want to point out here that I wasn't happy about any of these deaths, though I was happy for other reasons while the people around me were grieving. I didn't want them to die. My feelings BEFORE Grandpa's death were pretty normal-- didn't want him to die, didn't want him to hurt, wanted to make it better. Worried, etc. But afterward, why feel? It doesn't make sense. It's nothing I've ever felt.

I almost feel like a liar, because I offered empathy rather than sympathy to a friend whose grandfather was dying, and then died. How would I ever know how she feels? She probably knew a pain I've never known.


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Shadi2
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13 Nov 2010, 7:57 pm

DandelionFireworks wrote:
I don't really feel grief. When my grandpa died, it was in the evening and I did feel upset for a while. By the time it was fully dark I was feeling happy again. I felt a little bit sad a couple of times the next couple of days, then quit feeling sad about it altogether. That's my most recent loss and the one I grieved the most about.

Our priest died and I was upset for five or ten minutes.

My OT's pet cat died and I was sad for the whole night and the next day, and understood full well why anyone would continue to be upset. Though I personally was quick to not feel sad anymore, I would say I continued to miss him for some time. ...


There is something else I would like to add about grieving, even when/if we do grieve, it is different for everyone, whether you are NT or AS, we don't all grieve the same way, some don't grieve at all and some grieve a lot, but there is also all the other ones in between. Me for example, I usually responds immediately emotionally, I mean if it was someone I cared about of course (my mother for example), when I am told the person died, it makes me sad and I cry. However I can very well be discussing something that has nothing to do with the person who died and smile and have fun a few moments later. Because of that again I am fairly certain that some people labeled me as hearthless. Its just that I don't grieve in a continuous manner, it just comes by moments.

Shadi



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13 Nov 2010, 8:14 pm

Hmm... I've had conversations with a close (Possibly aspie) friend of mine and I came up with a possibility to why death isn't so upsetting. I've never been close to any of my family. They could all die and I'd just think in terms of... well life is going to be harder for me now. The thing is is I've thought this made me a pretty heartless person. I'd even thought to myself "Why am I so cold?", but then I realized that I am very close and caring for my friends. If anything happened to the friend I mentioned... I'd be devastated. It has made me think now that there is something about my friends that makes me feel close to them... and there is something other people do which makes me not feel anything but logic for them.



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13 Nov 2010, 9:11 pm

I guess it's comforting to know that I'm not the only one like this. I also didn't feel sad when my grandmother died but I did feel really upset about the fact that I didn't feel upset so I started crying about that - about the fact that I felt so different from everyone else.

I think grief is a cultural factor as not all cultures feel such grief after the death of a loved one so I hear. That makes sense then because it is a learned behaviour that aspies jsut wouldn't have learned.



Shadi2
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13 Nov 2010, 9:28 pm

ediself wrote:
edit to answer:i had this thought about the selfishness of grief yeah...it does feel like self pity. at least it looks like it to me.but you never know, they could be imagining how death felt for the dead person, if he was scared, i don't know, all they say is they miss them just like us.so i don't know what they think about it.


Yes that makes sense too (about imagining how death felt), I know I thought that for example about September 11th, about the horror of what people had to go through that day before dying, eventho I didn't know any of them personally.

Shadi



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13 Nov 2010, 10:12 pm

Shadi2 wrote:
As a person who feels grief, even the grief of others sometimes, I am curious about this. As a NT (with it seems some AS traits) I can understand how one wouldn't feel grief for a person they weren't very close to, but it is more difficult for me to understand how you can not feel grief for a father, or other loved one, family member or partner/spouse. However I don't think it makes you a horrible person, I think you "process" the loss in a different way, and it possibly also depends on how close you actually were to that person emotionally, if there was really a bond or not. Not everyone feels close to their mother, father, or other family members.

Like when you say "I didn't cry over my dad's death until a year after it happened, when I really wanted him to see something I had made". I could be totally wrong, but to me it sounds as if the reality of his death occured to you emotionally at that moment, more then when he passed away, while before that moment of course you knew he was gone but it wasn't obvious that you could miss him in the future but he wouldn't be there for you anymore. For me this "moment" happens right away when a person I loved passed away, all these things go through my mind, I feel intensely and emotionally the fact that he/she won't be there anymore and that I will miss him/her in the future. Which doesn't mean that I will display my emotions right away and in public tho, for example when my mother died I cried (in private) but I didn't cry at her funeral, I am pretty sure everyone thought I was heartless.

You also mention that you cried when your rat died right away, but is it possible that you were interacting a lot more often with your rat then your dad? I know that personally I feel close to my dogs and cats, and when when one dies I feel very sad.

Shadi


It could be that I was already emotionally prepared to lose my dad. He had cancer, and I could plainly see that he was dying over the course of a few months. I already knew that it was going to happen. I was not present when Baldwin the rat died. I had been on a trip and was very excited to come home and see him. I wanted to present my finger to him so he'd hold it in his paws and inspect it and lick it like he always did. When I arrived, I went to my room and noticed that his cage was empty. I thought that my mom had let him loose in the room and was very upset because my door was wide open and we had cats. I complained to my mom, and then she told me what had happened.

It could also be that I only experience grief over someone's absence when I badly crave their attention. I found out about Baldwin's death at a time when I badly craved his attention. I finally cried over my father's absence when I badly craved his attention. Right after my father died, however, I was not craving his attention. Maybe it's like a person not missing his jacket until winter comes.



Shadi2
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13 Nov 2010, 10:59 pm

Squirrelrat wrote:
It could also be that I only experience grief over someone's absence when I badly crave their attention. I found out about Baldwin's death at a time when I badly craved his attention. I finally cried over my father's absence when I badly craved his attention. Right after my father died, however, I was not craving his attention. Maybe it's like a person not missing his jacket until winter comes.


This is exactly what I meant :)

Shadi



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14 Nov 2010, 12:08 am

After my dad died 2 years ago...last year, I wanted to ask him a question because he pretty much knew the answer to everything logistical...and then in that moment I realized that I could not. I felt weird, stumped, but not sad...then I went online and got my answer.

I remember my sister 6 months after he died. We were at the dinner table for Christmas and she was laughing and then all the sudden froze...and started crying so hard she was shaking.
Mom tried to comfort her. She was crying so hard she could not speak. I tried my best to relate in order to comfort her, but I just felt that I was in a very awkward situation with someone I love is feeling powerful emotions that I could not feel. In a way, I was hoping this situation would resolve quicklay cause I was afraid of saying something horribly insensitive and damaging our relationship. Well I just hugged her which I dont do often and patted her on the back like mom was doing, but chose to let mom do the talking. If I said something, it would not have been the right thing.
It was just so weird...here she was feeling something so powerful that she was for the moment , mute and it seemed to possess her, but all I felt was "wow this is akward" We were side by side, but one of us was in anouther realm...not sure if it was her or me.


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14 Nov 2010, 12:25 am

ohh and I want to thank everyone for sharing their stories to confirm that I am not heartless, just have AS...continue if you want to


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14 Nov 2010, 10:13 am

I was brought up by my Grandparents for a while, so should have felt something when my Grandmather died, I dont even remember it but my Childrens Society records must have felt there was something strange about me as it mentions how I showed no emotion whatsoever on hearing of her death.
Then when I was 5, I can remember my mother telling me that my Grandfather died and I still felt not even sadness, yet he was the only person I ever felt really close to in a family sense.

As a grown man though, I was devistated when one of my Lovebirds died.



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14 Nov 2010, 10:42 pm

CynicalPeach wrote:
When my dad died (I was 16 at the time) I didn't cry. At all. My family all thought it was weird, but that was before I was diagnosed with AS.


I was 13 when my dad died suddenly and I was embaresed at the funeral because I didnt feel bereaved. My mother died when I was 43 and no diferent. I miss them, but I am not sad.

Death is a part of life.


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14 Nov 2010, 11:22 pm

When I was 12, "best friend" died, i cried for a day or so, I saw no reason to go to the funeral. I was sad, as she was the only kid that ever really accepted me. friends of my aunt gave me a hamster to cheer me up, and it worked. a month later I was planning my summer and it was like she never existed. I did miss her but that's about it. I remember my mom telling friends later that i didn't really cry much, except for the day I was told.

6 months later my grandfather had a stroke, and the hamster died 2 says before he died I was soooo upset, I felt so bad, I cried for 2 days.

The day my grandfather died, my dad took me to the pet store to get a new hamster while my mom went to the hospital, when I got home my mom broke the news. I think I cried for a moment,and told my mom "good cause he's not sick anymore" that's all, I had a new hamster to tend to. I didn't even cry at the funeral, the only thing that made me cry was that my mom didn't want me bring my favorite book, she thought i would be reading it during the service. of course I then cried during the whole service, cause i couldn't read my book.

10 years later my grandmother died and I never cried. she didn't live near us and I had heard for a while she was very sick, so when my mom told me she died, I was like.. Ok. and went on continuing my computer game.



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14 Nov 2010, 11:35 pm

I don't know any human beings that have succumbed to death. I've cried when my insects have died. I started laughing at the death of other animals and am told I lack empathy. I know living things die, and such a change is funny to me. It is sad if you miss the thing, however.

I don't lack empathy.