Sympathetic towards non-living things?

Post Reply New Topic

I have a huge problem with this. I would always pick out the half dead christmas trees when I was a kid so that they wouldn't get left behind. If I pick up a dented can in the store I have to buy that one because I feel badly for it if I put it back. I look for stuffed animals that are defective because I worry that if I don't take them home no one will. I cried once when my mother told me that all of the unwanted pumpkins at Halloween were going to become pumpkin puddles.
I rationally understand that all of this is ridiculous but it is a feeling I can't get rid of.

Same here too.

Oh jeebus, when the original Toy Story came out, it nearly made me bonkers. I started feeling intensely sorry for toys to the point I couldn't let my younger brothers play with them anymore for fear they'd "hurt" the toys.

Ever since I was a toddler, watching ST: TNG, I've had a thing for androids and robots (thank you, Data). While technically not "inanimate objects", I see self aware androids, robots or even software as having human rights, and I can empathize with them.

I still have occasional problems with watching kids beat up their toys...I have to remind myself they're not actually alive and they're fine.

It depends on the animal or the object or the person.

Personally, I prefer Thomas Newman to dogs, because most dogs are just annoying.

I like real animals. And real objects. And real objects.

If something seems fake to me, I won't like it.

I do it all the time. I feel very passionately about books and my computer and my iPod. My CDs... you name it. ^^

Yes. One thing that bugs me is seeing someone let their houseplant wither away. On the other hand, I don't name inanimate objects - nor even pets sometimes - I've always thought it odd when people give their plants names, even though I feel like I feel more connection with plants. I think it's because they feel empathy with objects by projecting human traits in them, while we feel empathy on a level more on the level of the non-human thing.

NTs/heteristics love animals by relating to them as people. We are more likely to relate to animals as animals - which enables, I think a deeper understanding and empathy for them. I feel a deep connection with animals, but often I don't even get around to naming pets I keep.

I have always hated it when people refer to dogs as their "children". My aunt does this with her Corgis, and I see it as just plain dumb. I love dogs because they're happy, spastic, like chewing on things, are easily distracted, chase stuff, get overly excited, etc etc. and to me they are absolutely nothing like people. That's part of the reason I like them so much. Plus they're fuzzy. Fuzzy is good.

I give names to technical objects, like men like to name their cars.

I believe the word is anthropomorphism.

And yes I do this as well.

I know now that it's not "normal" to have feelings for other animals and non-living things but I do.

Yes I do. I ''feel sorry'' for objects all the time. My mind personifies objects, and I can almost see a facial expression of emotion on objects too. When somebody is complaining about an object in front of it I often say (or nearly say), ''shush, you'll hurt it's feelings!'' I feel so mad saying that but I can't help seeing emotions of objects.

Yes. Sometimes more so than humans.

Oh I thought I was the only feeling that way!

Well, My camera is called Iliana, my guitar Naomi, and my phone Enok. I don't know what to do when I break one string, I feel like my guitar is screaming for help. And sometimes, when it's time to change my phone (what I did last summer) I feel I'm losing my only friend. I miss you Steve.
Yes, objects are better than people.
Sometimes I have to name them because I see myself as an object when people forget I'm around, and if I have a name, they should be named.

Yes, I do this too. As a kid I would worry about dolls/stuffed animals suffocating in the toy box. And I had one stuffed animal whose felt eye kept falling off. It seriously disturbed me that he was blind and in pain. I couldn't bare to read books like the Velvatine Rabbit or the Corduroy Bear because I found it so stressful and sad.

But it didn't stop with childhood. Although as an adult I try to ignore it. I feel bad washing clothes in cold water because I hate being in cold water as opposed to warm water. I worry that they are too cold. I feel bad when I have to get rid of a pair of shoes because I worry they will feel abandoned. I feel bad when I have to leave a car at the repair shop overnight because it might miss me. When someone tells menthat their bike or car or other possession got stolen, I worry that it is scared because it was taken by strangers. Things like that. I also do this with plants. I have always hated when people bought me flower bouquets because the plant had to be cut. I much preferred potted plants. And I always had a huge aversion to real Christmas trees because they had to die. I much preferred fake trees and still do.

I try to ignore it because obviously it would be pretty stressful and time-consuming to worry about every object I encountered. But it still crosses my mind everyday.

I got quite attached to an old family van when I was a kid, I often had to sit in the van waiting for Mum doing whatever she was up to, I'd talk to it as if it weren't inanimate, then when the van was so... Unfixable? Mum had to get rid of it, I used to cry at night haha. I still have the rear-view mirror that I unscrewed before it was towed away.

I also had quite a huge rock collection, every rock had its own name, and at least to me, a personality in a way. Idk, it's weird.

I think I can pin my issue back to watching a movie called "The Velveteen Rabbit" in kindergarten, a little boy has a favorite stuffed rabbit, he grows up and adds other animals to his collection, and then one day he's almost a man and all the toys get tossed out in the trash. What a crappy thing to show kids

I don't have formal names for my stuff but I apologize to my bikes and guitars if I MD on them. I can identify with a lot of those other things; the Christmas trees in particular. My personal hangup is seeing anybody waste food of animal origins, I feel remorse for the cows that died to become my hamburger, but in particular I develop a sense of anger at seeing smeone take 1 bite of meat and throwing it away

It bugged me too. Big time. I had some 1970s version of the book and the story in that one was that the boy got really sick and all his belongings had to be burned to prevent the infection from spreading, so the rabbit doll was put in a burn pile.

Oh gosh. The Velveteen Rabbit. Even thinking about that story now hurts my heart. And yet, I could/can read/watch all these medical true life dramas about children dying of leukemia and it wouldn't bother me.