A "radical" new autism spectrum disorder theory

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I'm not surprised if that proves true.

AS isn't about NOT having something, it's more about not being able to properly process and respond to it.

I'm not opposed to social gatherings, but I remember feeling very stressed at some funerals, as if I was sensing everyone's feelings but I didn't know what I was supposed to do with it.

I have been told by those closest to me that I am too emotional at times, and that I feel emotions more intensely than they do. I dont usually show it appropriately, or at the appropriate time though, like most aspies. But I think its my own emotions that overwhelm me, not those of others. I don't have any idea what someone else is feeling, unless they tell me or their body language is outrageously obvious. Now, in some cases I can imagine what someone might feel, and if it strikes a chord with me I'll feel emotion.

I think my sense of empathy got less whacked as I grew up. As a young kid I felt empathy for inanimate objects. But as I got older we had animals around, which I think helped. I believe other mammals have the same emotions we humans do, and I don't understand how anyone who has lived with pets can deny this. Since I could trust pets not to reject me I could hang around them and their emotions, and see how they applied to people as well. I think helped me to stop misplacing empathy on inanimate things and instead have it for humans and animals. Thats not to say I'm any good at reading people or expressing empathy, I'm still an aspie.

I was given the Sally-Anne test twice, between age 5-7. But it wasnt puppets, the adult read the story and asked questions. Once I failed because I was so compelled to tell them that I knew where the marble was, that I heard the question as "where is the marble?" Once I passed because they first asked "where is the marble?" and having got that out, I could then correctly answer the next question, which was of course "where does Sally think it is?" This was the early 70s and no-one knew what AS was, they just knew something was wrong with me. In the end, the school settled for saying I was too emotionally immature and made me repeat 1st grade.

This article really strikes a chord because of recent happenings in my life. When my physically disabled friend was raped I was so distraught and upset that I was an emotional wreck for a couple weeks, and constantly worrying about her, making sure she was OK, etc.

Odin - I'm so sorry about your friend, I got upset for her just reading what you wrote.

Anyway, I related to the article very much. I can tell how people are feeling very easily but it can be very overwhelming.

Perhaps that is why autistics/aspies tend to avoid eye contact, some people say that "eyes are the window to your soul", in that case an aspie/autistic child would find it very uncomfortable to look into peoples eyes, because of what they might see there.

I remember when I was a child, I would often feel confused and hurt, because I had accurately picked when my mum or teachers were sad/stressed but they would say "nothing's wrong" when clearly something was wrong. Then I would also feel their unease/anger at having the feelings that they were trying to hide so easily noticed by a child, and get very defensive. No wonder I don't know how to deal with emotions when there was only negative reactions to whatever emotions I did try to interpret.

Thank you for posting. I relate so much to this!

I agree! Thank you as well! I am still trying to understand eye contact, and don't know why it is so difficult. If I am being overwhelmed, instead of scared (scared that I might give something away about myself), that really changes the way I look at it.

I still like to be the person who doesn't make eye contact, it is my way of giving people a sign of the amount of engagement I have with them, which I believe is still pretty accurate, as I an 90% of the time not engaged at all.



This rings true as well, this typical response is causing me some major confusion and issues in my life right now. I am constantly retraining for the opposite interpretation and it is really screwing with my head. If women were only more consistent... (ok, men likely too, but I tend to only see this in women myself being married).

interesting article. I've always felt the pain of others quite severely, once I understood they felt differently than I do. I always thought the way my mother raised me made me hyper-aware of the way other people or animals feel, but I guess it could actually be AS.

I remember seeing a video of a kid on youtube who I think is on the spectrum, being tortured and bullied by a sibling and sibling's friends over his obsession with a social networking site. they thought it was funny so they recorded it and put it online. what they did was so cruel I felt like crying and I got so angry... I remember some of the comments from people around me about how messed up the kid was and how stupid his parents were to let him run loose on the computer, etc. but I thought the only really horrible thing I was seeing was a kid getting pushed into a meltdown by a group of cruel teenagers. even after it came out the kid has an undisclosed disorder, with public apology from one of the teenagers, the ridicule heaped on the kid and his parents went on and on and it was painful to see and hear it. that was before I knew I had AS and the experience of witnessing the cruelty and condemnation of others was so overwhelming I isolated myself for a week.

I'm not sure if I can relate to the article or not. I know I definitely do not lack empathy I just don't know how to show it appropriately. But I don't know how much is "too much" empathy to really compare it to someone NT. I know I show too much "empathy" for objects than other people though. I've always thought my problem was more not being able to handle sensory related things not empathy related.

Where have you all been hiding? My intuition told me I would find people who can relate to my empathic tendencies among Aspies but that hasn't seemed to be my experience so much until I discovered this thread. If it makes you feel any better, I cry a lot too, and I'm a guy. Somewhere I learned how to unplug myself from my emotionally sensitive side and operate only in my logical side. I have a theory that I did this early in my childhood, and just stayed there until about 20 years ago. I used to wonder what I was mourning when beautiful music played and I would weep uncontrollably without knowing why. I also like The New World Symphony because parts of it are very stimulating and recharge me very deeply. I really like music that expresses in imagery. I think that is one of John Rutter's gifts.

I wonder if anyone here uses this as a form of nonverbal communication. It was when I discovered that I do this, that I started feeling like I wasn't broken, just designed to function differently. With many animals, I can tell them what I want them to do by sending them image and feeling that expresses what I am expecting. Its like the same way I feel from a person, I can send back to them through the same connection. Also somewhere I have learned to focus on one person's emotions and tune out others. Maybe that ability would make me not so Aspie.

Someone mentioned liking to visit areas to experience people's attitude, or something like that. I used to intentionally take strolls through malls in suburbs that were experiencing economic growth just so I could get high on the feel of their optimism. Its a little harder to find places like that these days.

I agree.

Dis-order, e-motions topic

My empathy started with my belongings (objects), and shifted to a special interest I have had since the age of 13.