It can still disappoint me to find that others don't share my enthusiasm for this or that, yes. I believe it's common in ordinary society for people to fake enthusiasm in order to spare the feelings of the would-be sharer, so I reckon it's normal. It can feel like rejection, because sharing is what companionship is about. It's worse if good company is rare for a person.
It's less of a problem for me since I realised how minority-appeal some of my interests are. I used to be completely mind-blind about it, I used to feel that if I was fascinated by something, then everybody else must be fascinated by it too. So these days I try to remember to check with people before I try to share, e.g. "do you like computer programming?" Actually, as people tend to be so confusingly polite, it's often better to ask them less directly, e.g. "have you ever done any computer programming?"
I've noticed this ever since I was a young child, and felt sorry for my parents when my choices of toys weren't the ones they recommended. I read a story in which a boy was given the option of choosing the reward of his choice. The other kids each enthusiastically suggested things, and I thought it was very sad that he had to hurt their feelings by rejecting most of their ideas. I don't know if I had extreme empathy or was just too emotionally attached to objects and pastimes, seeing the rejection of a thing I liked as a rejection of me.
Last edited by ToughDiamond on 13 Apr 2015, 6:50 am, edited 1 time in total.