Emotional Connection

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What does it mean to "connect emotionally" with people?

I wrote 'yes', only because I have have felt emotionally connected to certain people - I may have been fooling myself about the nature of the connection, but I cared deeply and was quite emotional about the relationship. I'm not sure how they felt about me though, and sometimes I was quite wrong.

Just once -- one of my exes from a totally foreign culture. Surprisingly, that's the only time it's happened, ever. Not even with my parents. I think it's hard to do IF you don't have a similar personality. I'm emotionally strong and weak, passive and fiery, awkward and not, socially insightful and socially clueless, shy and cocky, open-minded and habitual, physically clumsy and physically agile--all at the same time. And about as progressive on gender roles, etc. as they come. So was she. I don't think many people are as full of contradictions as I am, and I've found that my character traits are just as rare among aspies as among the general population.

Yes, I have connected with people emotionally, but only other Autistic people. Being surrounded by as*holes for so long has made it easier for me to love those who deserve it.

Twice.

How can people feel (as opposed to think) that they are understood? It doesn't seem like it is something that has an emotional component to it.

I think I've never been emotionally connected to someone.

Up to now that's 73% for emotionally connecting at least once. I would find it interesting to know how often it happens, if it does. I guess the distribution would be heavily skewed towards low numbers, when compared to NTs.

Never, not even immediate family.

I think this area of my brain was actually completely destroyed by my childhood inflammation. Thank my irresponsible parents for not seeking medical attention; it literally caused me not to care about them at all.

Only when I am super depressed (low serotonin) does it even start to happen. Then, it disappears when my depression cycles away or when I kill it artificially with St. John's Wort.

When people form an emotional bond

I only feel emotionally connected by my immediate family and maybe 3 friends.

Once, and everyday ongoing, with my husband of over 11 years. He's on the spectrum also.

I think it typically refers to being close to someone in such a way that you care about their moods, their feelings, etc, and there's a kind of rapport beyond just conversation: a connection. I'd say that if you're affected on an emotional level by their presence in some way, something might be there.

I don't emotionally connect to people very easily, but I guess it's not infrequent. Occasionally I've felt that a component of normal human emotion is missing because I don't seem to experience a lot of the normal rushes and triggers, but more realistically someone put it best when they said it was simply very slow.