Feeling too intensely, the feelings of TV characters

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I am trying to ascertain how prevalent the following is within the Aspie mind.

When I watch TV programs/films I often feel so much the characters fears that I have to really tell myself it is not happening to me. If a situation could have more than one outcome I tend to want the nicer one to happen rather than the one that would make the program more entertaining.

For example – I did not want Sean in Eastenders to spill the beans over Stacy's affair with Max at Stacey and Bradley's wedding, even though it would have been more interesting. I felt her fear as if it was my own and had to tell myself this was not happening to me, enjoy the program.

However, in real life I am more along the Aspie/Autie stereotype - I do not take on the feelings of others in this way. I miss out that others are experiencing bad things.

It may be because the TV programs / films clearly demonstrate the feelings of characters as the feelings are the story and stories are constructed to be deliberate and more intense and obvious than real life.

What are other peoples thoughts and are you Aspie, Autie NT or other?

I can relate in some ways, when someone is humiliating themselves on a fictional show or whatever, its hard for me to watch it happen. For some reason I feel what they feel and it bothers me a lot.

Ha, yeah, I remember a few weeks ago I was watching something that made me depressed as hell, all these bad thoughts started rushing through my head and I ended up sick to my stomach with depression, but I felt like an idiot too cause I had to keep telling myself its not real and its a fictional show and it never happened and s**t.
Its just that when it comes to a certain topic, hearing all about it or seeing it will almost always spawn bad thoughts in my head that will haunt me probably for the rest of my life, and whether it is real or not doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

Hi there,

I agree with you. I basically divide TV and movie characters into two groups: The nice ones and the evil ones.

In this black-and-white format, I basically say the nice ones are here for us and the evil ones have to be led out. A nice character always lends a listening ear to literally everybody, while an evil character simply fails to acknowledge his or her fears and concerns.

Yes, I said fears and concerns, even though most of the evil characters out there would probably say, "DAMN IT! I HAVE NO FEARS OR CONCERNS! DON'T YOU DARE ACCUSE ME OF THAT!"

Sadly, my black-and-white reading of people in real life does not always deviate far from the characters on TV and in the movies. That's probably why we see movie and TV characters this way.

Cordially,
thecartoonist

yes, same here. That's why i avoid all the "surveillance cam" programs, or the news. This summer, a kid in my region disappeared (probably raped), it was all over the news, i couldn't stand hearing all the media's hypothesis about what happened to her.... i have much difficulties also watching bad events reconstitutions....

I can watch movies no problem, but I can't handle watching shows like "America's Funniest Home Videos". Stuff like people tripping and falling, fake dog poop left in the kitchen, anything messy blowing up, and things jumping out of boxes are no problem; I even laugh at those things. But stuff involving pranks, humiliation, or struggling with something is flat-out unbearable for me to watch, and especially so when the victim is a young child. I end up changing the channel for a few minutes, just to avoid seeing that.

However, shows like "Planet's Funniest Animals" are pleasure to watch, even when the animal is places in a situation that a person would find humiliating. After all, even smart animals often lack the intellectual capacity to feel complex emotions like embarrassment or humiliation. So when I see a cat chasing its tail, a dog running in fear from a chicken, a cat jumping on a laser pointer dot, or a dog barking at its reflection in the mirror, I find those thing genuinely funny, and laugh at them out loud.

Yes I can get far too involved with the trials and tribulations of tv characters.

i used to fantasize about baywatch. yeah it was bad, if i watch soap operas i laugh. nobodys life is that intresting, i remember on days of our lives when marlena was possed by a devil, it was the best soap opera ive seen. also when that one girl didnt know her identity and she needed a puzzle box to finally figure out who she was was cool.

I never assume anything about characters, because I learned early on that to assume something may end up being wrong. I only know about characters directly through what I am being shown or what is written about them, but if it is not written or shown explicitly, I could not understand it. I do not understand why characters do irrational or illogical things in stories, and I think them weaker for doing those things, and they never ended up being role models I would want to be more like. I don't get much out of reading about characters or watching them in a movie or TV show. I would ask myself why these characters did something stupid, but I could never understand why.

So no, I don't have a problem with watching movies, if only because the feelings don't trip my "heartstrings" (or lack thereof), and I usually only watch the movies to see what happens.

I'm probably an Aspie though.

This happens to me a lot. I always thought that I was just somehow trying to feel the characters' emotions more intensely so I'd enjoy the story more, though.

I can't watch things that involve too much tension. Sometimes I just have to leave the room.

Sounds just like depression. I can't remember where I read it, but you shouldnt watch RL stuff only cartoons or something if that is the case.

I don't identify with characters on television, but I don't like mean-spirited behavior.

It is entirely normal to feel for a TV character, but I don't think it has anything to do with ASD.

Remember, the writers and producers of (good) TV shows SPECIFICALLY try making it easier for the viewer to identify and feel with the characters. Which is probably why American TV never has bad endings. The business is just too commercial to allow reality to lower the amount of viewers.

I don't usually watch episodes of some series that have too many "domestics" in it, that is, character conflict, in a protracted way.

I don't do that with TV, but I do it sometimes with books.