Do Aspies really lack emotion and sympathy?

[Libecht]

Many say that Aspies usually show little sympathy to others, but in my case, I believe I am more sympathetic than most people . I care about animal rights. I care about the environment. I care about the suffering people in middle east and Africa. I've even cried for them.
But sometimes I do sometimes hurt others by saying things like "How come you couldn't figure it out? It's so simple."
So, what do you guys think? Is it fair to say that we lack emotion and sympathy?

 

[gonzerd]

Oh of course not. Us lacking sympathy or emotion is complete codswallop. Anyone who believes that should just read all the stuff written here, all the emotional turmoil and anxiety, breakdowns, meltdowns, intense happiness and sadness AND sympathy towards each other and the world as a whole.

Maybe we even have more of it, or we don't always have the right filters in place to deal with it in what's supposed to be the 'correct' way of dealing with or showing them. I sure have plenty of troubles with that, of making sense and expressing the emotional current streaming through my mind, of finding the right balance. I'd say that for a lot of us who appear cold and distant, it's because we're just locked down in the emotions so we sort of throw up a wall because there's no other option to cope with it all.

And yes, some of us can be socially very awkward, or hyper-logical, which can cause us to come across as crass or uncaring, but being annoyed by emotionality is still an emotion too, and saying something like 'How come you couldn't figure it out? It's so simple' is still an expression of sympathy.

Rappers have feelings too, hurt or otherwise. So do we.

 

[ancusmitis]

I can be a little on the harsh side sometimes. I'm certainly no Odysseus. But we've all been hurt.

 

[pax]

No , it's ********. NT's are so much crueller than all the aspies I've met here, but they are cruel in "socially acceptable" ways. It makes no sense.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

When someone tells me a story of a friend which something bad happens to them I sometimes feel when I show sympathy it's not genuine inside but I don't know if that's normal. On the other hand I can get very emotional about the things I see on the television or in books, the injustices I see. I'd say I have emotions.

 

[Progster]

No, it's certainly not true that we don't feel emotions or have sympathy. We odten experience very deep, intense emtions, but don't experience them or show them in the same way as neurotypical people do, so they think that we don't have them.

 

[Hedgehog Instigator]

Empathy aspies lack empathy

 

[clg114]

I am a Aspie and I definitely feel sympathy and emotions. I just do not show these feelings very well, giving the impression that they are not there.

 

[Judge]

Most of us seem to have issues with basic communication in real-time conversations and interactions with others. It's a facet of autism.

While we can have empathy and compassion, it doesn't mean we can project it to others in a way that it can be received as such. I have empathy and compassion...but in terms of attempting to project it to someone else verbally and emotionally in real time it often just doesn't come out right....if at all.

It happens to the point where I question myself a lot at times. Yet at least I understand it better over the years in coming to terms with being on the spectrum. That there are just some things I cannot project well, yet it isn't that I outright lack them altogether.

There IS a difference.

 

[Ste11aeres]

I think that it depends on the individual Aspie.

I am lacking in emotion in many cases where others seem to have emotion. I usually feel nothing, in regards to the sufferings of others. But I still care about them. I still try to help them.

 

[Judge]

I am lacking in emotion in many cases where others seem to have emotion. I usually feel nothing, in regards to the sufferings of others. But I still care about them. I still try to help them.

I see emotion as largely a catalyst to outwardly express one's inner feelings to others. If you have those inner feelings, it is simply the catalyst of emotion that isn't working. Not your inner feelings.

 

[Crazy Dave]

Many say that Aspies usually show little sympathy to others, but in my case, I believe I am more sympathetic than most people . I care about animal rights. I care about the environment. I care about the suffering people in middle east and Africa. I've even cried for them.
But sometimes I do sometimes hurt others by saying things like "How come you couldn't figure it out? It's so simple."
So, what do you guys think? Is it fair to say that we lack emotion and sympathy?

I too get upset about this claim, and have to say that like you I also get emotional about the injustices that humankind has inflicted upon it' self. It is safe to say that Aspies do have emotions, and are fully capable of sympathy. We are after all, human beings! We are not emotionless, mechanical beings devoid of sympathy, affection, and concern. I hope that this helps.

 

[Ylva]

An NT looks at an autistic child who is tuning out overwhelming sensory input so as to avoid going into meltdown mode. The NT thinks, "wow, that autistic child must feel nothing, having no expression, and… that must mean all autistics, everywhere, of any age, never feel anything, whether or not they have an expression!"

Unfortunately, those NTs have been writing all the books about autism until very recently.

Empathy aspies lack empathy

Huh?

 

[MEDL86]

Many say that Aspies usually show little sympathy to others, but in my case, I believe I am more sympathetic than most people . I care about animal rights. I care about the environment. I care about the suffering people in middle east and Africa. I've even cried for them.
But sometimes I do sometimes hurt others by saying things like "How come you couldn't figure it out? It's so simple."
So, what do you guys think? Is it fair to say that we lack emotion and sympathy?

No. That's a stereotype that people commonly, and mistakenly, believe. It's just one of the many ways that society has chosen to regard us as inhuman. The fact is, and this is not just based on who I've talked to, myself, but also by the responses I commonly read about stuff, we do have more empathy, and we feel so much more than most people. I've learned rather quickly that just about everything that the general public tends to say about AS (Asperger's Syndrome) and those with AS, are falsehoods that they were told by some ignorant fool.

 

[Hedgehog Instigator]

An NT looks at an autistic child who is tuning out overwhelming sensory input so as to avoid going into meltdown mode. The NT thinks, "wow, that autistic child must feel nothing, having no expression, and… that must mean all autistics, everywhere, of any age, never feel anything, whether or not they have an expression!"

Unfortunately, those NTs have been writing all the books about autism until very recently.



Huh?

Aspies have trouble putting themselves in other peoples shoes. Didn't mean they can't sympathise.

 

[Hedgehog Instigator]

I too get upset about this claim, and have to say that like you I also get emotional about the injustices that humankind has inflicted upon it' self. It is safe to say that Aspies do have emotions, and are fully capable of sympathy. We are after all, human beings! We are not emotionless, mechanical beings devoid of sympathy, affection, and concern. I hope that this helps.

I feel like this is a gross misinterpretation of the DSM. If anything aspies feel emotions more strong and are more acutely aware than nts. We just miss the boat on interpreting human interaction and understanding social norm. Which of anything just makes us more genuine.

 

[Ylva]

Aspies have trouble putting themselves in other peoples shoes.

Says who?

 

[Hedgehog Instigator]

Says who?

That's part of the diagnosis criteria. And it's one that I definitely relate to. I have difficulty understanding empathy let alone experiencing it. Some have tried to explain the difference between sympathy and empathy but I really don't grasp it at all.

 

[Ylva]

Some have tried to explain the difference between sympathy and empathy but I really don't grasp it at all.

Simply put, sympathy is expressing pity, and empathy is knowing how someone feels, presumably through mirror neurons. I think there is a difference between reading body language accurately and imagining how you yourself would feel in a given situation. I only have trouble with the former.

 

[Crazy Dave]

Oh of course not. Us lacking sympathy or emotion is complete codswallop. Anyone who believes that should just read all the stuff written here, all the emotional turmoil and anxiety, breakdowns, meltdowns, intense happiness and sadness AND sympathy towards each other and the world as a whole.

Maybe we even have more of it, or we don't always have the right filters in place to deal with it in what's supposed to be the 'correct' way of dealing with or showing them. I sure have plenty of troubles with that, of making sense and expressing the emotional current streaming through my mind, of finding the right balance. I'd say that for a lot of us who appear cold and distant, it's because we're just locked down in the emotions so we sort of throw up a wall because there's no other option to cope with it all.

And yes, some of us can be socially very awkward, or hyper-logical, which can cause us to come across as crass or uncaring, but being annoyed by emotionality is still an emotion too, and saying something like 'How come you couldn't figure it out? It's so simple' is still an expression of sympathy.

Rappers have feelings too, hurt or otherwise. So do we.

Ah, flight of the concords! My step-sister showed me them a long time ago, I almost forgot about them, thanks for the media!