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YO!

48 (19%)

I suspect I am, but am not diagnosed as such.

32 (12.6%)

NO!

164 (64.8%)

I've been diagnosed as such, but suspect I am not.

9 (3.6%)

Total Members Voted: 252

[MorleyDev]

I can't be arsed to write Neurotypical repeatedly and from what talks on a forum I frequented in the past normie seemed an appropriate, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, slang term. If it's no longer or was never considered such I apologise and will cease using it ^^

Yes, an inability to empathise is a marker for anti-social behaviour disorder. However, empathy is not, as I understand it, when being used as a psychological term just your ability to recognise emotions in others. That plays a part in it, but that's like saying a race is the firing of the starting pistol or dinner is when you cook the food. Empathy, as I understand it, is what happens after your recognise.

One of the symptoms of Autism is often, again as I understand it, difficulty recognising behavioural clues such as body language, making recognising emotions in others more difficult.

http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/autism-and-asperger-syndrome-an-introduction/what-is-asperger-syndrome.aspx

As soon as we meet a person we make judgements about them. From their facial expression, tone of voice and body language we can usually tell whether they are happy, angry or sad and respond accordingly. People with Asperger syndrome can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take for granted. This means they find it more difficult to communicate and interact with others which can lead to high levels of anxiety and confusion.

They can empathise but if they can't recognise the signs of an emotion, it's logically harder to get that empathy started.

[Vector]

I don't have an inability to empathize, anyway.  I built an Empathy App which hardly ever crashes, so... there :I

[sonerohi]

With the cognitive and compassionate thing, I sort of see that. My uncle and grandfather died very close to each other, within a week if I recall properly, and the funerals were held together. I consider myself extremely close to my grandpa, I told him everything, he told me war stories, we chilled when we could. At his funeral, I just didn't care. Not like the, I care so much I'm numb, like the just genuinely don't care. There is a huge divide between my thought and my emotion, and no matter how important something is to me, things rarely carry any emotional weight. Emotional reflexes are something I have to think about and force out, but I'm just mimicking how people treat me without really getting why they do it or why I should do it. Like, bedside visits never meant anything to me when I was sick, so I have trouble making them matter to me when someone else is sick, even when the person is important. I think I'd need to delve into Newspeak to get the exact words for what I'm trying to describe, but let me know how many feet are in my mouth, eh?

[Vector]

Haha, no.  I understand.  I used to be a lot more like that.  Didn't have any need or reason for personal contact, never worried about anyone, etc., etc...

I'm not quite sure what happened.  Probably all of my exercises with trying to empathize with fictional characters did the work somewhere down the line.

[MorleyDev]

An occasional failure to empathise is quite normal, it just bounces back eventually. That and one's ability to empathise, like most aspects of the human enigma, is more of a spectrum and not just "got it or don't" and people with a tendency of being "overly" logical (guilty) often have more trouble firing up the ol' empathy engines.

It only becomes a real disorder when you start adding recklessness, a lack of conscience or remorse, manipulativeness, glibness/superficial charm and so-forth, and even then I'd only call it a problem if the person is actively harming others needlessly.

With empathy there's a lot of emphasis on feeling sad for/with others, but it's good to think of it in the reverse: If you can feel happiness at the success of others you can empathise. If a friend who works hard and succeeds makes you smile for/with them, you can emphasise. If you can feel love, you can empathise. Even if you don't get how to express it or why others express it the way they do (I mean seriously, wtf is up with hugging? I'll force myself through a hug if I need to, but I doubt I'll ever understand or enjoy them).

Unforunately, because of the subtleties of the human nature and certain similarities (despite other striking differences) Asperger's is occasionally misdiagnosed as Anti-Social Personality Disorder...

[Vector]

With empathy there's a lot of emphasis on feeling sad for/with others, but it's good to think of it in the reverse: If you can feel happiness at the success of others you can empathise. If a friend who works hard and succeeds makes you smile for/with them, you can emphasise. If you can feel love, you can empathise.

Again... never used to be able to.

Since I came here, it's gotten a lot better.

[Shiney]

I was Diagnosed as an Aspie.
But eventually met Other Aspies and realized... Im in no way like that.
Went to get re-diagnosed.
Turns out, I'm Schizophrenic XD

...
I... Don't know if that's a move up, or down O.o.

[G-Flex]

I can't be arsed to write Neurotypical repeatedly and from what talks on a forum I frequented in the past normie seemed an appropriate, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, slang term. If it's no longer or was never considered such I apologise and will cease using it ^^

I don't really like this bifurcation of the population that some internet asperger's people like to use, as if everybody who isn't on the autism spectrum is "typical" or otherwise the same.

People with Asperger syndrome can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take for granted. This means they find it more difficult to communicate and interact with others which can lead to high levels of anxiety and confusion.

Finding it harder to read signals is a little different from being unable to empathize. The human capacity to feel for another and understand things from their perspective is not the same as the capacity to recognize communicative cues that identify emotions.

They can empathise but if they can't recognise the signs of an emotion, it's logically harder to get that empathy started.

Right, so we're basically talking about a couple different things here. Obviously, there's a pretty big difference between being unable to read emotional cues well (autism spectrum) and being unable to feel for other people at all (sociopathy/antisocial personality disorder).

I was Diagnosed as an Aspie XD.
But eventually met Other Aspies and realized... Im in no way like that.
Went to get re-diagnosed.
Turns out, I'm Schizophrenic XD

...
I... Don't know if that's a move up, or down O.o.

More like a move down, to the left, forward, to the left again, backward, and up. They're not really comparable.

But yeah, getting diagnosed with asperger's is about as hard these days as getting a prescription for antidepressants (i.e. not hard at all even if you aren't trying). We're a very pharmaceutically-minded society these days when it comes to that, at least in the US. We loooove to turn everything into pharmacologically-treatable disorders.

[Shiney]

More like a move down, to the left, forward, to the left again, backward, and up. They're not really comparable.

True Dat.
Seeing as one is social Autism and the other is a long and winding road leading to the Jungles of insanity.

I wasn't social as a kid, yet I was brilliant, and somewhat hypersensitive, so they threw me under asperger's.

But time marched forward, people too fell under the vast umbrella of knowledge that I seem to forever expand.
Human beings are simple creatures to me now. Almost every encounter with another person is a pleasant one and I make friends with almost everyone i meet..
And no more hypersensitivity...
Though of course now i feel limbs that don't exist and hear the occasional voice in my head, but meh.
Tis Life.

[Max White]

Did this thread get a trim while I was out?

[Vector]

Did this thread get a trim while I was out?

Yeah, the dude who was trolling us was tossed.

[Max White]

Oh good, praise to Toady and Threetoe, and all that jazz.
I can't help but notice a lack of posts from good old Siquo. I hope he didn't get banned, temp or otherwise. It looks like all he's posts after a certain point, and all relating, have been removed. I would hate to think he will not be continuing to join us.

[Vector]

Oh good, praise to Toady and Threetoe, and all that jazz.
I can't help but notice a lack of posts from good old Siquo. I hope he didn't get banned, temp or otherwise. It looks like all he's posts after a certain point, and all relating, have been removed. I would hate to think he will not be continuing to join us.

Posts after the dude joined all got tossed.  This included Siquo getting angry that we would advocate making someone's life easier and informing us that he would not post here anymore.

[Max White]

So, I take it things did not go well while I was gone.
Sort of fitting, for the thread, in a way. But I feel we should get back on topic now, and I apologise for the derail.


Empathy was never something I have had trouble with. I have never had to 'train' myself to feel sad when others are sad, nor have I forced myself to react when others get hurt. Hell, I react a lot worse to seeing others hurt than myself!

[G-Flex]

Oh good, praise to Toady and Threetoe, and all that jazz.
I can't help but notice a lack of posts from good old Siquo. I hope he didn't get banned, temp or otherwise. It looks like all he's posts after a certain point, and all relating, have been removed. I would hate to think he will not be continuing to join us.

Posts after the dude joined all got tossed.  This included Siquo getting angry that we would advocate making someone's life easier and informing us that he would not post here anymore.

Siquo? Angry? Well, I never.