#aspd asks

Does seeing painful injuries on other people make you uncomfortable? Asking because I was researching eye injuries for a writing session today, which I found extremely unpleasant. I know it's not an empathy related thing for me- because I hate the character I'm writing at the moment so even if he existed irl I wouldn't feel bad for him. I just really don't like thinking about anyone's eye being injured, regardless of who it belongs to.

I am professionally diagnosed yes!

Painful injuries, typically no. But I have some like body horror squicks which I would categorise as a different thing. Seeing people in the ER at hospital covered in blood with bones sticking out or whatever doesn’t phase me. But there was a film on Netflix, I forget its name, that has a cover photo of a razor blade millimetres from an eyeball and that always grossed me out. And anything to do with nails being torn up and back from the nail bed, I hate that too.

So occasionally some body horror stuff gets me but it’s typically very specific. In real life, not so much but I’m sure something particularly horrific would get to me.

its probably rooted in stereotypes about people who have any disorders that are seen as scary and dangerous and evil, but i feel like this all the time and its enough to bother me

A disorder doesn’t mean you can’t be funny 👍🏻 it’s definitely rooted in stereotypes

Have you found that to be relatable in any way to your experiences?

It is always a 60/40 for me tbh. My strongest emotion is anger. That runs at 200% while everything else runs at a solid 15%.

I’m much more likely to recall an event that caused me anger at the time, and get angry again, than I am to recall something that made me feel embarassed or guilty and feel those types of emotions again.

I think it’s because my capacity for emotions is so low, that experiencing one’s that are more complex is just fucking harder. Anger is straightforward and easy to understand. Something like guilt though? That’s layers like an onion girliepop and I don’t have the emotional capacity to be dicing and slicing to reach the core every damn time I remember something.

You could also attribute this to survival. People that recall shit that makes them feel embarassed, etc each time? that makes them vulnerable and/or weak to manipulation from the person who made them feel guilty/embarassed, and they will not last very long.