#non-tmnt

I see this get conflated and twisted so often so I want to share what low empathy feels like to me, an autistic person who didn’t realize their experience was low empathy for a long time

When people tell me what they’re experiencing and how it makes them feel, I know how I’m “supposed” to feel. Like if someone tells me they lost their dog, I know I’m “supposed” to feel sad, because I know if I lost my dog I would feel sad, and you should feel sad for and with this person because it helps people feel better. But it’s really really hard for me to actually feel that sadness. I know that’s how I’m “supposed” to feel, so that’s how I react, but that’s not really how it feels. I thought everyone was like that, though. I thought empathy was knowing how you’re supposed to react even if you don’t feel that way, but apparently it isn’t which was VERY surprising to me to find out.

I still feel emotions and personally don’t have a lot of trouble expressing those emotions (this is something that differs autistic person to autistic person, of course), it’s just how I express those emotions is different from most people. But when it comes to empathy I have a really hard time.

I don’t think low empathy equates to cold and uncaring and lacking emotion. I still care about people a lot and I try to show that by reacting in a way I hope will be helpful, even if I don’t actively feel that way. People sometimes call that manipulative, but it’s not my fault I don’t feel how I’m “supposed” to feel when people tell me about how they’re feeling. I don’t think it’s wrong or manipulative to react in a way that makes people feel understood.

omggggg

look att his BEAUTY!!!!

I'm so bad att keeping up with all the dinos sadly but man, the nanuq is SO PRETTY

AND THE YUTY???