I hope this isn’t insulting but I’m guessing because of a lack of cognitive empathy in young children with autism they might have trouble with social norms and the emotional cues and empathy that to go along with it at time (of course left untreated). I haven’t seen this with OCD and yet this is how I feel and it’s frustrating. Can’t understand living my life this way… I just want to Understand what to do
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I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult autistic people. I have autistic friends who I can tell are very empathic, so I think this would be more of an exception than anything that’s normally associated with autism. I have heard that not helped some people with autism can struggle with cognitive and emotional empathy but of course trauma and genes are probably a huge factor too. Again, I hope this wasn’t derogatory. I certainly didn’t mean it that way and will take it down ASAP if it is
@autisticbutterfly🦋 Oh no. Yeah I wasn’t referring to ABA I don’t think. I was referrring to like distress tolerance skills and teaching skills on how to make friends
Full disclosure I could see this with ocd too but I’ve never heard of it
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Kind of. I can actually both relate to physically painful empathy and no empathy. At one stage of my life I was often called an empath although I didn’t identify as one (I had to work to understand enough of others circumstances to feel empathy because my emotions come strong and leave suddenly and am self centered), now I’m opposite sort of, but life has left me jaded
@autisticbutterfly🦋 Thank you for reminding me that whether I have empathy or not I have worth as a human being. That was needed
@autisticbutterfly🦋 I wonder sometimes if I confused guilt from ocd with empathy though….ugh
OCD and other anxiety disorders can result can some behaviors that might seem like a lack of empathy. The fight, flight or freeze response is primarily designed to keep each individual safe - it's not a particularly empathetic process. When I am working with neurodiverse people (including autistics) I generally see a ton of empathy - it just may not be expressed in a typical way. Sometimes addressing OCD or other anxieties with ERP can clear some mental space to work on other concerns.
Thank you! Yes I might just have ocd because the high empathy was after mild trauma? And empathy is a “theme” for me which means I have to calculate everything in order to not be rude so maybe not thinking as much about it will leave out the fight or flight and I will be able to after all. Thank you. This was helpful
So even if I just feel slightly scared or very disassociated I am in fight or flight?
I remember reading a comment someone had made to one of my posts on an OCD subreddit and they told me how they believed their OCD symptoms got worse during a time in their life when they were socially isolated. Reading this comment made the brightest lightbulb go off in my head because it basically summarized most of what I’ve been going through. In addition to OCD, I also struggle with depression and social anxiety. I feel like these three things and the profound sense of loneliness I’ve felt throughout my years in college (undergrad) feed off of each other. I know that OCD can manifest in so many different ways regardless of what your social life looks like, but I can’t help but feel like the lack of relationships (specifically friendships)/community in my life has something to do with my mental health and the delay in my recovery. Side note: I’m still relatively new to NOCD, but I’m happy to say that I’ve been making some good progress in my therapy sessions <3
Around 10 years ago when I started getting violent OCD intrusive thoughts, I also started fearing that I was a sociopath. I began overanalyzing everything — especially my emotions. It's like if I could prove I had emotions it proved I wasn't a sociopath. I care deeply about my family — I worry about them, I want them to be safe and happy, I want them to get theit deepest desires — but I don’t know what love "feels" like, if its supposed to feel like anything. People describe love as this warm, obvious, fuzzy emotion, but I don’t experience it the way I think I’m supposed to. Is it supposed to be intense? Constant? Loud? Because I’m not sure I’ve ever felt that. My family isn’t very emotionally expressive either. I cherish hugs from them when I get them, I initiate most hugs with my parents (but I don't like hugs from other people, like co workers) but overall my family doesnt show affection much, and that’s made me question if I’m even capable of love. I overanalyze my feelings constantly — especially after realizing I don’t feel connected to God in the way my old church said I should. I don’t love God. I don’t feel anything toward Him — we’ve never met obviously so I just never got a connection with Him. But growing up, that felt like a sin in itself. As a teen, I felt ashamed knowing I cared more for my parents than for God, especially when church messages said God had to come first. There’s a song by Mary Mary that says, “I love you more than my mother, my father…” and it used to make me feel broken. My feelings were in direct contradiction with what I was taught, and that shame never fully left me. OCD latched onto that hard. It’s only after a coworker passed away — and I found myself crying multiple times over it — that I realized I do care deeply for people. But even that realization felt pathetic. Why did I need such an extreme moment to feel something “real”? & why didn't I care for another creepy bigoted co worker when his son was sick? I felt nothing. I’m scared my OCD is convincing me that I’m heartless, even though I want connection. I crave love. I like hugs. It’s exhausting and terrifying to doubt my own humanity like this. I hate this fear. I hate that I don’t trust myself. I hate that OCD makes me question my morality, my emotions — everything that makes me me. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? How do I even explain this to a therapist
so. oh lord. half my ocd symptoms could be autism. (not that im looking for a triple diagnosis including adhd, its just interesting to explore) this little ol rabbit hole started with my friend, who happens to be autistic and passionate about how their own condition works, when they started slowly easing the convo into an autism screening and by the time i realized what he was doing it was “oh my god ur kinda right i might be wrong for denying all this time that i could have autism” always thought my experience with texture/sensory as a toddler (and now) was ocd, because thats mainly what made adults call me ocd, more blatant ocd signs aside (such as touching things “just right”, ordering items etc) wondered why i was like that when theres not even a *direct* link between ocd and sensory issues (not the same as somatic ocd) thought i just happen to be an extremely sensitive person since i was born, now realizing that couldve been a sign of autism, along side many more “quirks” ive always had anyone with autism and ocd that can tell me what their experience is like? what about when u were children? especially if u snuck under the radar until u were older, my parents have said only a few times in the moment that i remind them of an autistic kid but dont think i have it
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