Empathy

Empathy comes easy for "neuro-typicals" or those who don't have autism or Asperger syndrome. Basically, I have a hard time looking at situations from another person's point of view, basically seeing things through their eyes and feeling what they are feeling. The idiom, "put yourself in my shoes" is relating to empathy and sensitivity. I have had to learn this skill and to this day, in a way, I still lack the concept of empathy because when someone is feeling sad or mad or whatever the emotion may be, I have a hard time actually understanding what they feel or what they're going through unless they verbalize it or vocalize it in some kind of way. To rephrase what I said, I am generally not an insensitive person, but there are quite a few insensitive streaks within me which causes me to make insensitive or somehow inappropriate comments. These result in one of two things, either that I highly offended someone or that I wind up in trouble (quite possibly both in certain scenarios). It's something that I need to work on because someday I would like to help/take care of someone who needs it (i.e. a sick animal, an elderly person, a cancer patient). Being compassionate and having empathy are somewhat different, and at the same time, they both go hand and hand. I will eventually discuss the similarities and differences between the two. Thanks everyone.

So I've decided:

Since I rarely use this and I really don't have any followers, I am going to bitch and complain like I wish I had someone to do that with (more for myself, really). First thing, sometimes I wonder if having Asperger's syndrome is a blessing or a curse. Honestly, I have to say it is a little bit of both because there are both benefits and downsides to having Aspergers/autism. First, I would like to discuss the downsides in an effort to just get the negativity out the way. The major downsides are that I really can't understand how to properly connect socially (and that causes me to fail in potential friendships/boyfriend-girlfriend relationships). Regardless of how hard I try to understand it, I just don't seem to get certain codes and cues that my "typically developing" peers have little to no difficulty understanding. For me, it just takes lots of work and that can be pretty frustrating at times, but the situation is what it is and the only that I can do is try to figure out how to make it better or easier for myself and/or other people. I try to remind myself that God has a specific purpose for me here on this earth. Basically, what I am saying is that I can easily distinguish between verbal forms of communication/gestures, but nonverbal, not so much. It has taken years to figure out and possibly going to take many more years, but at the end of the day, only time can tell. I will discuss its benefits later (don't know when, so don't ask me).