The start of an ongoing series to try to break apart misunderstandings in ND and NT behaviors.
Looks Like: Doesn’t register the emotions of others going on around them
I’ve been burned by this assumption many times.
My instinct to compartmentalize my emotions so that I don’t feel like they take over looks like I’m impersonal, robotic, or indifferent.
The Reality: Autistics are very sensitive to emotion. Some have an instinct to suppress what they’re experiencing (think of it like a thermostat to keep emotions in a tolerable range)
For myself emotions very easily make it difficult for me to juggle my other functioning needs, so unless I’m in a situation where I need to address feelings I shut down my engagement with people around me and their emotions as much as possible.
If the thermostat fails, that’s when increasing cascades of shut down or explosions occur
As a child this was instinctual, growing up I learned to see what was going on inside myself so that I could tap into my feelings better as needed, but still it is something I have to manually engage with
And with caution, or I end up burned out.