To think this is neuro diverse?

[mushypaperstraws]

I've recently realised that I've never felt embarrassment or shame. Ever, in my entire life.

I used to think I just didn't get embarrassed because I'm just really confident, but I'm not that confident really. I'm fairly shy, I've just never felt any emotion after falling over/saying something stupid/realising I had something in my teeth/ballsing up a presentation/saying hi to someone I realised was the wrong person.

Is this a symptom of a disorder or ASD? I'm just wondering if actually embarrassment and shame is a useful and necessary thing the human brain has developed and I'm missing out on something potentially useful!

What.do you think embarrassment feels like?

How do you know we all feel embarrassment in the same way?

This thread confirms my view that that term ‘neurodiverse’ is incorrect. It’s such a broad range and it isn’t helpful to clump everyone into one group together.

Autistic people generally have empathy with other autistic people, and neurotypical people generally have empathy with other neurotypical people, but neither have real empathy with those of a different neurotype - it’s known as the ‘double empathy problem’.

Thankfully you are not speaking for all of us with autism who have empathy for anyone be they NT , ND or just ignorant.

I had a friend at school who never got embarrassed, her reasoning was that embarrassment was only thinking that other people thought you felt embarrassed but as long as you didn't care nor did they and I guess she's right in a way. We're not embarrassed if nobody saw us trip and thought that was embarrassing for us.
Equally if someone doesn't know you saw them trip, you don't really care as you know they're not embarrassed because they think nobody saw.

Not speaking for all of us NTs either. I have a lot of empathy for my ND husband. I've never heard this nonsense.

No it's serial killer.

I was replying to the poster who seemed to be implying that autistic people don’t feel empathy. I’m autistic myself and although I care deeply about other people, have sympathy for them and try to be kind, I don’t believe that I truly understand exactly how people who don’t think the same way as me feel. You’re lucky I think if you can genuinely put yourself in someone else’s shoes and imagine how they feel (rather than projecting your own feelings/experience). For me, it’s true that I find it much easier to ‘read’ other autistic people… it’s also true that people who have talked about my autistic child not having empathy have shown none for her too, which I think is quite ironic. Sorry if I’ve caused offence - that wasn’t my intention at all. I just find the ‘double empathy’ thing (eg who relates to who best) interesting.

The double empathy problem isn’t nonsense, it’s worth looking it up. It’s good that you have empathy with your husband (I’d like to think I have empathy with my NT partner too, as I know him so well, and I think he mostly understands me). I find the idea interesting mostly because the very people who accuse autistic people of not being able to feel empathy, often really aren’t able to empathise with autistic people themselves (sadly my child and I have lots of experience of this). That was kind of my point to the previous poster - sorry if I’ve caused offence.

You missed the thread yesterday where a mum of a nd child was outraged some people claim dla for their disabled kids "just because they are autistic".