Hyper-empathy & reading people

[becsparkel]

Hi all,

I've recently started to research symptoms of aspergers in women, as it seems to 'click' with me and how I am... feels like the missing part of the puzzle in all honesty. I've scored 34 on the test, which seems borderline but some of the questions are curious to me.

I've always been overly empathetic - trying to read people all the time and I think I've got it down to a fine art. So the 'can you read people' question is a definite yes for me. Can anyone else relate? I guess I'm at that beginning stage of questioning and feel in a bit of a muddle.

I had a thought that perhaps the test is based on the male AS profile?? Can I be/have it and still be overly empathetic and read people? thanks

ASD and no empathy is a myth although a few of us discovered that we are far less empathetic than we thought...

Thanks Helena - do you mean in the sense that we study to understand people and how we should interact (that's what I've always done anyway). So rather than actually being empathetic, we're just trying to work out how people tick? Or maybe it's more to do with trying to please people?

I thought I was overly empathetic but scored 25 out of 80 on the online empathy test. I think I can read people well, possibly because it is a skill you learn in order to protect yourself or may be because I tend to over-analyse. But being able to read someone and knowing instinctively how to react, is something with which I struggle.

Yeah for some of us empathy is a learned behaviour we study others and copy so it's reflected empathy rather than true empathy.

Some people are very empathetic though. On the general support thread a few of us took the online empathy test and talked about it, some scored high and some scored low. I don't recall there being much middle ground.

Yep, I'm getting that too. I took the empathiser/systemiser test and it was roughly 50/50 - there was I thinking I was a hyper empath, ha! I've taken 3 different online tests and all are positive for Aspergers.

I also seem to be very empathic OP and have been just told I have aspergers.