16 Results in empathy

The 3 ways to connect with someone

I have often wondered why I get on well with some people and why being around others causes stress. When I thought about it, I realised that it was primarily to do with just three things!! I realised that there are three main ways that people can connect with each other and those people who I don't get on with are the ones who don't use any of these ways. I have also made a very good animation to explain this, which you can watch below! The ways can be thought of as levels:

What “putting yourself in another person’s shoes” really means

There is normally some confusion over the phrase, "to put yourself in another person's shoes." It is confusing because it can be taken in two ways:  Way 1) To imagine yourself in the other person's situation Way 2) To imagine being the other person in their situation A lot of people seem to do number 1, but number 2 is actually the better way to get close to someone. If this is confusing, watch our amazing animated film to understand:

Does talking help?

There is a belief that "talking helps". That has never been my experience. A lot of the time I find that talking about my feelings makes me feel worse than before. I wanted to summarise why this might be.

When are expectations of people damaging?

One of the greatest challenges I experience with my relationships is the other person not adapting the way they interact or work with me despite me telling them that I have ASD. It's incredibly frustrating and disheartening having to deal with people who aren't flexible, but it happens to me so frequently that I am used to it.

What is meant by ASD ‘thought processes’?

On further contemplation about whether ASD is part of my personality or is it separate, I began thinking about my thoughts. I think that what human beings think about is linked to their personality which pushes me even further to conclude that ASD is a part of my personality. Obviously it is a deep complex… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article, a…

Why I am careful about who I talk to

One way that I have learned to be less affected by my high emotional sensitivity and manage mood swings is to have a calmer, more steady life. Another way that I have learned to better cope with my emotional sensitivity and reduce mood swings is to take caution about who I talk to about myself and my life. Talking to the 'wrong' person can make me feel worse.

Another way of looking at “challenging behaviour”

Throughout my life I have found myself in trouble on numerous occasions. I think this is because other people think that my behaviour is strange, naughty or thoughtless and sometimes the things that I do come as a complete surprise to others. But when people look a bit deeper and try to understand me, my behaviour completely makes sense. I’m no longer “difficult” but someone that is very anxious and has quite severe and complex communication difficulties. The issues surrounding my behaviour usually happen because I have difficulty communicating with people and they have difficulty communicating with me. I have three excellent examples I can think of. The first is when my workplace was organising the local community fair. This is a fair where local shops each have a stand and the fair attracts many people from the community. My workplace had a stand and my colleagues had asked me whether I could help out on the stand. My immediate thought was "no!" I tried to say to my colleagues that I wasn't able to help out but somehow this communication was either lost or ignored and, as what normally happens, I ended up doing something I didn't want to do - in this case, I ended up helping out on the stand at the fair.

6 ways to be a more empathetic person

We can all develop our empathy for other people. It starts with putting yourself in another person’s shoes. This means as though you were them, not as though they were you. Here are some ways you can do this. 1. Focus on the other person’s personality When we are talking to someone, it’s common for… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read thi…

5 unfounded things people say about autism and how to respond

It seems very common that, when an autistic person tells someone else that they are autistic, the other - neurotypical - person is likely to say one or some of the comments listed below. In this article, I'm going to look at why a neurotypical person might say these things and how I personally might respond to them in order to achieve the 'best' outcome.

What is empathy and do ASD people have a lack of empathy?

I think there is some misunderstanding of what empathy actually is, which I will explore in this article. There are various definitions of empathy but the one that I use and how I think about it is that it's being able to share the feelings of another person. A good way to visualise what empathy is is being in a crowd watching a football match when your team scores a goal - the whole crowd cheers because everyone is feeling the same thing and reacting in the same way. There is a common view that people on the autistic spectrum do not have empathy. Lots of autistic people think they have lots of empathy. I want this article to look at these views in more detail. I hope you see things in a more educated way after reading this article. :)