empathy

I have plenty of empathy, but how I tackle situations is different to most people. I was undiagnosed, so unaware of this difference, and it made me seem unempathetic.

I will still likely seem unempathetic compared to most, but now I know why. I process logic first.

Empathy is not a meeting in the middle; it’s a one-way visitation. My planet is made of a different type of rock to most and I never knew.

So all those times when I was trying to fix your problems and you were telling me to shut up so you can process your emotions… that was me being empathetic because I couldn’t fathom how you could process emotions while the house is on fire.

To flip it on its head, if someone needs to process logic before they can process emotion, fixating on how they’re feeling is probably just going to frustrate them. The visitation has to go both ways if the next step - real communication - is going to happen.

Birds in the sky flying in different directions.

I fully expect to travel together with people for a while and then to go our separate ways. There are some people like family I would like to travel with until near the end. Understanding the different ways we navigate will make this easier.

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