Who else finds it hard to empathize?

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I know it's considered a myth that autistic people lack empathy but I feel like I really do lack it. I have cried at sad movies/videos but if I watch them again I feel desensitized and feel no sadness at all. I have never felt sad watching the (mostly negative) news but I don't laugh either I just feel totally neutral. I feel remorse if I hurt someone but I just cannot empathize.

worrying about a lack of it may be evidence for it.

Just my two cents..

Oh, a lot of NT so-called empathy seems really fake to me, keep that in mind too..

I think feeling upset at TV/movies/the news is a lot different than feeling upset at hurting others IRL. I've met people who have perfectly fine empathy IRL, but don't really get upset from watching upsetting things. Everyone has a different threshold for what gets a reaction out of them. That said, feeling remorse/guilt/etc. when wronging others is definitely a form of empathy, even if you are not good at expressing it to other people when you feel that way.

empathy (n): the ability to recognize, understand, and share the feelings of another person, animal, or fictional character

Feeling remorse for hurting someone ... is it because you know you should not hurt others, or because you identify with being hurt?

Sorry for the duplicate post
For some reason the edit and x buttons do not work on my phone so I can't remove it or edit anything I post

I naturally have compassionate empathy. My cognitive empathy is all right too.
You don't need to cry at every emotional scene in every movie to prove you have empathy.

I'd likely pretend not to be able to empathize than to pretend to be able to.

And I'd likely deny any feelings of sympathy than express it openly.


That's just how I'm whether or not I can or cannot empathize, whether it's easy for me to feel the same and understand what one wants from it or not.


Because I dislike being sensitive and emotional. I dunno if not being alexithymic helped or not, it could be irrelevant.

I'd rather be rationally and intentionally empathic, than emotionally and involuntarily empathic.



But here's the thing:
It would be easier for me to intentionally empathize if my emotions are less of a trouble of a source of frustration and intolerably egocentric, if my thoughts are not irrelevant at times while self focusing over control and being unreliable, and if my senses are not a distraction just like another stressor to cope.



And personally, what matters more is not the ability to empathize or sympathize -- it's the ability to recognize and the choice to not act out of callousness.

Anyone, with or without empathy, with or without emotion and emotional response even -- can be either compassionate or callous.

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I would say the main thing that moves me to feel empathy is seeing animals in pain or killed; whether they be old, injured or newly dead on the side of the road it doesn’t matter much. It seems their pain is more primal and therefore easier to feel.

I rarely feel empathy for humans in difficult positions and can watch the news with a heavy dose of cynicism and no sense of another’s suffering.

With friends, I can feign empathy but I don’t really feel it.

I can empathize with victims of violence and rejection; but not so much with people who have been repeatedly warned against making bad choices and taking actions that end up harming (or killing) themselves.

Smokers, junkies, alcoholics, anti-vaxxers ... in spite of my warnings, there is always an "I told you so" moment.