Empathy for non-living things

[grommet]

I am curious how many others experience empathy for non-living things.

My wife has decided to remodel our kitchen and replace all the appliances. I am really having a hard time with this. It is breaking my heart. Especially for the dishwasher. We have had this dishwasher for over 22 years. I have worked on it several times; replacing the main pump motor once then had to repair a manufacturing defect of the new motor once. Also had to replace a failed fill valve and a "flamed" controller PCB.

I think the repairs contributes and amplifies my strong feelings for the dishwasher. It has been working perfectly for the past several years and I feel very affectionate for it. I feel bad that it is being "thrown out" because my wife wants one with a different style. It's a "looks" thing. Something I struggle with because unpopular "looks" has been the theme of my life.

I guess there are other empathy threads, but I wanted to be more specific about empathy towards machines or anything non-living. This seems to be common for me. I was devastated when I was about 10 years old when my father gave away our car. I loved that car and felt it had been extremely loyal to our family; only to just be discarded as junk. This really upsets me and it never goes away. Time is not a cushion. I still feel the trauma for the car, 60 years ago as if it happened today. Each experience adds to the mix adding depression on top of depression.

Yes. I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Things are my friends. My ex girlfriend is also autistic and when her car was stolen she was traumatized very deeply. She was in shock and a broken heart. I do not think she will ever be okay. She named her car and had it for 30 years. She talked to it, did things to help it and thanked it when she drove. People took her car but it was her family and she lost it.

 

[Ken]

Sounds more like nostalgia and a dislike for change than empathy for objects, which would probably constitute a delusion.

Actually, I was not asking for a diagnosis. My post was to simply ask if anyone else felt this way.