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What's an Aspie's intuition like?

G

Greatshield17

Claritas Prayer Group#9435
Our emotions and sensitivity tend be quite different from that of an NT, it makes me wonder, what is our intuition like? How does it compare with the intuition of an NT?

Sometimes I have to rely on my intuition a lot because I overthink things.
 
I think mine is more like a 'thinking' kind of intuition, than an empathic intuition. Maybe. Hard to pin it down, but I think I could potentially track down reasons or evidence of some kind, like observed behaviours or other relevant data, on which my intuition may be based. It works pretty well, and I can call it empathy without anyone really knowing the difference, but I don't think it's the same as NT empathy.
 
Sometimes it's hard to separate. My brain constantly scans for patterns or repetition of anything, and l do mean that. So that can help deduct odds. Is this a skill or a fluke? Does it bother me, absoultely not. It can seem entertaining.
 
Thinx said:
I think mine is more like a 'thinking' kind of intuition, than an empathic intuition. Maybe. Hard to pin it down, but I think I could potentially track down reasons or evidence of some kind, like observed behaviours or other relevant data, on which my intuition may be based. It works pretty well, and I can call it empathy without anyone really knowing the difference, but I don't think it's the same as NT empathy.
Click to expand...

Just for information, Thinx. It is sympathy that nts are good at. Having lived with an nt for many years and associating with other nts, I have come to realise that they are not empathatic people.

The difference is, to my way of mind, is the empathy is long lasting and sympathy is short, sweet and well, artificial.

Empathy. Someone is cold and you offer a jacket, because you know that cold is awful.
Sympathy: Same scene, but you say: I am so sorry you are cold and you walk away.
 
Suzanne said:
Just for information, Thinx. It is sympathy that nts are good at. Having lived with an nt for many years and associating with other nts, I have come to realise that they are not empathatic people.

The difference is, to my way of mind, is the empathy is long lasting and sympathy is short, sweet and well, artificial.

Empathy. Someone is cold and you offer a jacket, because you know that cold is awful.
Sympathy: Same scene, but you say: I am so sorry you are cold and you walk away.
Click to expand...

Interesting point. I think they would call it, having both Empathy and Boundaries. In their world just helping someone is no longer a simple option. The person needs to take responsibility for being cold, and obtain a coat through the appropriate systems. Oops he froze to death.
 
i usually get this sickening feeling inside. i look around and someone is staring at me. i just know this person has ulterior motives. im this magnet towards wrong types.
 
Suzanne said:
Just for information, Thinx. It is sympathy that nts are good at. Having lived with an nt for many years and associating with other nts, I have come to realise that they are not empathatic people.

The difference is, to my way of mind, is the empathy is long lasting and sympathy is short, sweet and well, artificial.

Empathy. Someone is cold and you offer a jacket, because you know that cold is awful.
Sympathy: Same scene, but you say: I am so sorry you are cold and you walk away.
Click to expand...

Thinx said:
Interesting point. I think they would call it, having both Empathy and Boundaries. In their world just helping someone is no longer a simple option. The person needs to take responsibility for being cold, and obtain a coat through the appropriate systems. Oops he froze to death.
Click to expand...
I never realized that before, that actually explains a lot about some of the things I've seen and heard among NTs.
 
Sympathy and empathy both come from the ancient Greek. The Greeks had little use for sympathy. They considered it a response intended for people one did not truly value. Instead, they had a half dozen or so different kinds of love. One of them was brotherly love - Philia. Another was love of humanity and/or God - Agápe. They valued these kinds of love very highly.

Empathy was invented fairly recently. It is a product of modern psychological theory. I have been told that true empathy is impossible. One can never know how something feels to another person. We can only imagine what it would feel like to us. Entirely possible.

I have had occasions when people tried to "help" me because they thought I should be distressed in my situation. OTOH, I was entirely comfortable with what was going on. They were projecting their own imagined feelings onto me.
 
Well plenty would debate about the nature of empathy, and certainly in counselling it tends to be seen as a skill in being able to put oneself in the mindset of the other and really come alongside how they are feeling, in effect feel how it is for them. It is seen as a skill that can be further developed in training.

However my experience of empathy as a non neurotypical person is twofold, version 1 is as I described above, and seems to me based on micro observations ultimately, and in version 2, I sometimes get what feels like a download of the other persons emotional state, I might suddenly cry say, or feel like crying, when with someone who is showing little emotion but has just lost someone close to them.

The problem with all these terms, as @Suzanne is indicating, is that their definitions historically are based on the majority experience, ie neurotypical people, so they don't tend to chime with our experience, which historical definitions may not include.
 
From Cambridge Dictionary:
(knowledge from) an ability to understand or know something immediately based on your feelings rather than facts:
Often there's no clear evidence one way or the other and you just have to base your judgment on intuition.
[ + (that) ] I can't explain how I knew - I just had an intuition that you'd been involved in an accident.

This is how I think of intuition. It has nothing to do with sympathy, empathy or any type of love.
It falls more under the sixth sense umbrella.

A gut feeling, a knowing, a sensation about something without knowing why you feel the sensation
or download a thought, but, it is proven true.
 
I have great intuition. And I've learned to rely on it. Something in my gut tells me I need to do something, I do it. I'll use a simple example - My gut was telling me I needed to go to the high school and check on my teenage daughter's attendance (several years ago). The counselor was pulling out her file and saying she's certain there's no need for concern, but as she got to my daughter's file, she looked up at me and said, "Oh, one more absence and they were going to be coming after you." During that time, it was if your child had more than whatever number of absences they would put the parent in jail. Come to find out she was calling my mother to pick her up from school and not telling me about it, and would bring her home when it was time for school to be out. I had nothing to go on but my gut.
Even with my car, if my gut tells me I need to check something, I better check it because I've not been wrong yet - and I know nothing about how cars work.
 
My understanding is that "intuition" is the result of processing information that we are not fully aware of. For example, your conscious mind might not have taken notice of a shadow in a dark doorway that moved but your unconscious mind might have. So you get a scary feeling even though consciously you don't know why. Dismissing feelings like this could be justified (everyone has their share of irrational fears) but could also be a bad mistake. So one needs to think about why the unconscious is sending these vibes without dismissing them out of hand.

The information is "seen" and processed by the limbic system and/or the amygdala which are more primitive areas of our brain, as well as interconnected parts of our cortex. That's the physical location of the unconscious mind and also where our basic emotions come from; anger, love, lust, fear, ect. It is where our instincts live. When this area of the mind attempts to communicate with the higher brain it is expressed as emotions and urges, words don't live down there. PTSD, OCD, and related conditions live in the lower brain. It's also where our terrain mapping and our motor skills lie.

There are lots of cases where our unconscious gives us "bad vibes" or a good feeling about something. Someone just feels off or everything feels right. It may be a false detection but we also shouldn't ignore it. OTOH, letting it overwhelm you is also a really bad idea.
 
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i kind of think of intuition as a little bit of god speaking to me sometimes. its really hard to tell if im just feeling anxious instead. but its served me well. i took my mom when she was alive, to the store and we were just standing around looking at stuff when i felt as if someone was literally screaming at my face to watch out, someone was going to harm us. i looked around and saw these two guys staring at us. i knew they were thinking about stealing my moms purse because she was very elderly and an easy target. i hustled her to stand between a bunch of other people and kept her in the middle of them. i looked up and one of those guys came around the corner looking at which way went. he looked scared as if we knew what he was thinking of doing with his eyes wide open and scared looking and just walked on by. a friend of my mother had her purse stolen in that store a day before but i didnt know till later.
 
Thinx said:
and in version 2, I sometimes get what feels like a download of the other persons emotional state, I might suddenly cry say, or feel like crying, when with someone who is showing little emotion but has just lost someone close to them.
Click to expand...

This is absolutely my experience. I had a professor put his hand on my shoulder once and all of the sudden I was overcome with his emotions (I only reasoned this because of the sudden influx of feeling I could find no origin for in myself) and it was one of the most unpleasant violations I have ever had, not to mention it complicated what had been, up to that point, a professional relationship. Worse, I had no language to talk about it at the time, and I absolutely could not concentrate for the rest of the day. I have no idea how I managed to finish that test.

I've spent years trying to get to the bottom of this. I'm so glad to hear that others experience similar things.

Please don't touch me. I don't want the download.
 
I find it all so strange. I'm an HSP (highly sensitive person) . . . and an empath, but only sometimes. Weird - I know. Sometimes in a way, I can 'taste' other people's emotions (especially if they are strong ones) as intensely as tasting a sour candy or something incredibly spicy. Very vivid. Except, sometimes I can't identify what I'm tasting (which emotion the person is feeling). And it's distressing to me, sometimes causes strong emotional turbulence in me, which manifests itself through shaking, feverish chills, panic, anxiety, and crying. So, in other words, what I sense - or intuit - is correct . . . but I don't always readily know what it is that I am intuiting. Sometimes I don't understand until the aftermath of the panic/anxiety attack.

Other than empathy, I've found that I can very easily and quickly intuit quantity and proportions. Can intuit and connect patterns to seemingly unrelated pieces of data/information. Can also intuit the events/probable issues of the immediate future based on the data of the past and present, as well as the solution to such issues so as to resolve them as they occur, or prevent them from happening in the first place.
 
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