@wendychavez5348

This is (case in point) one of my biggest barriers. Of course I'm interested in other people, and they seem to generally believe that--as well as to genuinely like me--though I'm always trying to understand what other people are experiencing in ways that I can understand. This feels selfish to me. My brain can't really frame empathy in any other way. Even if I have no experience with a particular situation, I understand things by putting myself into that situation or recalling how such things affect my family & friends, and it really does help me know the person I'm talking with on their terms. On the flip side, I don't like to pry by asking too many probing questions, so I verbalize my thoughts and hope the other person will do the same. Probably related to my social awkwardness prior to the brain injury, and impaired social development since then. Watching other people interact in a healthy way is enlightening, though I simply can't figure out how to do it.