Does anyone else feel actual pain when they see unfairness?
By Eli Mercer on
I’m starting to realize I react to unfairness way more intensely than most people around me. Even small everyday stuff hits me like a physical punch. If someone gets blamed for something they didn’t do, if a kid gets excluded at school, if a coworker steals someone’s credit my whole body gets tense. My chest tightens, my heart speeds up, and it feels like my brain is yelling “fix this” even when I obviously can’t.
It happens with fictional stuff too. TV shows, movies, books, if a character gets humiliated or treated unfairly, I can’t just sit there. My brain doesn’t go “it’s just entertainment.” I get overwhelmed and have to pause or walk away while everyone else around me watches like it’s nothing.
Recently I saw a video of a teacher publicly embarrassing a student, and even though I didn’t know any of the people involved, it wrecked me for hours. I couldn’t eat, I cried, and I spiraled trying to understand why people in positions of power choose cruelty when being decent is so simple. But the comments were all like “not your business,” “don’t get worked up,” “life’s unfair,” and I just… can’t relate to that mindset at all.
What makes it worse is when people tell me I’m “too sensitive” or “overreacting.” I’m not trying to react this way. It’s automatic. It feels like I absorb whatever someone else is feeling. I know this is something a lot of autistic people experience intense empathy, emotional overload but it still feels isolating in the moment.
Sometimes I don’t know if this sensitivity is a burden or a strength. It definitely hurts, but it’s also the part of me that cares deeply and refuses to accept cruelty as normal.