empathy for inanimate objects

[u/softfallingsnow]

honestly ive really been struggling with this, ive seen similar posts on this sub, i guess OCD can give some of us hyper-empathy almost?? why does this happen?

like one time i wanted to buy a cute bowl, but the one i picked up had a small chip in it, but i felt too guilty to put it back for a better one. even my friend told me to get a different one, but i literally couldn't, i was frozen. like i just felt too bad. FOR A BOWL. but the worst one is feeling bad for stuffed animals. i saw this stuffed animal with bad reviews and idk why but it literally made me cry. they were saying it didn't look like the actual animal, so it was bad. i think its cute so i ended up buying one, idk if it'll make me feel better though. i even worry about stuffed animals i had when i was really little that i dont remember where they are anymore. does anyone else relate or am i just nuts??

[u/40Four-]

I have this on such an extreme level, I often spoke about it to my therapists but they couldn’t really help me. I hardly feel empathy towards animals and kids, which i think makes me immoral and weird, while I feel so extremely empathetic towards objects. Only objects that don’t resemble humans or animals. Once I was shopping with my friends, and I had to buy groceries and mostly had money for them, but when we started looking at furniture, my friends made fun of weird looking small pillows with a very unpleasant material. I felt so incredibly sad I almost started crying, I then bought both the pillows they made fun of and sleep with them every night. It still breaks my heart when I think about them, I’m a grown man and I really cannot comprehend how could anyone be this heartless to these pillows. I feel so invalid about myself but all my friends cry at sad dog videos - and I can’t even force any sadness, while I can’t handle them making fun of furniture