General Question

rockfan's avatar

Have you ever personally experienced or had a family member experience decreased empathy after taking too much aspirin on a daily basis?

Asked by rockfan (14632points) January 30th, 2019 from iPhone

I’ve heard this is the side effect for taking too much. Unfortunately, my dad takes it nearly every day and I’m afraid he’s lost the ability to empathize in particular ways, even though he actually is quite a sentimental person.

For example, I watched The Iron Giant with him this weekend and although he chuckled a few times, he barely reacted during some of the most emotionally intense scenes of the movie, it felt like he was just waiting for it to be over. Even though he’d see it when it originally came out and loved it.

I also feel like he couldn’t grasp the drama between the characters or the subtext. Even worse, he had a difficult time explaining why he disliked it, he only said “I just like movies with real people in them about situations that can actually happen.”

Am I completely off base thinking that someone has less empathy if they can’t connect to animated/fantasy fiction?

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15 Answers

janbb's avatar

I doubt that it is the aspirin that is affecting his emotions. Why is he taking it? He may be experiencing cognitive decline which is the cause of your perception of his decreased empathy or verbal expressiveness.

rockfan's avatar

He deals with headaches

Dutchess_III's avatar

Is this different than the way he would have acted without taking aspirin?

rockfan's avatar

Yes, he’s seen the movie before and loved it. We decided to watch it again today because he hasn’t seen it in years.

janbb's avatar

Is he in chronic pain from the headaches? That would make one more self-involved and less empathetic.

rockfan's avatar

I don’t think it’s chronic pain, just average headaches from staring at the computer screen too much at work.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Now I’m confused. The movie you said you watched over the weekend, you’re going to watch it again today because he hasn’t seen it in years?

rockfan's avatar

Oh sorry we watched it today. Didn’t mean to say “over the weekend”. Meant to delete that.

It’s -20 outside and not going anywhere, so it felt like a weekend.

Caravanfan's avatar

Loss of empathy is not a known side effect of aspirin use.

rockfan's avatar

Acetaminophen is what I’m thinking of, not aspirin.

Caravanfan's avatar

Oh. Well that has a whole different set of side effects, the most serious being fulmanent liver failure. But again, not apathy.

Caravanfan's avatar

That is funny. Did you read the paper?

gondwanalon's avatar

I’ve been taking one 325 mg pill of aspirin per day for 18 years (anticoagulant therapy) and my empathy is as strong as ever.

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