I watch my son, who behaves a lot like I did/do. 1. His inner imagination and dialog is often much richer than what most people have to offer. Sorry, hearing people talk about the weather gets boring quickly. 2. that inner imagination and dialog don't shut off just because people are around. You can ignore it for a while, but it gets "noisy" after a while, like a caged animal trying to get out. 3. Those quiet times alone are there to maintain sanity and balance. Give the inner dialog time to work out its thought, process the new information, figure out what you should have said instead of what you did.
My son and I are actually deeply empathetic actually, when people describe injuries I feel it with them, feelings of loss hit me hard as well. But keep all the noise in my head at bay while maintaining conversation for long periods is tiring.
If you don't build relationships with people, beware that you might not have anyone to know or care for you when you are in need. If you want to be part of a supportive community, and the standard conversational forms of social grooming don't work for you, take care to replace them with something, like writing letters or doing acts of kindness
My son and I are actually deeply empathetic actually, when people describe injuries I feel it with them, feelings of loss hit me hard as well. But keep all the noise in my head at bay while maintaining conversation for long periods is tiring.