Emotional problems and autism!!

Post Reply New Topic

hi guys,


is this normal, to get very emotional over everyday stuff is this quite normal with autism? does anybody also get this on here and how do you cope?

take care cazzie

Yeah, an Aspie friend of mine is like that. She suspects she may have bipolar though, because other times she can just feel nothing for months.

I get like that, especially if I have had to do lots of things that I don't feel comfortable with like spending time out and about or with people. then something silly and small will set me off

I find that if I am working on a favourite task, like crunching numbers, I can get emotional but I am able to deal with the emotions because I understand them (e.g. reconciling bank accounts, financial reports, statistics, etc.). However, when I am outside of a favoured task I have no clue what to do with emotions. This is particularly true in social situations where I may be around other emotional people. I can find myself crying or laughing when others are looking at me like I've just gone off the deep end.

Pretty much what they said.

Except for anger over some specific things I consider extremely unjust, I tend not to be emotional over much of anything at all.

Actually, I do get irritated when changes in plans happen, like when people drop by for long visits at inopportune times. Like when my kids are trying to get their homework done, which is a daily struggle that is already not much fun. When family drops over unannounced during homework time it irritates the heck out of me, because the kids won't do any work if their routine is disrupted, which means they'll be working overtime on it later, interfering with my time.

I get irritated and angry over injustice and disruption of daily routines, but am basically non-emotional about almost everything else.

Yes. Not every autistic person has that "flat affect" (lack of emotional expression, whether you're feeling them or not) that doctors often assume we do. Sometimes, it's the opposite problem--we feel emotions too strongly ("too strongly" here meaning "interferes with your life"), and can't inhibit our expression of emotion. I tend to express emotion very strongly, and cannot inhibit emotional expression very much at all. I think maybe that was part of why my diagnosis took so long--the expression of emotion was so obvious that people thought I couldn't possibly be autistic, when in reality a deficit in emotional expression doesn't have to mean lack of expression; it can also mean inappropriate (wrong emotion) or overexpression. It's caused me quite some trouble; the best I can do when my emotions get the best of me is get into some low-stimulus environment and wait for things to blow over until I can think again. As a child, I wasn't even aware enough of my emotions to manage that, though, so I've made quite a bit of headway over the years.

Looking back, I believe the reason I exhibited behaviors that labeled me mentally ill was my alienation from the emotional nurturing of others. Humans are social animals, and when they get together they share things, they connect. Part of this connection is emotional.

Oblivious as to why I should socialize, I walked into social situations unable to connect emotionally. However, I think that the proximity to others triggered a subconscious need to connect, and my inability to do so led to a sense of non-belonging and abandonment that built over a period of time into a rage which I directed inward.

I believe this anger drove both my depressive and 'manic' episodes.

dp

i have been wondering lately if failure to connect with people properly can make you angry at them. i tend to see the flaws (illogic) in people's behavior and miss what the point is of their interaction with one another if not to be accurate with what they say and do.

i'm observing co-workers at the moment and noting that the ones who gossip the most and have the most vicious things to say in private about one another (but stifle it in direct interactions) are the most well-liked.

on topic i am quite emotional but never when it seems appropriate, and am constantly confused about it.

I too miss the point of what people get out of interaction with each other. NTs have told me all my life that there is no point, that no one knows what they are doing, that we all fake it. But I see things being shared when people get together that I can barely perceive.

I used to suddenly realize that someone I was talking to was sending me a message and would get all tangled up trying to a) figure out what the message was and b) how to send it back the same way it came in, what I came to call 'back door."

But it was like trying understand a foreign language I knew enough to recognize a few words. I would hear something and try to figure out what it meant. And while I was 'away' doing this, the conversation I was trying to figure out how to respond to had passed by.

So, if there way a message sent my way, it went unanswered. After years of this, I finally made the conscious decision not to even try to answer ANY such messages.

Back to emotions, this under-interaction can be quite frustrating, and I would get angry. But the emotional content that came with these messages, if any, never came through. Not to me, and not back to them. That lack is what really enraged me. I was starving at a banquet.

I you have a chronic, underlying anger, sure you're going to appear inappropriately emotional.

dp

My husband, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, is like that. Little stuff sets him off for no reason if he's tired, stressed, in a certain mood, etc. Trying to get him to see that his behavior is illogical does not work. Pointing out that emotional outbursts are not in his best interests and trying to avoid putting too much pressure on him seems to work better.

I'm a very emotionally sensitive person and I can cry very easily, when things don't go well. Especially if I feel that the blame is put on me. I also cry when I feel that there's been a personal attack on my identity. I'll tell you what that is, in another thread in a more fun forum. I'm still crying over a death of someone who meant a lot to me, because someone in my family made it a lot worse for me, than it really needed to be. I didn't need to have the obvious stated to me, because I'm not Rain Man. I cry over some of the sad commercials that are on TV. I can cry at a certain song of the late Beatles, or John Lennon. It's almost like I'm a big 4 year old and my emotions and wonder are that of such.

The slightest criticism, even a friendly tease can sometimes affect my mood. Then I get a high from my interests or things that make me happy in general.
To control the negative moods I just tell myself 'it's ok, they're ***holes' or something along those lines. Or I get away for a few minutes. I've had depressive moods that last for days until I get back to my special interests.

stendahl's syndrome makes itself known to me, in a most stentorian manner.

I used to be very emotional but it was due to hormones mostly. I couldn't take criticism and anything you say to me could put me in tears. Even if it was a compliment. But then birth control pills helped. I also used to be more sensitive but I care less now. I think getting bullied helped because it sure made me toughen up. I also don't get upset anymore what I read in the media. I feel nothing. It's rare now if I feel something. It's like I'm a sociopath.

im the same way. you're not a sociopath though

feelings are the result of chemical reactions in your brain. Like with any chemical, you gain a tolerance to it and it effects you less. I think ive grown dependent on negative emotions. I hate TV. I watch TV just so I can think about how much I hate it. I watch the newscasters and pick apart their fake demeanors. I do the same with my friends. What do I get out of this and how do I detox?