Can Aspies show TOO MUCH emotion?

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I can be either too emotional or just numb...both ends of that quite often. It often depends on what emotion we are talking about though...with anger, I can either do a bottled rage and pops when I least want it to, or just an outright po'ed. with happiness...I am very happy from time to time and am rather obvious about it. However when it comes to grief...that is rarely an emotion that I experience even in the death of a loved one, to me it just rather matter of factly and there is no emotion. However this enables me to be there for my family and friends unless I end up saying something that reveals that I am rather non emotive about it all...which disturbs them.
But I often get into trouble for saying exactly what I think at any given moment and not keeping my opinions to myself.

Mom said that not feeling grief " is a good thing cause grief is a horrible thing to feel." However when I get overwhelmed...I can show all kinds of emotions like a firecracker going off.

But most the time I am rather calm...unless I am reacting to something in my enviroment. Without any intrusive stimuli, I would probably be chill like a monk.

Evidently I'm so unemotional it freaks people around me out.

I just laugh at them now that I know why.

I'm too emphatic about some things. You could say I got passion.

I've come to realize how true that is.





I can totally relate to both of ^.

When I was much younger (grade school) I was bullied a lot, and of course people could make me cry. I hated it. In middle school, a favorite teacher died and the principal announced it over the intercom one morning. SHE was crying, so was my teacher. I almost did, then something inside me said "NO" and cut it off (however justified crying at that would have been). For years afterwards, I almost never expressed much emotion, publicly or privately. It was like I cut off that part of myself, and I came to be afraid of emotion.

It's started to come back recently, partially as a consequence of falling in love. It's still scary at times.




Still true. I really have to trust someone to show that part of myself.



Society has the peculiar idea that growing up = no longer "taking joy in the world", because that's something only children can do. Adults aren't *supposed* to do that. It's like losing imaginary friends, sort of.

That's a real pity. We should all hold onto that. Thankfully, I think I have. It's weird--I was very much like an adult in some ways when I was younger, and now that I'm older I understand the "childlike" stuff more. However, there haven't been any huge "shifts" in this--I feel like I'm still pretty much the same, I just have experienced more and understand some things a little bit better.

Hope that makes sense....

I certainly show too much emotion and I don't realize it until after the fact every time.

Interesting, I lost it in youth, but regained it in adulthood and kept it for many, many years. I felt older when I lost it in youth, but felt as young as ever when I got it back in adulthood. Fortunately, I was in an environment for many years where joy was the norm for most people.

It's sad when one loses their wonder and curiosity about the world. Some people keep it all their life. They are truly successful people. I think the belief in a little bit of positive magic cushions the journey.

I think we are more likely to find it in devices these days instead of people and the natural world around us.

+100.



Yes, and that is a very sad thing.

@Erisad: hope your surgery goes well, and that you recover quickly.

conundrum - Thanks! I hope so too. >.<

At about the age of 47 after experiencing a couple of maddingly stressful years at work, my wife and I were watching an animated movie called Curious George, it brought a tear to my eye, because I realized I had lost the wonder, curiosity, and belief in magic I had for so many years. I was so busy with my stressful life that I didn't realize I had even lost it until that point. It is like losing one's soul. But, I feel lucky to have had it for so long.

It doesn't have to go away with age though, I have known too many elderly people that retain it close to the end.

Falling in love is hell for me. I seem to only be able to be in two states when talking of love; no love or fully in love, no stages in between. I can't be a bit in love or anything, and I've found that doesn't go well when you like someone and social protocols dictate you need to take it slowly

I've had that feeling myself--of having lost something like that--for the last several months. I think it's more "dormant" than "lost", though, and I am trying to reconnect.

There is no pill, or no specific action that I know to regain it. However, I have received many suggestions. I found it dormant at a young age and it came back stronger than ever, like a magical gift. It's been over three years, but one can't lose hope in regaining their soul.

Alexithymia is a problem that many people with Aspergers have in understanding their emotions, and for some they fade out and fade in. I dont have any other explanation for it, and don't think anyone really knows why some are immune to it and some aren't.

My Father and Mother are immune to it, and they both are close to 80.

I'm the same! I was so happy as a child, in my small town, and my happiest memories are of the local shop. I became obsessed with comics, and a newsagent was an Aladdin's cave for me. Everything seemed so right with the world, and I could see the world was getting better and better. This really helped my mother, because her mother died a few days before I was born and they were very close: my happiness helped her a lot.

I still marvel at the progress mankind is making, but at the age of 9 I became aware iof the down side - that some people are starving, others are being tortured, etc. Since then the people who know me very well say I have mood swings., though I hide it well.

On balance I have been very miserable since the age of 12, but it is only because of my underlying joy at the world, if that makes sense. My goals are so high - I have god evidence that it is possible for one man to fix the world - so when I am making progress I am so happy! But the goals are so high that most of the time I don't make progress and feel trapped in an evil world full of people who don't get it, who only care for themselves, and will isolate and punish anyone who tries to make the world better. In those circumstances I think extreme mood swings are rational.

My daughter is really emotional too. My husband and I were talking about the TV programmes we enjoyed when we were small and thought that our daughter would enjoy Bagpuss. So, I searched for an episode on Youtube and let her see it. By the end of it, she had tears streaming down her face. I said 'What's the matter?' and she said 'It's just the most beautiful thing I've ever seen'. I started crying too.

I definitely have too much emotion. I have a REALLY hard time picking out emotions and identifying them. I suppose this is why I get overloaded by it and end up raging. Yesterday I had a three hour long screaming rage and today I have no voice. I still can't pinpoint what started it but I think it was because all my emotions overwhelmed me. I have a friend who also has AS who feels the same way. He is extremely sensitive and gets really emotional about things that others probably wouldn't.

I would probably say that for some people with AS, the problem is not lack of emotion, but too much coming out in the wrong way.

I'm a very intense person, and always have been. I make more of an effort to mask this in social settings than I did when I was younger, but it's often too hard to contain.

This has many consequences in terms of how I'm perceived socially. Key examples would be my tendency to cry or lose my temper in public, and my inability to adequately hide any romantic feelings for people.