Can Aspies show TOO MUCH emotion?

Post Reply New Topic

My theory is aspies originally have emotional overload but over time they just kind of start blocking their emotions. I was a very emotional child but now even something like a death in the family might not move me.

Mostly my emotions are natural, in the ''right'' sort of way, but I just show too many.

When I watch a sad film, my eyes fill up with tears (this is normal anyway. Especially if you watch ''Grampa'' by Raymond Briggs, when the granddad dies at the end it is so sad, my dad even went all quiet when he watched it and fighted back tears).

When I see a man I fancy, my stomach clenches up and romantic thoughts come rushing into my mind, making me wish - so much - that I was in his bed with him.

On the last holiday I went on (which was last month) I felt so relaxed there that when I came back home, a horrible depression fell on me what I could not shake out, and I kept on bursting into tears all day. This lasted about 2 to 3 days after coming home, but my mum felt like this too (because she went too) and so that was quite normal.

One of my grandparents is ill with Alzheimer's, and I do worry really bad when I think about her. I try not to think about her too much, otherwise I will cry.

When I went to my mum's friend's brother's funeral with my mum, my eyes filled up with tears - even though I didn't know him at all. Just the atmosphere and the thought of how they must be feeling made me cry.

If a friend or boyfriend falls out with me, I cry and cry and feel really devastated.


I those the above points are emotions what are normal and natural (I don't ever force them out nor hold them back). The ones I'm about to tell you are the ones what are at inappropriate times:-

If I'm in a bad mood, I just cannot put on a happy front, and sometimes you really have to, but I can't. If I feel impatient or irritated with customers when I work, I let them know that I'm in that mood (even though this is highly inappropriate). I let them know by tutting, rolling my eyes, and having an irritated tone of voice, and if I try to have a friendly tone of voice they can still hear the wobble in the voice, catch my drift.

And there are other times when I'm in a bad mood and the worst possible times, like when we have all family over. Being in a bad mood often means (to me) being unfriendly and/or unsociable, and that ain't appropriate when you have family come round, relatives from abroad who you only get to see once a year. I sometimes become aloof and moody, and can't seem to identify my ''friendly/sociable emotions''. But this only occurs when I'm in a bad mood. If I'm in a good mood, (usually if it's a sunny, hot day), I can be really sociable and friendly.

I find myself complaining about everything. Even if I'm satisfied with what the plans are going to be ahead, there is still something that I will moan about. But I think that's due to my anxiety disorder.


So usually with emotions it can all depend on my moods, but sometimes sad emotions come through even when I am in a good mood, like watching a sad film or something.

I am super-emotional. Anxiety being the emotion I feel the most. Anger is another emotion that controls me all the time. My anger can get so bad, sometimes I find it difficult to do anything because of it.

Being hyperemotional is what led me here a few years ago. I was trying to find out what could possibly be wrong with me, so I did a web search for 'hyperemotional,' and ended up on a thread here on WP.

Aspies are frequently on one extreme end or the other...some are hyposensitive to pain, some hypersensitive. Some can stand outside on a freezing cold day in shorts and not notice, others will be in layers and still shivering so hard they feel like they will break. If such extremes are common with other things, why not with emotions? I think it's absolutely possible that some people with AS are hyperemotional, just as some are hypoemotional. Maybe they've been both at certain points in their lives.

I can remember the exact moment when I became hyperemotional. Prior to that point, I rarely, if ever, cried. Even when my great grandmother died, who I was very close to, I was just kind of blank. Not that I wasn't sad, of course, but those feelings didn't express themselves outwardly. However, one time when I was in my very early teens, probably 13 or 14, I was watching a movie that I'd seen countless times before, and suddenly, I burst into tears. I'd never had this response to that movie ever before, or any movie, really. Ever since that day, I've been the world's biggest cry baby. I'm not sure what triggered it, but my guess is hormones took me from a hypoemotional child to a hyperemotional adolescent and adult.

I'm actually watching Matilda on TV right now, a childhood favorite, and I started crying during the scene when she's bringing the wagon full of books home! Why in the world would that make me cry?! haha

Oh, also, when I graduated from high school, my grandmother handed me a card. I opened it, and it was from my great grandmother, the one who had died 6 years earlier. She knew she was sick and had bought a graduation card for me and signed it. Right now, as I'm typing this, nearly 8 years after receiving that card and 14 years after her death, tears are welling up in my eyes. The great grandmother I couldn't cry for when I was 12, I was suddenly crying for at 18. In addition to being hyperemotional, this response was due almost entirely to hyperempathy, too. When I sitting there with that card in my hands, sobbing, I was very aware that I wasn't crying because I missed my great grandmother (I did, but that wasn't why I was crying), but because I was imagining how SHE must have felt signing that card, knowing she was going to die and never see all the things her great granddaughter would do. It was horribly painful to imagine.

I am the king of dramatic at times but sometimes I'm more like a zombie

Us showing to much emotion at times comes with the mood swings.

Emotions have always been a problem for me, and when I show them, it's extreme.

When I'm angry, I am furious. I shout. Sometimes I throw or break things. People are often surprised at just how angry I get.
When sad, I'm crying and sometimes unable to do anything else. People will know it if I'm sad, I can't hide it.
When happy, I sometimes laugh uncontrollably (not as much of an issue, though embarrassing at times).

Without knowing what AS was, my coping method was basically avoidance. I avoid situations which will make me angry or upset (I stay home a lot). Of course it's impossible to do this 100%, but at least it reduces the frequency of occurrence. I'm mostly very calm, and would rather be calm then emotional.

From all I've read this is very normal behaviour for someone with AS.

I think so.

It's probably a case of showing emotions when it's not called for.

Or not showing them.

I know I get emotional over quite a lof things during the day. I am extremely moody in the mornings and can get into bad moods during the day. And those stay for a while. And people can be very irritated by that. Because there's no way that I can be so upset about something.

I don't think there's a difference in amount of emotion, just in showing/expressing it. To little or too much are both possible, people will react badly to ether. The other difference is in what we're emotionally invested in-not seeming to care about the right things.

Yup. Being overly emotional is actually just much of a sign of AS as not showing emotion. Afterall, hiding your emotions is a difficult social skill.