what is the best way to rid yourself of emotions?

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I am wondering how does emotions such as love and other such feelings compute with AS..I am going through these right now. Any input would be gratefully appreciated.


Spruce

Aspies seem to be very good at switching off the "emotion recognition" bits of the mind, unfortunately this isn't very good because then you get psychosomatic symptoms and melltdowns, where the emotions drive you and you aren't even aware of them doing so.

hi,

my shrink taught me a way to write out problems with emotions and try to switch things around because she says my negative emotions are from my negative thoughts about events that happen.

I write out a chart : Event, Thought, Feelings, Behavior.

The event can be as simple as "I need to make a phone call".

The thoughts I have are anxious, like "What if I cant say what I need to ask, "What if they pressure me to make a decision on the phone", "what if there is no one there who can answer my question". I have more negative thoughts than this but she says you have to stop at three or they will drive you nuts.

Then I write the feelings (or you can write the feelings first because sometimes I know Im sad and crying but dont know what the negative thoughts are causing it). Feelings like sad, hurt, worried, fear.

Then the behaviour is usually "avoid making the dreaded call" "lay inmy bed" "cry" .

Then what she said to do, is "change the thoughts"

So I have to make three positive thoughts (this part is really hard).

Examples " maybe someone will have all the information I need", "I can write out what I want to ask before I call" "I can say thank you I need to think about it and hang up if I dont want to decide"

Then I try to consider what those thoughts would produce. I might feel happy, get an answer to my question, and feel calm. Then the feelings would allow me to behave decently, for instance the behavior would now be "make the phone call".


Sometimes it is really hard to do this whole process but it does help turn around my anxious brain when I am totally freaking out.

Hope that helps.