Wanting to cry when being told off by someone in authority

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Me too.

I don't fully understand why being told off by someone in authority upsets me so badly - I think that it's something to do with being brought up to respect people in authority. When I get told off by an authority figure then it somehow seems much worse because I see them as being 'important' and powerful. To think I may have offended someone or done something wrong always really worries me.

I guess I also get upset at myself as well as being upset by being told off - this just makes things seem worse and the only way I can cope is by crying. I generally feel better after a good cry - it can be a really good way of releasing emotions, after all.

I'm very high-functioning, but this is one of my autistic traits that I still have issues with today. >.<

My co-habitant fiance (who is also a counsellor) has suggested to me that it may be because of literalness.

Because i/we aspies take things literally, the words said may hit us harder than other people. We take the words as literal truth when spoken.

It isn't until afterwards when we have had time to process the emotion we perceive in their words, and process our own emotional reaction, that we are able to deal with that emotion using our frontal cortex with cognitive function instead of in typical areas of the brain.

I am so relieved I'm not the only one. I've had that problem since forever, but I can only clearly remember recent experiences with this. Never knew it was an autistic trait, maybe I should seriously consider a diagnosis...

Once during math class, I wouldn't stop talking to a friend and kept rambling on and on (because I was trying to get my mind off of something that made me feel really bad), and the teacher yelled at me in front of the class. He told me to stop talking, and so I did, then he just stared at me for a couple seconds before going, "Well...?" I felt on the verge of tears, because I could feel everyone else's gaze on me, and quietly told him "I've already stopped talking..." He misheard me and thought I said that I wasn't talking and yelled at me even more, so throughout the lesson I was crying and shaking uncontrollably.

I've also had this one compulsive routine, and was upset when my Spanish teacher ruined that one part of it. I've cried for days about it, but I think it was more because she kept me from my routine rather than her tone of voice when she told me I couldn't keep doing it. I'm a bit better now, I just have to keep myself from looking at the clock in her class.

With my parents, I just zone out and learned to stay expressionless. They just make it worse whenever I cry, but then again, they always mistake my default expression as being sad or angry.

Yes... I never told anyone that before.

I think most people do, and that's the point of them telling you off. My problem I guess came from, sometimes, I wouldn't cry or give any emotional action. I just learned to keep all my emotions to myself, as nobody else cared about them, then people (a particular cop) would get alarmed when I didn't show any emotion when he was specifically trying to get me to cry or get really pissed off, I just was like "all right, OK, OK." I cried after the situation was done with, but not during it. But yeah, generally when people are telling you off, their goal is to evoke an emotional reaction in you, so that's normal.

It's not an issue. You're human. You gotta release the prolactin and adreno-cortin in your body, or it could make you sick.