Emotions (taking me over)...

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Hello, all. I'm very interested in the non-emotional/hyper-emotional polarity that seems to exist in the PDD population. Whether we feel little emotion, feel some to lots of emotion but don't express it to others in ways they can understand, or feel some to lots of emotion and let it fly (the way I tend to do) in ways others.. er.. can sort of understand but seem not to appreciate (hehe ), the one commonality seems to be the self-centeredness behind the emotionality (or lack thereof). Not the kind of intentionally cold, cruel self-centeredness which an individual with something like Antisocial Personality Disorder might possess, just a "this is the only way I can be, and the only way I was aware until recently that one *could* be" sort of self-centeredness.

When I occasionally read someone with an ASD report that they, for example, possess no emotions--it's very hard for me to identify, but I've wondered about accounting for the phenomenon with my above theory--any thoughts? (I am incredibly hyperemotional--cry [and even tantrum, occasionally--but less often these days] when upset, frighteningly easily--but it's always about me, me, me. I don't, for example, cry at sad movies [can't watch movies, anyway, due to attention issues, but that's another story entirely], or cry about other people's troubles...)

Jennifer

I can identify with some of what you are saying. Sometimes I find that people assume I don't give a s**t because I don't always express what I'm feeling. There are times though, when I will be hyper emotional or, as its called by NTs, overreact. Once Ive had this 'overreaction', I will then 'not give a s**t' for ages and then have another 'overreaction' days later.

this 'no emotions' thing bugs me a lot. i have very strong emotions, i just don't show them as well as everyone else.

My theory: our brains are set up differntly, so our emotions are different, too. People don't understand our emotions because they are different from their own. same reason we don't understand theirs.
this probably doesn't count for everyone... this is jusst because i have noticed i am able to pick up on the emotions of other aspies/autties, and the same with them and my emotions.

Pretty much the same thing here...

i habe aspergers and i can feel emotions, i just cant express properly...when im sad i do cry...but i have to see somethign that i can empathise with for example if i see an injured animal i can empathise with it, but if my gf tells me her father has died, i dont cARE..SAME WHEN SHE WAS PREGNANT.....if i cant see it i dont feel it..when i do feel it i cant express it properly..i can learn to exress emotions but it is not intuitive..i have to learn to be concerned...oh so your father died..geez im sorry anout that, it sounds false because it is.

with regard to the brain thing....i think that we have an emotional brain centee (called the amygdala) we can feel emotions in here but the connections between it and our forebrain is miswired we cant act or express on the real emotions we feel.


hope this helps

Well, I don't know that our emotions are all that different, think of it this way;

Alot of our social problems stem from perceptual gaps that we have due to the AS. These perceptual gaps prevent us from initially learning the mainstream body language (although we can actively learn some of it later), but it extends to both how we read it AND express it.

For example, because of these perceptual gaps, we tend to talk in an extremely long winded wordy or peculiar fashion. Why? Because as you are growing up all the other kids went through a stage in language developement where they learned to pare down sentences, throw out words that weren't necessary, etc. Most of us (people with AS) don't go through that stage because it's mostly a social stage. Which is why many of us talk this way (this was one of the biggest things people have always pointed to with respect to me).

In that light, it is well documented that we have huge problems, not as much perceiving, but being able to express extremely abstract concepts... like say emotions. I can tell you numerous times when I had a lot of emotions rushing through me and I just get really quiet and don't really say anything -- I can't. There's no words or expressions where I can properly articulate what is going on... but I know.

I think we relate to other autistics better because we are all in the same boat, and everyone else just doesn't see it like we do.

If you were a painter as great as Michelangelo, but you were completely colorblind, how would you ever be able to express what's in your mind to the rest of the world?

Or as Ludwig Wittgenstein put it, "If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world."

Same here.

I'm someone who has gone through a "no emotions" stage for several years.

I've been depressed for about 2/3 of my life, and after long bouts of extreme sadness and rage, I ended up feeling *nothing* (this got to the point where I didn't even realize that I was depressed).


If one goes through something so negative for so long, eventually the mind just shuts it out.

I've been on an anti-depressant (Buspar) for several months now, and they are (very) slowly returning.

Sometimes when I go through the 'no emotion' stage, its not that I'm not feeling it, more that for some reason showing it at that particular time is too exhaustive to do. People then think I don't care but then I'm left explaining that I actually do but not that good at showing it. Anyone else feel like that?

my sister's marriage is breaking up and I found it hard today to talk to her as she needed someone to listen to her and give her support, although I can understand her situation and CAN offer certain outlook, I cannot express and communicate these things at all, I cannot adjust the tone of my voice with empathy. When I speak to her normally I talk in a childish, sarcastic voice so I had to try being serious, the problem with this being that I can offer her long term, positive goals instead of "in the moment" delicate conversation, in this case I look at the big picture rather than the details...

After several silences in the conversation I had to apologise to her that I didn't know what to say, but this can only look like "I didn't care"...

Yes. Except that some people I know well assume I'm angry about something when I'm in this state, so I then have to explain why I'm not mad. I find this even more irritating then having to explain the lack of emotion. From the feedback I get, I assume it's because these people have infrequently seen me when I'm angry (it's a rare thing) and I cover that with a very unemotional appearance because I don't like people to see me angry.

I rarely express anger at an "appropriate" time.

I cry at the drop of a hat though..

When one of my friends died I couldn't cry at the funeral, then the tears came a couple of weeks later and I cried for about an hour non-stop.