Emotional Control Problems

Post Reply New Topic

Greetings. When someone thinks of emotional control problems, I assume they think anger because that's basically all I can find. In my assessment, my teacher filled out a form and said I have problems with emotional control. Since I don't get angry, which my therapist thinks that's a problem, I'm assuming because she believes I cry more often than other people. I also read her responses before for my own curiosity. I am unsure if this is true, or if I just cry more in public than others.

But anyways, I'm assuming it's related to autism, since it's an executive function. I also read somewhere that people with autism are more likely to have cognitive flexibility and emotional control as a their weakness in terms of executive functions. Does anyone else have this problem? My main problem is that I have co-morbid anxiety disorders, which are pretty bad, and I get stressed really easily and stress always seems to find me. If I am really stressed, something really simple like not being able to answer a question on a test or understanding what is being asked will make me start to cry. But it's not because of this event, it's because of a series of events that build up to the tipping point and this simple thing that people think crying over is stupid seems to be the trigger in their eyes. And every time this happens, I feel like people think that it's my fault that I'm crying and I feel really judged, which brings my major social anxiety up, and makes me feel worse. I don't mean to cry. It's a natural response for me.

Also, how does one improve on this? I have improved on it since I was little, where I used to cry over anything every day of the week. I remember I wanted to join a club, but you had to do something, and the people said that I could join the club if I didn't cry three days in a row. It was that bad. Now, this tends to only happen 3-5 times a month, which I consider normal for a female anyways. Thanks for any response

I also have anxiety so I have less patience and get more irritable and crabby and little things can just make me angry where I feel like throwing things because someone touched my stuff or moved the TV remote to a different room but like you say it's not these little things, it's other things that have been going on and sometimes something has to happen over and over until I can't take it anymore so if the TV remote kept disappearing for example, I would blow up about it one day because I have had enough. I can't distinguish between anger problems and anxiety because they both look the same. How can a doctor tell if something is just anxiety or someone having problems with anger?

I also can't handle stress well and this morning my dad was trying to figure out how to finish a test online to keep his license for his work and he was so mellow about it and wasn't getting angry. I would have it if that were me and then being all grumpy and irritable and angry because I couldn't figure it out and the fact I have to do it would be overwhelming for me. Then I would have a meltdown and a hissy fit my mom calls it. Most people would just stay calm and keep working at it until they figure it out but me I just don't have the patience so I get frustrated and angry which they call anxiety. I just avoid it but if I can't, that is when I act that way.

I don't cry easily anymore like I used to when I was a kid. I am not sure what changed, maybe me maturing or maybe therapy did it, I don't know. Sometimes people grow out of their problems or symptoms of a disorder.

I don't have an autism diagnosis but I have generalized anxiety disorder, so I thought I'd chime in anyway. Even after all these years, I still snap at people often. From their perspective, it's the little things, but from mine, I've already got the anxiety before anything even happens.

I've found it helpful to check in with myself a lot, take lots of deep breaths throughout the day and stop to notice how I'm feeling. Yoga and meditation have helped me learn to let go of some of that tension and emotion in the moment. There's also this emotional intelligence toolkit:
http://www.helpguide.org/emotional-intelligence-toolkit

There are times when I have emotional control problems. January to April 2016 is a great example. I cried more often than I usually would, because of the lack of social and emotional support that I got from my mum when I needed it the most. It was during that time that one of my best friends came up with a nic-name for me. Big Baby Schultz.