Going emotionally blank when overwhelmed...

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Does this happen to any of you? I don't know if it has something to do with AS or if it's just me being me.

Sometimes, if I experience too much stress or negative emotions, and I can't cope anymore, it's like a switch goes off and I feel like I have, well, no emotions. I am in such a state right now. Last week end, there were too many things bugging me, I had to go to an important meeting, and one more thing happened that made me really upset... And then, all of a sudden, I became really calm, clear minded... No emotion left. Which is a blessing, because I don't know how I could have gone through the past few days I had still been the way I was before. By the way, I think I've been like that most of my childhood et my teenage years...

I'm not too worried about it. I know from experience that if I use that "emotional break" to take care of what is wrong, I should slowly go back to normal... But it's weird, isn't?

Actually, I go the opposite when I'm overwhelmed. I get full of emotions, all negative ones. I end up becoming irritable, angry, tearful, and whiny. This is why I don't see my grandmother at week-ends any more, I love my grandmother and it's nothing to do with her, it's just that nearly everybody in the family all comes down too, dog and all, like it's a family hide-out place at week-ends. I get too overwhelmed in that situation, being so the place is only very small, too small for, like, 11 or 12 people to pile into all at the same time, with a big dog pacing up and down too, and mess everywhere, not to mention the door keep banging because the windows are always open and people shut the door at that awkward angle, where it keeps quietly banging like it doesn't know whether to stay open or shut, and it drives me mad in the end (the noise is not loud but it's still annoying). Also people keep yawning, and making that groaning sound while yawning, which also disturbs me, and there's just lots of other little things what annoy me, what build up. The last two times I was down there with everybody else too, I got into ''meltdown mode'', where I became so overwhelmed with too many people all in one room that I began finding any little thing to be angry about, which resulted in me swearing and slapping myself in the face and yelling at everybody that I wanted to commit suicide.

OK, I'm getting a bit carried away now, but all that explains that I don't blank out when overwhelmed, I in fact become very snappy and irritable. I almost wish I DID blank out, then I can just stay quiet.

Yes. However even though I am emotionless, I am tearful...like my eyes water for no reason (I suppose it's repressed sadness?). This happens in emergency situations, too.

I don't blank out easily... It happens in emergency situations, like gretchyn said, or else it's because I've been in a bad state for a while, building up. I've been an emotional mess in the past few weeks, mostly because of my interrogations about maybe having asperger, and what it means...

Joe, a big family gathering that last more than one evening can be really tiresome... Surely there are other moments when you can see your grandmother, in a way that is more enjoyable for both of you.

I rarely respond to emotional input so I don't have much to go by. I do have odd fits of laughter at the oddest of times and if there is too many people being emotional... then I freak which can trigger my tics. I get very anxious when things change, break or essentially my obsessive compulsions becomes obstructed.