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Si_82
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Joined: 17 Sep 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 525
Location: Newcastle, UK

20 Nov 2012, 8:25 am

Apparently most aspies experience emotions but only directly witness the physical effects rather than the emotion itself most of the time. I wanted to try and understand what was meant by 'physical effects' and found this definition in an article:

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Physical sensations associated with emotions

- churn: if your stomach churns, you have a strong nervous feeling in it because you are worried, afraid, or upset
- convulse: if you are convulsed with a strong emotion, it makes your body move in an uncontrolled way
- flutter: if your stomach flutters, you have an excited or nervous feeling in it
- inside: used for talking about a feeling that you have in your stomach
- settle: if your nerves or stomach settle or are settled, they become calm again after you have felt upset, nervous, or excited
- stiffen: to suddenly hold your body in a stiff way, often because you become nervous, worried, angry, or unfriendly
- have/get/feel butterflies (in your stomach): to feel very nervous or excited about something that you have to do, especially something important
- someone’s heart pounds/beats/thumps: used for saying that someone can feel their heart moving quickly because they are very excited or afraid
- someone’s stomach churns/lurches/tightens: used for saying that someone suddenly has a strong feeling of fear, shock, or excitement
- the pit of your stomach: the place in your stomach where you experience unpleasant feelings when you are worried, upset, or frightened
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I was quite confused and alarmed as this is all I thought emotions were. Or, more specifically, this was the emotion and there was some consequential effect on behaviour or thought process alongside. Even this list seems a lot more varied than my experience - I don't feel like sadness, stress, anxiety, grief, frustration etc are different feelings, more just the same negative feeling differing only by intensity. When I was a child I used to warn my parents I was becoming upset (and likely nearing a meltdown) by telling them I was feeling 'funny inside' because I didnt know how else to explain my feelings and have had trouble understanding and analysing my emotions all my life.

My question I suppose, would be how do others experience, understand and describe their emotions? I would be interested to hear from both people with and without this kind of issue.


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AQ46, EQ9, FQ20, SQ50
RAADS-R: 181 (Language: 9, Social: 97, Sensory/Motor: 37, Interests: 36)
Aspie Quiz: AS129, NT80
Alexithymia: 137