Unidentifiable emotions

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Today was a hell of a day. I was up for 16 hours straight in order to complete coursework. I then had to go to a doctor's appointment then shop pharmacy and by the time I got home I was too stressed to even sleep.

In Asda (UK equivalent of Walmart) I found myself engulfed by strange all encompassing emotions. The lights were too bright the music abrasive, it was too hot, the noise was too much and I was consumed by an overwhelming sense of something. I literally clutched the basket for dear life and felt myself teetering on the edge of bursting into tears.

Can anyone relate to these sorts of overwhelming emotional mysteries

It seems to be common, when you're on the spectrum, to be overwhelmed by the sounds and features of a supermarket. Reverberating conversations echoing all around you and interrupting each other, rattling trollies, skriking kids, bleeping machinery, all while you're going through a labyrinth of intensely well-lit rainbows of food products, with people brushing by you constantly, when you only want to pick your own basket of goods and leave. You won't be alone on that. Perhaps you were verging on a meltdown?

My meltdowns are rare now, but I do get many distinct drawn out feelings of saudade/yearning/longing/loss/nostalgia very often. I woke up from a nap this evening feeling rather fatigued and tender, half weeping softly inside but not even for any cause of sadness. It wasn't unpleasant, but as you say it was unidentifiable as an emotion. I can't describe it with much justice and it's fascinating when I feel that way how emotions were first related in language.

Yes. I get emotions that I cannot explain. They are related to anxiety. I can't explain them except to say they are uncomfortable. I wish I could name them.


From the situation, it sounds like stress-related feelings from having too much to do.

A feedback loop in your brain. It causes panic and oftentimes a slight dissociative fugue.

Yes, I can totally relate. I usually cry when that happens or I have a meltdown. Happened today actually while I was out. Had a public meltdown. It was embarrassing but I had to have it. I just happened to have some of my toys with me in a soft bag so I was able to hold that and it helped.

Last edited by skibum on 13 Dec 2013, 11:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Great Googly Moogly! Lemme outta here!




Precisely. It makes me slightly dizzy and my mind feels very disconnected from my body, almost as though I'm watching everything from a remote location through a video monitor, while I steer a robot through an obstacle course.


I took a part time job a few years ago, that involved climbing under the registers, opening the CPUs, blowing the dust out of the cases and cleaning the keyboards on all the cash registers in WalMart stores. I had to be in each store for hours, going from one register to the next, winding my way through the clerks and customers. The sound of the vacuum was actually a relief, because it would momentarily drown out the store racket, of people, carts, machines, air vents, clicking printers and beeping scanners.

And if you think that sounds bad, you should see their gigantic distribution centers, with warehouses the size of airline hangars and offices full of people and cubicles and ringing phones.

It was only a few days a week, but it was so traumatic it took at least 2 days between jobs to calm my nerves enough to go to the next store. Needless to say I don't do that anymore.

I understand perfectly. I get that same wave sometimes too.

Yes. I get that too. Your ability to describe it is good - I never thought of it as an emotion(s) before but as me simply being overwhelmed by lights, sounds, and crowds. Over the years I've learned to leave before I fall apart so to speak. It's why I can't "go shopping" as a pleasurable excursion, to understate it. Wish the stores had one day a month where the lights were turned lower, or switched to incandescent instead of fluorescent, the music and loudspeaker announcements turned off.

Sometimes I ask stores or businesses to turn off their music for me and I was actually really pleasantly surprised when one of them did. It was a car mechanic where I got my car inspected and I explained to him that I have Misophonia and that the music he was playing was giving me triggers and he was happy to turn it off while I was there. I thought that was really cool. But it would be a great idea if maybe a half hour before they close or for a half hour after they open if stores could keep music off and lights low. If I have 24 hour grocery store like Walmart of Giant I like to go very early or very late at night when it's more mellow.

Yeah! It felt like a vague need to be comforted. Luckily afterwards I had to do the door for a friend's gig, so had a variety of drinks and nattered amongst a few people. That meant I wasn't "low" for long, although it wasn't particularly a bad feeling anyway.

There are seven basic emotions: happiness, sorrow, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, and contempt. When I can't identify my emotion I try to describe it as a precise combination

An emotion I has this morning I describe as
5% happiness. 30% anger. 45% sorrow 5%. Surprise. 5%. Disgust and 10% contempt.

However, I approach it logically, which is my fundamental error, because emotions don't have to be logical   

"Feeling overwhelmed" might fit the bill? That's how I describe that kind of thing, when the situation just all gets too much and I need to get out.

Sometimes in supermarkets (especially ASDA!) I really want to scream and run at people with the trolley....