'Wearing your heart on your sleeve'

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Wear your heart on your sleeve means to display your emotions and opinions freely.

Or see here if you don't know what it means.

Do you wear your heart on your sleeve?

I do. For those who can read through ASD traits of course. For all others I'm the typical autistic enigma.

But even those who, for example, confuse my burning anger for happiness, notice that I'm always displaying something. I am quite noisy about my opinions and actions and emotions.

I'm aware of that my 'heart is on my sleeve'. And I'm comfortable with it mostly.

I wonder how it is for other autistic people?

oh this is exaclty how i am. i cannot regulate my emotions or dull them down for the sake of social context or environment. I am a verbose and loud aspie at times and people can find me difficult and all over the place. i have no edit button. in groups i am either completely overbearing if i have somehting to say - or i am silent and stimming. no in-betweens.

You can always tell I have some feelings. As for putting them on display, I try to hide them most times... I will give my opinions freely, unless it is something I am not comfortable talking about. If you ask my opinions I will generally tell. If you don't, I will probably tell you anyways, if it is somehow related to the current topic.

I used to wear my heart on my sleeve, and thought I could never change. Then some very bad things happened to me around age 40 that made me change, and nowadays I'm a very closed person that gives nothing genuine away ever. Except on WP.

I try not to have it on my sleeve as it makes you very vulnerable, to be known is to be easily manipulated. I don't know how successful I am at concealing my emotions or state of mind though.

The only emotion that I spontaneously show is laughter. Otherwise, I just project either tired or not-tired (this is subconscious). Pretty much I always have the same blank look on my face.

I keep mine between my aorta and the lung sac...

I've pretty much become insular over the years.

That is very true. I can make just about anyone do just about anything. I do this by exploiting what you make known to me through reading what is available to read of your person. This involves signs of stress and signs of your personality. In a fight, I will analyze the signs you give off, and try to read what I should do, although I cannot think uickly enough to do this very well, so I normally end up just trying to exhaust you. Then I got lung damage, so I gave up wrestling completely. Anyways, to let someone know anything about you is to make you vunerable, and if you pay attention to the signals someone is sending about themselves, you can know just enough to do some serious harm, even if they are trying to hide themselves... This is why I like the internet, other people can't get a good read on me because they cannot see my physical signs. I cannot get a good readf on anyone else either. Anyways, even though I can read people, I generally don't, as I don't have a reason to. I do however read my 16 yold sister a lot, simply because I want to know what is going on in her mind, but it would be bad to ask given what is going on in her life right now.

I remember my dad telling me that I do that. He suggested I be more "poker faced" or else someone would take advantage of me. I never knew what he meant by that and was not aware that I "wore my heart on my sleeve." Now I think that maybe it is the naivete that some ASD people display?? Like my husband--everyone somehow notices that he is more innocent than others and they all quit swearing around him. In my opinion, his face is more "open", and what you see is what you get. He does not hide who he is from others. Maybe I am like that, too.

I don't know whether or not I wear my heart on my sleeve. I've been told that I show both too much emotion and also too little.

Interesting. It's a common misconception. Though on the other hand it's mostly true, when one looks at the vast majority of people.

There is a difference between 'wearing your heart on your sleeve' and others knowing everything about you.

You show your opinions and emotions freely, but this does not say anything about your ability of awareness of the consequences this has and about your ability to use that situation to your advantage.

That's basically the difference between presenting as what seems to be the unconnected mystery and the seemingly oblivious fool. Both have their places in social interaction and both are truly rare positions. Most people are not capable of much manipulation and just present the way they are.

I do too. Well, I thought I did but people just don't understand it ! I try to hide them but feel that everyone can see how I feel... maybe it's just because it's too much to stand sometimes.

I do. My emotions spill out all over the place and I don't seem to be able to reign them in and don't seem to want to. My face is very expressive, too. Definitely not the type who's good at poker.

Actually, showing your emotions can get others to do things for you they wouldn't normally do out of either pity, guilt, or frustration. Also, using a combination of analytical logic and emotional expression in your arguments can be potent enough to get through to the most thick headed of people.

when i was young, people often told me i had 'no guile' and i believe they meant it as a compliment. since maturing no one has said it to me.

yeah, i do wear my heart on my sleeve but i also think that you need to project an image of yourself that isn't accurate. it keeps people guessing and protects you from those wishing you harm.

on the other hand, i always enjoyed hearing people confirm there was no guile in me. it made me feel like an angel.

however, i don't want to be a trampled angel. or a doormat. better not to attract that kind of manipulative jerk.

and while it is completely off-topic, i've been craving to say something: why do people always say life is short? as far as i'm concerned life isn't short at all. life is way too long. i guess it has to do with how much fun you're having and time passing quickly when you're having a good time.

wearing your heart on your sleeve could make life a little more tolerable, but then so does discretion. i've found a little mystery goes a long way in keeping people at bay and ensuring one's safety.

Pretty much so. Less so than usual. I was told that as soon as people knew what I cared about, they'd try to destroy it. A lot of the time, it's happened that way. There are a lot of things I hide now, and I don't know why with many of them. They generally aren't the most important things. The things that I most intensely feel or believe I'm bad at hiding, even when it hurts. So I guess for the most part, I would say this is true.