On AS Emotions.

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The thread on logical AS types had me thinking.

I consider myself to be extremely logical, rational and systematic. Head over heart.
On an interpersonal level I'm extremely detached from other peoples emotions and feelings, be it with individuals or groups. While I can be very sympathetic to those who I think deserve it, I'm lacking in empathy in a really stereotyped Asperger's way. I'm not emotionally roused by people, their feelings aren't infectious. If there's anything I hate more it's airy-fairy people who are brimming with emotion, sentimentality and contention.

But here's the ironic contradiction I'm attempting to wrap my head around - I'm actually pretty emotionally volitile in myself. While I'm detached from the feelings of others, I'm in no way detached from my own emotions.

I have very rudimentary emotions, which can often be strong and overwhelming. There's no inbetween in my emotions, so they're powerful and troublesome to say the least.

Anyone else feel this way? Is this common among ASD people? A walking contradiction in terms?

When I was younger I would have said the exact same thing as the first part of your post. These days I find myself acting irrationally and 'woman-like' and I do not care much for it.

As for the last part - yes, I am a contradiction in almost every way. I call myself a walking paradox or a walking oxymoron.

Yes, I'm the same way. I try to intellectually rationalize other people’s emotions to understand if they are justified or not. But my own emotions are often beyond rationalization.

Me too. I will join you all on this train.

Phew, I'm not the only one then.

Sometimes I wish I was as disconnected from my own emotions as I am from the emotions of others. Though I'm sure that would cause it's own problems too.

The only time I feel anything but general happiness is when the depression hits from changing a routine such as moving, otherwise I am a usually very content person.

Nothingunusual - i do believe you described how many of us experience the world. And you did so very beautifully and clearly. I am highly logical and systematic in many ways and i use my powers of deduction and analysys to attemtp to make sense of people and the world.

at the same time, my emotions are extreme and i have great difficulty in regulating them and i cannot express subtle emotions. i can feel them THROUGH my special interest which is painting, but i struggle to even feel them in relation to others. This gives me what i call a "jagged edge' - whereby i seem quite lacking and immature in my emotional range and my expression of them. my facial expressions are similar. they do not flow, but are extreme and overpronounced in a weird way, which i hate.

i might add, i can also experience more complex emotions when writing - whether it be fiction or even just a forum. Writing has also been a special interest and enables me to communicate more clearly.

but on a day to day basis at home i am either on or off - nothing - or extreme hilarity or rage. My mother and my siblings tell me this is how i was also as a child. On or Off. I am so often misunderstood because of this. and it causes me great pain at times. as well as difficulty for those around me.


from what i can gather - many many of us experience the world as you so beautifully described.

Last edited by millie on 31 Dec 2008, 4:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, my emotions are extreme without "in-between" levels. I'm either very happy, very upset/frustrated, or very angry. I never experience sadness. When I cry, it's because I'm frustrated about something.
-OddDuckNash99-

nothingunusual, your description definitely resonates with me too. I asked my therapist a few weeks ago about the all-or-nothing emotional states in ASD and she replied that it is very common in the ASD children that she works with.

I am the same way.

I experience similar.

Just a few hours ago, I went out with some people who are visiting for New Year's and a rather dangerous incident occurred.

I cannot remember the last time I went out with people, and these were fully grown adults (mostly middle-aged), yet they behaved completely irrationally. Between the 3 of them, they ended up starting a fight with 2 random strangers (also middle-aged) over nothing.

I watched in disbelief at how my first trip out with people in months resulted in physical and verbal violence. I still cannot work out how they got themselves into such a situation, as it was completely irrational. They retell the sequence of events and it seems like pure stupidity.

The incident has upset me, yet they do not seem affected and are joking about it. It makes me feel a bit sick and I remember why I prefer to be alone. However, when considering my own emotions, especially when younger, there were many times I had almost no control over them. I would fly into rages at my siblings when they set me off, or have tantrums, even as a adult.

It does seem a contradiction how I am usually among the most rational present, disliking shows of emotion, but can have childlike outbursts of emotion myself when triggered.

I also have contradictions, though in a slightly different vein. I sometimes enjoy emotion in an artistic setting but not so much when it comes to ordinary people in ordinary life. I like dramatic gut-wrenching tear-jerking movies but I can't make myself feel happy for a friend getting married. I just can't make myself care about that stuff. Maybe this is a guy thing as much as anything else. I don't know.

I also have the thing where I experience extreme emotions with very little room in between.

same here.

That's what I find about my emotions.

I seem to have a wall around me. Thought it might be a subconscious defense against being hurt. But even with ppl close to me I don't always know how to 'be there' for them. I've been called cold (and worse).
Yet I've got tons of emotion within me, think I just don't know how to express it. I cry very easily if I don't shut things out. I see a kitten playing in the yard & hope no dogs come around, or a young girl riding her new bike after Christmas & try not to imagine that she might fall... I'm crying as I write this. Happy things make me cry, like singing along with a favorite Sheryl Crow song or hearing that Obama won the election.
My (half)sister is my only close relative, tho she lives far away, and at the end of our phone calls she says 'I love you' and i say 'love you too' but it it feels more obligatory, like 'have a nice day'.

I can logically analyse my emotions, but not while I'm actually experiencing them. My mind is very mono, so I can't do things simultaneously. While I'm experiencing the emotions, then I can't analyse them. Afterwards, when I am not experiencing them, then I can analyse them. With other people, I can analyse them straight away because I am not actually experiencing their emotions.