How do I become the emotionless robot...

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...the society wants me to be?

I can't help it. I am too emotional. Having to suppress my emotions for hours a day in order to do my work drives me crazy. I need an emotional outlet. A huge one.

I can have lots of fun when I'm alone. I can laugh and cry all I want, however I want, whenever I want. I don't want to be forced into a box. I can last for a while like that but then I let it all out when I have a chance. Even if it's in the shower.

Lately, I have become addicted to crying. I used to be happy when I could socialize with my friends who gave me the freedom to be myself.

Now, I have cut myself away from that, too, so that I can concentrate on my studies. But I can't help but miss those times, painfully.

I want my life back. I am tired of sitting in this enclosed space and continually forcing myself to do something that is extremely unnatural for me to do.

How can I make myself into an emotionless robot? It's a question I have been pondering for many, many years. How do I suppress my emotions in order to get myself to do hours of cramming and to endure the mindless social interactions I am supposed to be able to endure without the freedom to express my true self?

I have too much emotion. That is my main problem.

maybe try and remember what you are trying to acomplish and try and realize its worth it and otherwise just stop doing it. if you are honest i'd realy like to talk to you.

I had the same problems when i was younger. I saw crap all over the world and most people did not care - which was worse. I found out later on that in order to survive one has to stop caring so much about everything, or you will start thinking that you are the one causing the worlds all problems because you are part of the rich world.

The thing is, you are not, there are plenty of evil people that are responsible for all the pain in the world and all you can do is to counteract these people by being a good person. Join up with greenpeace, amnesty or some other good organisation that you feel makes a difference, even if it just "save the squirrels".

This can make you stop focusing on the bad with humanity and see the good. And you do no longer see society as being full of evil people. Granted, most people are well meaning idiots, but they are not emotionless robots. Most people are just tired.

You can't become emotionless. You just supress when you need to and take a lot of showers, or car breaks or whatever you need. When I need to scream, I drive the car and scream in there.

Good question...It was certainly the case for me until depression got me, now I am bothered only by limited yet very intense set of emotions. I drew that exercise+rational and reasoned discipline+possibly some meds+CBT might work, but most importantly understanding when and why these emotions arise, also giving them an appropriate frame, adding knowledge of various theories. I know the problem is the amplitude, well for me they also were/are (possibly)inappropriate and odd.

I greatly dislike having emotions. So I became accustomed to view them as a part of my thought, that is that every emotion conveys an irrational thought. It is like super extention of my brain and I have an option of programming it (which requires a repetitive work). It is impossible and unnecessary shuting the emotions off because this is a much faster way of thinking. I hope that make sense, I would elaborate but don't feel like it

Society actually thrives on feelings. Only the top something of people holding serious jobs are expected to have a certain mindset an that is not emotionlessness. Having a right emotion at a right time, being able to use these emotions to aid thinking is a serious talent. I would think that good lawyers, for instance, have this gift. Seeing how other people think through their emotions reveals hidden motives and being able instantly empathise to understand the whole spectrum is amazing. Yet when one is confused with one's own emotions, doesn't have correct cultural frames and is not ready to accept negative ones creates even more bad emotions. It is another question what do you mean by being yourself. Maybe it is unwillingness to take up responsibilities? What kind of emotions are these? I know I have a lot of hate inside me, hate and dissatisfaction. I can cry a lot, I laugh a lot - it changes in an instance. I never had definite emotions but I know I was ruled by them. Now I define, discard and rationalize. I try to learn how to use this hypersensitivity and deal with my problems, but it is not very succesful though yet I see some improvement.

Once I asked this question in some other (meds) forum. And the answer I got was the one which is very simple - it is very likely that there is an underlying cause. Which is and is called .. .

So I would advice not try to hard, be yourself as you perseive this and see what happens. Find somehow enjoyment in what you are doing - any situation might be interesting. What I mean is that cramming might be absorbing and fun especially if you are doing maths and you can make the best out of unwanted communication. Hope I make sense it is something that bothers me as well.. And yeah it probably requires a lot of dedication and hard work but is unbelievably rewarding.

it would not be good to throw away your emotional sensibilities if you have them.

i have no deep emotions, and that separates me from most of humanity.

keep what you have, and service it, because if you do not have it at all, things will be different in a way you may not be able to handle.

My emotions are very different. I only have rewarding interactions with people who are on the same emotional wavelength as mine, who just happen to be certain people on the spectrum (especially those who are a few years younger than me).

I can't emotionally fit into society. I can fake it, but there are no emotions behind it. It's just scripts. And when I do show my real emotions, they are strange and societally unacceptable. And while I do try to be happy about who I am, being put in these situations cuts through my self-esteem like a sword.

I crave being able to express my real emotional self. I want it more than anything. And it feels like torture when I can't do it. Call me spoiled, but after 18 years of trying to suppress my emotions, I want to be free and be able to live a normal life within my limits. And I know far too well what my limits are. The real challenge is to explain them to others.

I do tons of involvement within my special interest and that does bring me immense satisfaction. But it's still difficult socially and organizationally to juggle everything that is going on in my life. Which adds stress and that isn't good, either.

Which is and is called what?

I don't perceive people as evil and that's the fundamental mistake people make. I am just tired of having to put all this effort into fitting into this society while the cumulative payoff just makes me feel worse and worse in the long run. A lot of the time, I feel like a hindrance more than anything.

Try doing a firmware update.

Huh I know what you mean there. I have no clue what to do for an autistic person to ease all this. I think rationalizing is the only way which increases synchronization by a bit.

I find this post very interesting as I thought you weren't very emotionally oriented. Not to say that you don't experience emotions, but I'm trying to understand what you are struggling with. Do you feel restrained by the fact that you can't experience or express emotion the way you would like yourself to?

If this is the case, I don't think you should be worried to much about this in the context of your social situations. The people on the spectrum that you surround yourself with likely respond in the same ways you do, and as such, will likely be accepting of your emotional responses. It depends on who you are interacting with, though. I'm wondering if your struggle has to do with people outside of your immediate comfort zone, and your struggle to suppress emotional responses around them.

I would agree with you, and sympathise with the fact that there's the implication that society wants us to become emotionless robots. There is a message of success and productivity, but we are human and as such require room for our feelings to be expressed. That's why art, music, dance, and various other forms of expression are so highly valued by people, especially successful and creative people. Their minds are a lot more volatile, which isn't a bad thing, but the good news is that they can learn how to channel it into something expressive.

You're a very efficient and directed person, and perhaps I could see you channelling your emotions easily into creative writing once you have some time away from school. Unfortunately, your academic priorities at the moment are a lot more pressing. I guess the question for now is how to work your emotions into your life as is.

I'm thinking of looking into counselling.

Thanks for the reply. I will reply to this by PM as soon as I can. There are details to this but I don't wish to publish them online as they are very personal. For now, I have to finish a stats chapter that is basically describing the same procedure over and over again with several alternations. So repetitive and dull... *sigh*

Have you thought about becoming an atom then?

That sure sounds familiar, others seemingly wanting me to be an emotionless robot. How I wish my mind worked that way, that I wasn't so hypersensitive to everything people say and do. However, being a creative type myself, I also have that volatile mindset. Highly emotional and sensitive, but also creative. Sometimes I wish I could be like Data on Star Trek, and just have Geordie remove my emotion chip!

I often think like this. I wish i was an emotionless robot programmed to the cause of better! Emotions can be good for nothing sometimes!

I just felt like reviving this thread because it is my thread and I am feeling like this again.

I've realized that I am an empath. I crave feeling deep emotions, emanating from both myself and other people. However, it seems to me like the society doesn't value emotions, which is why it's very hard to make a living on arts, music, etc. Additionally, we seem to be slowly progressing from socializing face-to-face to more distant communication methods like the Internet and texting. I have gone into psychology because my parents pushed me into university and I wanted to do something that had the biggest human element to it. My mother was strongly opposed to me going into psychology and wanted me to go to medical school, which to me is an extremely emotionally devoid area of study.

So now I am in psychology. I have the capacity for university and I am doing very well here, but most of the time, I feel like I just want to get out and put my efforts into practical work instead. Many people here, including psychology professors and TAs, seem very distant and emotionally detached. Additionally, research is much more valued in psychology than practical work, and I am not sure if I am suited for a research career if I absolutely hate sitting in front of the computer for hours and doing monotone, repetitive tasks because, again, it's not emotionally fulfilling. Whenever I work in a lab and want to talk to people, it becomes a distraction to hold me from productive work instead of a way to do work.

As a person with a strong need for self-expression and emotionally stimulating experiences, I feel that society is strongly biased against people like me. I can't robotize myself and just give an automatic smile and block out any genuine emotion, because I am a genuine and a highly sensitive person. This way of living so highly dehumanizing to me and I won't know what to do about my constant dissatisfaction with it. Making myself flat and robotic with meds seems just plain WRONG to me.

I guess there are two main things to this.
A) I find it hard to go for 7-8 hours a day straight without human contact and/or emotional stimulation, which I end up obtaining through "distractions" like music and jokes and then feel horrible because I wasn't engaging in productive work.
B) I am surrounded by people who are not very expressive and seem emotionally shallow and they tell me to constantly think for myself and work independently. I'm already doing this for 7-8 hours a day; so my emotional side just gets suppressed pretty much all the time. This makes me feel like I'm defective and like I should learn to find a way to crave human interaction and emotional stimulation less.

You are full of emotion because it is part of who you are.

I've gone from the stage of being too full of emotions - to feeling nothing - to feeling full of emotions again. My life has only been worth living when I've experienced emotions. Feeling nothing feels neither good or bad. No love or hate. It wrecked my relationships with people because I could not feel any attachment.

Emotions are what makes life what it is, because every situation comes out with a meaning, and that meaning exists in the first place because it is determined by what you feel.

When you are full of emotions they are what gives you the drive. They are what make you set goals and stick to them.They can also have the opposite effect of making you come to a standstill and being able to do nothing. That's why you limit yourself with what overwhelms you so that you don't come to a halt.