Do You Find It Easier To Express Feelings In Writing?

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Someone has said it is difficult to understand how I can express my inner feelings so well when I write if I have Aspergers. I have always found it easier to do this in writing and poetry but struggle to make things clear beyond that in face to face interaction.

Is it unusual for an Aspie to be able to express themselves clearly in the written word but not in face to face interaction?

Does anyone else find it easier to express themselves in the written word?

I find it easier to express myself in the written word. I don't think it's quite as easy as it used to be for me, because I struggle with distractibility and getting bored halfway through writing a post. But even with those drawbacks, I still find it miles easier to express my thoughts in writing than face-to-face.

In fact I can't really express my thoughts face-to-face except to a very few people and in specific circumstances.

That is how I find it. I post quite a lot about my feelings on Facebook when I am feeling down or angry and someone I think is doubting my diagnosis because of it. But I have always been able to express myself well mostly in the written or typed word. But face to face I don't like talking about emotions much and tend to come across wrong. And I often tend to identify mostly just strong ones like anger, sadness, anxiety. Looking at the Haven posts I can see others who can talk about their insecurities and loneliness quite clearly in the written word.

Absolutely. I suck at expressing my feelings through speech, but I've had people tell me that my writing skills are phenomenal. Personally, I think they are giving me too much credit, but I do feel that it is much easier for me to express myself through the written word, rather than through the spoken word. When I write, I can take as much time as I need, and I can easily go back and fix my mistakes. I don't have to worry so much about things like the pace of conversation, or pronouncing words correctly, or using the right tone of voice, or anything like that. If I am conversing with someone through written communications, it is often much easier for me to understand what they are trying to say, than if we are communicating verbally.

This is one of the things I'm known for. I use writing to explain things to my doctor and psychiatrist when I see them. They think it's amazing that I have this ability too. Like, I can verbalize quite well, but when it comes to verbal or emotional expression, I struggle pretty bad. That's why I like being able to have writing to express myself.

It's so much easier for me to express myself through text vs face to face interaction. Realizing that, I've started writing out my thoughts and feelings on forums and blogs and it has let me learn a lot about myself. Writing things out and then re reading them seems to help me organize and process my thoughts and feelings better than I can by just thinking about them.

This is exactly the same for me. I also write a journal on my iPad. I've been trying to get down a lot of the things I've been thinking, but I keep forgetting to do so. D: I really want to have a journal online where I can be more expressive, but nobody seems to care about stuff like that anymore.

It;s virtually impossible for me to express my feeling verbally and it is really difficult (though not impossible) for me to express my feelings in text.

Usually I don't know the words to express how I feel, so that's why.

I'm not good at explaining my emotions in speech to people either. On a slightly different note, I also hated talking about my Crohn's symptoms to doctors. On both fronts, I suffered from an inability to describe intangible feelings and sensations. In the past I tried various counselling services, but none of them came to anything, because the last thing in the world I wanted to do was sit there and talk about my "feelings" for an hour with barely any input from the counsellor other than an earnest "how did that make you feel?". Sometimes I would shutdown and go mute for nearly the whole session: nobody apparently thought this was a bit weird.

It wasn't much better talking about my Crohn's symptoms and I eventually came to develop a grudge against everyone who had ever treated my disease, especially my first hospital - I'll happily slag it off any time. In fact it turned into a bit of an obsession for a while; I'm calmer about it now.

The good thing is I finally have a psychologist who has had some experience with autistic patients and has adapated her approach to my personality. The bad news is she's going on maternity leave in February >_>. Actually everyone I'm seeing at the moment is very good; the problem is, this being the NHS, none of them are long-term, and so I have quite a bit of anxiety about everyone 'disappearing' on me. I have told people about this and they are trying to arrange alternative sources of support...

+1. I'm the same.

Hmm. I tend to stick to more extreme emotions. Subtle ones I miss. I can easily write about feeling depressed, anxious or angry and sort of can explain why. But often I do not know the reasons for why I feel as I feel so if anyone asks why I feel a certain way I cannot explain.

Yes, English has always been my strongest subject and I think reading a lot of books has helped me better my ability to express certain things in writing. I used to write endless diaries and poems to express how I felt. But if asked how I feel or why I look so miserable or such things I find myself at a loss usually.

I think this is an almost invariable part of ASDs, and of many people in general: The ability in express one's self better via the written than the spoken word.

I am definitely in that category.

I am terrible at both.

Written words totally. But not poetry. I don't understand that stuff

That's so weird, I just submitted an ask like this on Tumblr.
I am WAY better at written. If I need to express something important, I like to chat with them on Facebook or Skype rather than face to face. It's like I can only get the words out onto my hands rather than mouth.