AS women and expressing emotions

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It is said that Aspies have a hard time expressing emotions, but I find I do it all the time, no matter what emotion it is. If I'm happy, everyone knows. If I'm sad, everyone knows. And all the other grey areas inbetween too, everyone knows. I never keep my emotions to myself, unless I am around people who I don't know very well, (but that can be quite normal in anybody, especially shy people). But generally I can express emotions. In fact my mum says I spend too much time expressing how I'm feeling, and that her NT nieces and nephews do it less than me.

Is this normal for an Aspie? Or is it because I'm female? Does anyone else here express your emotions like the average woman does, or maybe to the extreme?

How do you express your emotions? I'm asking because my face is expressive almost to exaggeration (partly as a way to mask my tics--I have Tourette's), so people usually know how I'm feeling. I'm unlikely to talk to them about it, though.

I guess I am 'extreme' in the other direction, especially 'negative' emotions. I feel uneasy expressing emotion in public, even with people I know well. I sort of expres them in my mind when I'm not alone, like singing and dancing in my head when I'm happy. My own mother called me 'closed' (she was as well, but apperantly she didn't notice) and former boyfriends have complained that they never knew for sure what I think/feel. In short, I understate my emotions a lot and can't modulate them very well. Occassionally, when the tension rises too much, I'll explode either in a rage that disproportionate to the event that triggered it or in a sobbing heap of misery.

In general, I appear to be able to be reasonably happy without giving any indication that I am happy. One co-worker remarked a few years ago that I was about the most even-tempered person she knows.

While not an emotion, I have had people look at me and determine that I was "drunk again!" in spite of not having had anything alcoholic to drink in weeks. That was mainly in the 1970s.

I tend to have a flat face, cry, or smile, when I'm alone. When I'm talking to someone, I'm pretty (and quite unconsciously) expressive. This is, by the way, the exact opposite of how I was before I developed peri-pubescent depression--before then, I would have a flat face or smile all the time, unless I was at home, where I felt free to have meltdowns.

It varies for me, I can go from one extreme (flat affect) to another (jumping and laughing or stomping and swearing like a sailor ). Verbal expression of emotions is hard for me, and I avoid it like the plague. I'm a little more even keeled nowadays but it's always right under the surface.

People have always gotten mad at me for expressing them. I was told online by an aspie it's how I did it, not because I was expressing them. I think what they also mean by an aspie has a hard time expressing themselves emotionally, they mean they have a hard time doing it in a appropriate manner. They either don't express them at all or they do it wrong. I am both of those.

The thing is aspie people are all different. I just read a book by two very different autistic people. It's amazing they have the same diagnosis. For me personally I don't have much emotions, so I don't have problem expressing them. Maybe I did have emotions back a long time ago. I don't know if my brain is missing some channels or just not remember about them. I do have a weakness for grand music, they tend to move me to tears. So if anyone is crying about their troubles while some very appropriately sad music is playing, I could totally feel their sadness, too.

I don't think I'm alone in this. My whole family like musicals 10X better than regular movies. We simply get so much more out of them.

Usually other people know how I'm feeling before I do... I have an extreme amount of trouble putting words to feelings and, now that I've actually started working on realizing how I feel, it often takes me between 5 and 30 minutes to figure out how I feel if my husband has asked me how I feel. My natural inclination is to tell him that I'm hungry, tired, good, relaxed, etc, but apparently those are not the sorts of feelings he ever means

So, I guess I express emotions unconsciously? Although my husband is often incorrect about how I'm feeling and he says it's incredible difficult to "read" me (and I don't completely understand the concept of "reading people" yet either). Usually he's very perceptive about people and how they feel, but he has much more difficulty with me and with our daughter who was recently officially dx with AS.

I seem withdrawn and melancholy all the time, regardless of how I feel.

My boyfriend said I do facial expressions but they're difficult to read. I think the only obvious one is when I'm happy though.

I have to make a conscious effort to show my emotions. But sometimes when I'm tired I don't even bother and be like a robot.
I don't even like to use emoticons when I write.

I'm often misread in this area.

I've been told since I was a child that I sound and seem like a robot. Or that I constantly look angry because I have a natural frown, even when I'm not. I can't tell when I'm smiling or if I look pleasant when I attempt to, so I try to keep as much of a poker face as I can.

I never really showed emotion as a child or teenager. I did go to therapy for a while as an adult and that helped me realise that it was okay to verbalize them. I still feel like I don't have as many emotions as other people. If I'm angry or frustrated, I cry. I never cry when I'm happy or sad like I've seen NT female's do. My partner says that my face is the same when I'm really happy or angry, so it's hard for her to gauge what I'm thinking. I still seem cold or standoffish to some people.