Logic.

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LOL...where do you see "NT" in what I said?

Interesting discussion. Please keep this up.

My therapist used to tell me to be "less like Sheldon" and "more like Spock" (yes, she was a Star Trek fan).

I'm a strong believer of the concept of "place" - that everything has it's place in the universe (needless to say I'm a bit OCD).

I think emotions have their time and place as well. I know if I was to let my emotions drive the bus I'd be a blubbering mess. So, I try to examine my emotions from the outside in to the extent I am able to. I then decide thinks like: "do I want to be angry about that - is it worth it?" or "should I be upset this person insulted me - are they having a bad day, or maybe they're not that important to me so does it really matter?"

In the end then, I see the subjugation of emotions to the intellectual mind as a good thing. For me a more logical approach works.

emotions aren't right or wrong. they just are. it's what we do with them that is beneficial or destructive. i don't try to control my emotions, just my actions.

I'm stealing your resolution, SteelMaiden. Haven't thought of any better ways for me to survive 2015 in the US of A just yet.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Cognitive behavior therapy is effective for managing negative emotions. Check out any of Beck's writing on it.
Borrow 'Emotions Revealed by Ekman from your local library and read it.
Learn to meditate. Exercise. Eat well, and sleep well. Make sure your B12, Mg and vitamin D levels are good.
Remove emotional people from your life - Aspies and Borderlines are a really bad combination.
Practice your logic skills - try computer programming, or even just do logic games and crossword puzzles. Try out cognitivefun.net

I have been down this road myself for a while now, and I figured that the best way for me to be in control of my feelings is to analyse them logically. The key question is "Why?". Why did they look at me funny? Why did it make me feel uncomfortable? What kind of feeling was it? Does it matter what they think of me? If so, why does it matter?

I just keep asking that question until I have answered all of the questions I can think of. As soon as you know why you are doing what you're doing, it will be almost easy to change it (unless you decide to change your attitude towards it instead).

The most helpful insight, for me, has been that I must live my life for me, not for others, and therefore it doesn't matter what people think of me. If I know them to be wrong, that's okay, because I know what is right, and it's also not their fault that they hae the wrong information. I might want to correct them, but that doesn't always work. If they take my critisism and change, great, and if they don't, that just means they weren't ready for that and I'll just have to let them go and hope that they'll learn to be more understanding some other day.

I think the key is not to care. That can be really hard, but once again, ask yourself why you care, and when you find your answer, ask yourself why that is the case. It's probably something you've been taught by society, not something you've decided for yourself. What has been taught can be untaught, just by finding other ways to look at it. Perspective is everything.

Last night's meltdown may have gone against logic. Although I can reason that I have a differently wired brain (and I cannot control the wiring of my brain, not even with the BDNF theory) that processes information in a strange way, so my meltdown was a product of my biology and not my will.

I take vitamin B12 because I'm vegetarian, and I take vitamin D because I don't go out much and I live in cloudy England. I also take vitamin A/C/E and selenium complex for my immune system, and chromium for olanzapine-induced carbohydrate cravings. I get all these supplements from cheap, but safe sources.

I also need to work on controlling my emotions and thinking logically. I can know objectively that something isn't a big deal, but when I get upset it's hard to think straight--I just get caught up in the anger and pain.

It's ironic, though, because many of my meltdowns occur when other people say something illogical.

You can be correct, but unhelpful.
You can be smart, but unimaginative.
You can be logical, but offensive.
You can be knowledgeable about a great many things and still be ignorant of things that matter to people.
You can be thoughtful, but also wrong.