Inappropriate emotions, not feeling anything

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GreenGrrl
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22 Aug 2009, 6:27 am

Does anyone not feel any emotions when you should, or feel the wrong emotions, etc?

I never feel sad at funerals (even ones for my close relatives I knew well) but I bawled my eyes out (metaphorically, of course) when I lost my favourite hat, and I couldn't stop laughing when I found out that my uncle committed suicide :oops: . I feel like such a horrible person :cry:
Anybody with similar problems?


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mechanicalgirl39
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22 Aug 2009, 6:51 am

I sometimes fail to feel compassion or sadness.

I remember a kid telling me she was upset and I should have felt compassionate and reassured her, but I just thought 'Ugh! Get your horrid icky emotions away from me!'

I also sometimes feel the wrong emotions for the context. I'm sometimes excited by morbid things. Once I was scheduled to have surgery on a blocked gland in my eyelid...and I was really looking forward to it. (I didn't end up having this done, it unblocked on its own, which I was disappointed about.) I was like a little excited kid at the idea of detergent smells and white walls and a surgeon doing something to my eye.

The downside of that is I sometimes feel that for others, though. Which I know is wrong, and I can mostly condition myself out of it...


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22 Aug 2009, 7:28 am

mechanicalgirl39 wrote:
I sometimes fail to feel compassion or sadness.

I remember a kid telling me she was upset and I should have felt compassionate and reassured her, but I just thought 'Ugh! Get your horrid icky emotions away from me!'

I also sometimes feel the wrong emotions for the context. I'm sometimes excited by morbid things. Once I was scheduled to have surgery on a blocked gland in my eyelid...and I was really looking forward to it. (I didn't end up having this done, it unblocked on its own, which I was disappointed about.) I was like a little excited kid at the idea of detergent smells and white walls and a surgeon doing something to my eye.

The downside of that is I sometimes feel that for others, though. Which I know is wrong, and I can mostly condition myself out of it...


I can relate to both of those! Once my friend had an argument with her mum while I was in the shower, when I went back to her room she was crying or just had been. I didn't know what to do or how to comfort her, I just said "I have loads of arguments with my mum" and then an awkward "heh heh..heh" in an attempt to reassure. But she was still upset so I stood there thinking "stop it stop it!" When she finally cheered up I was very relieved.
And about the hospital one, when I broke my arm when I was 7 I went to the hospital over night. Anyway I found the whole thing exciting especially being wheeled on the big bed. When I had to go home the next day I couldn't stop crying.


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WoodenNickel
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22 Aug 2009, 9:24 am

Natural death provokes absolutely no emotion in me. I think that has something to do with lacking empathy.


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22 Aug 2009, 12:14 pm

WoodenNickel wrote:
Natural death provokes absolutely no emotion in me. I think that has something to do with lacking empathy.
Or simply not enjoying life very much.



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22 Aug 2009, 12:28 pm

Differentiate between inappropriate expression of emotion and lack of feeling certain emotions, or being aware that you're feeling them.

I've not displayed the appropriate emotions (as defined by NTs) in a wide variety of situations, and I've been told I have a limited emotional range by many people, too. Both are probably accurate, up to a point.

But I certainly have emotions, even if I'm not particularly aware of them, don't express them in a timely or typical manner, and may not have the depth or breadth of emotions many people have. I tend to experience my emotions in my body more than in my mind. I won't consciously be aware that I'm angry or afraid, but I'll have the physical manifestations of those emotions. So I'm trying to learn to read my body as an indicator of my emotional state, which is more useful when reviewing a situation than when I'm in the middle of one.



b9
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22 Aug 2009, 12:39 pm

when i was told a friend of mine had committed suicide, i felt like a steak sandwich.

i guess that is inappropriate.



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22 Aug 2009, 1:19 pm

b9 wrote:
when i was told a friend of mine had committed suicide, i felt like a steak sandwich.

i guess that is inappropriate.

What does that feel like? I'm not sure if that is good or bad.



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22 Aug 2009, 1:49 pm

WOW! You have no idea! A couple months ago we almost wrecked and I laughed. We had to give away a dog we owned (which ellicted no emotional response) but IMO come one she made the other dog probably blind in one eye and she'd fight with her and the other dogs constantly so the blind eye was just a matter of time unforutanently. I also tend not to care about people being upset etc. (Thankfully I understood a little bit about my emotional response so I stood outside the curtain while my sister was in labor)



gramirez
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22 Aug 2009, 2:37 pm

I felt nothing when my aunt died a long and painful death. :?


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timeisdead
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22 Aug 2009, 3:07 pm

When I was told my grandfather was going to die, I cried on and off for days until his actual death. However, on the day of his death, I didn't cry at all. Perhaps I was preemptively grieving to prepare myself for the inevitable. Perhaps it was because I had the chance to say goodbye while others were in denial and pretended that everything was OK.



dadsgotas
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22 Aug 2009, 3:16 pm

I think I have the same emotions as everyone else, although sometimes in response to different stimuli: I feel much the same about castles, for instance, as most British men do about football. However, I don't understand why most people seem so helpless in the face of their own emotions, forever bleating and blathering about how enormously they feel. I simply can't believe they feel that intensely about a television programme, or whatever it might be.

A possible exception is death. When I was a child, receiving a broadly Christian upbringing (I got better), I was mystified when people mourned, because wasn't going to Heaven supposed to be a good thing? It still bemuses me when people grieve where personal loss isn't a factor. It's absolutely guaranteed that thousands of people die every day; how is it different if it happens to be someone whose name you knew?

At the same time, I don't think "normal" people are entirely honest in their expressions of feeling. I don't think all those people in vox-pops on TV, who wailed that "Princess Diana was my friend" when actually, she never knew these people existed, were actually as mentally-ill as such behaviour suggests; I think they were grieving because everyone else was.

I think that sometimes, people feel what they think they should.



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22 Aug 2009, 3:19 pm

My emotion chip is malfunctioning, Captain. I can look at a situation and know what I should be feeling, but not actually feel it. Or, I get overwhelmed with emotion when something may not necessarily be that moving or sad. I always get very emotional when watching something like What Dreams May Come or The Fountain, but if someone I know is crying, a void just opens up and I get very uncomfortable. I know I don't like to be touched when I'm upset, so I would think it's probably best to give others the same respect.

An ex of mine, for my birthday, made me a CD of her singing two Sarah McLachlan songs. I love Sarah McLachlan, so it made me cry. I think she was definitely weirded out by that.

I think back on life and realize that I've said a lot of strange things from not knowing what to say, but saying whatever seemed to make sense in the moment; and expressed only extremities of emotion, or none at all. Then I found out about AS. I just wish I would have known a long time go.


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idiocratik
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22 Aug 2009, 3:20 pm

dadsgotas wrote:
I think I have the same emotions as everyone else, although sometimes in response to different stimuli: I feel much the same about castles, for instance, as most British men do about football. However, I don't understand why most people seem so helpless in the face of their own emotions, forever bleating and blathering about how enormously they feel. I simply can't believe they feel that intensely about a television programme, or whatever it might be.

A possible exception is death. When I was a child, receiving a broadly Christian upbringing (I got better), I was mystified when people mourned, because wasn't going to Heaven supposed to be a good thing? It still bemuses me when people grieve where personal loss isn't a factor. It's absolutely guaranteed that thousands of people die every day; how is it different if it happens to be someone whose name you knew?

At the same time, I don't think "normal" people are entirely honest in their expressions of feeling. I don't think all those people in vox-pops on TV, who wailed that "Princess Diana was my friend" when actually, she never knew these people existed, were actually as mentally-ill as such behaviour suggests; I think they were grieving because everyone else was.

I think that sometimes, people feel what they think they should.


I know exactly what you mean.


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mechanicalgirl39
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22 Aug 2009, 5:06 pm

MONKEY wrote:
mechanicalgirl39 wrote:
I sometimes fail to feel compassion or sadness.

I remember a kid telling me she was upset and I should have felt compassionate and reassured her, but I just thought 'Ugh! Get your horrid icky emotions away from me!'

I also sometimes feel the wrong emotions for the context. I'm sometimes excited by morbid things. Once I was scheduled to have surgery on a blocked gland in my eyelid...and I was really looking forward to it. (I didn't end up having this done, it unblocked on its own, which I was disappointed about.) I was like a little excited kid at the idea of detergent smells and white walls and a surgeon doing something to my eye.

The downside of that is I sometimes feel that for others, though. Which I know is wrong, and I can mostly condition myself out of it...


I can relate to both of those! Once my friend had an argument with her mum while I was in the shower, when I went back to her room she was crying or just had been. I didn't know what to do or how to comfort her, I just said "I have loads of arguments with my mum" and then an awkward "heh heh..heh" in an attempt to reassure. But she was still upset so I stood there thinking "stop it stop it!" When she finally cheered up I was very relieved.
And about the hospital one, when I broke my arm when I was 7 I went to the hospital over night. Anyway I found the whole thing exciting especially being wheeled on the big bed. When I had to go home the next day I couldn't stop crying.


YAY I'm not the only one!

Yet on the other hand, I'm not entirely cold, I just have a different reaction to others. I did break down and cry pretty badly when my pet cat was put down. Go figure. O_O


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22 Aug 2009, 9:47 pm

timeisdead wrote:
When I was told my grandfather was going to die, I cried on and off for days until his actual death. However, on the day of his death, I didn't cry at all. Perhaps I was preemptively grieving to prepare myself for the inevitable. Perhaps it was because I had the chance to say goodbye while others were in denial and pretended that everything was OK.


That happened to me 18 months ago! My grandfather died from a terrible and drawn out disease similar to lupus, and I cried a week straight before he died. But once he actually died, I wasn't sad any more. In fact, I had a hankering for chili fries and a pepsi. I had the munchies during a two hour funeral... All the snack table had was various cheeses, grapes, wines, and devilled egg things. That just doesn't do much when you want chili fries. :lol: