Does someone experience blunted or flat affect

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Doing the same thing over and over again is perseveration. And you can do it while expecting a different result. Perseveration in problem-solving has been observed often in autistic children at least.

I didn't say you couldn't. Doesn't mean it isn't insanity either.

No, but I don't think it really is insanity. It's an overly simplified definition that plays well as a soundbite, but doesn't even come close to addressing the diversity of presentations that mental illness can take.

Please notice the winkey-smiley, and dont start a whole other topic. If you feel it's grounds for a new topic, go ahead and start a new thread. Discussing what insanity is was not my intention, I simply tried to be funny.

That just is exactly it!
Sometimes I am much more able to fake it, and other times I come away from a social encounter feeling like a freak. It is indeed usually about energy levels.

Zel.

I believe I have a flat affect. I might be perfectly content, but people will ask me if I feel alright. If they continue to pester me it makes me cranky, which only validates their theory that I'm lying about feeling fine. Unless something intense happens - or it's all about one of my special interests - I don't generally feel emotions very strongly.

I can't get, and don't see the point of getting, emotional over small things. I bought a prepaid phone recently. With these it's luck of the draw what number you get. Mine just happened to be very easy to remember. The salesperson was so excited and expected me to be the same way. I was thinking, "Yeah, great, it's a number. It's a good number, but honestly, does it really deserve that much fanfare?"

In some cases I have learned to "translate" what I'm feeling with appropriate expressions. I'll usually only do this in social interactions that matter because it's tiring to be acting all the time.

Digressions happen sometimes.

I'm the same. I think it's more than depression because even when I'm happy I'm very monotone and don't show much emotion.

Thank you all for the answers. I'll go to an autism specialist soon, hope he will clarify my situation.

That is so similar to me, it kinds of freaks me out. My family will sometimes ask me what's wrong and keep insisting it's something just because of how my expression is, which if I'm not paying attention tends to do its own thing. Apparently sometimes I get a grumpy look and sometimes I smirk for no reason, not even realizing I do it, and get grilled as to what I'm thinking or feeling at the moment, even when it's something as simple as I'm staring at a commercial on TV and blanking out. I also have this really annoying tick where I kind of chuckle in the back of my throat, which I didn't realize I did until my partner pointed it out to me a few months ago. I apparently do it all the time and sometimes when other people hear it they ask "what's so funny?" The frequency greatly increases if I'm in a nervous situation, so I now find myself concentrating like crazy when I'm in public, like when I'm in line at the grocery store, trying to not make this chuckle in the back of my throat for no reason. Which just makes those situations all the more stressful because I'm never sure if I'm actually succeeding at suppressing it.

I sometimes do this, too! I live a lot inside my own head. Sometimes something as simply as turning a movie around in an ironic way.

Maybe short deflecting comments such as 'I was remembering a movie.'

I like my sense of humor. And sure, I realize other people have different senses of humor and their own sense of humor, and that's fine, too.

My advice is to prepare medium, maybe one side of one piece of paper on what you think the main reasons are, maybe also a print out of the test which you took.

But then don't do any more preparation the couple of days immediately before the appointment, because you don't want to be emotionally over-invested. The guy or gal might only be medium good, which I guess is part of life, too. And some professionals think the diagnosis is the main or only thing, and don't really teach skills.

I think professionals are merely one resource among many. Books are another resource, and right here on WP is yet another. In the future, I hope we have Spectrum resource centers which provide a variety of help and assistance and also help advocate for the Civil Rights of those of us on the Aspergers-Autism Spectrum. The UK might be starting to do a little bit of this. Perhaps here in the States, we're three to five years away.

Yeah, I think I have flattened affect too. I sometimes get asked if I'm upset or angry or something, when I'm feeling perfectly fine. I sometimes joke that I'd make a terrible game show contestant because I don't usually get too outwardly excited about stuff.

I get 'calm down' when I am actually fine at the moment.

I get told I look angry, when infact I'm not. I have also noticed sometimes when I smile and nod in a conversation it has suddenly taken a wrong turn, and I realize I'm suppose to look sad or show them pity. I think I often I change my facialexpression too slow. When I do it a few seconds too late it might look really weird.