Emotions and Therapy

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There is a stereotype about people with asperger's, that they lack emotions. While this is clearly false, I think it is partially true for me. While I don't completely lack emotions, I certainly experience fewer (less variety, less intensity, less often) than most people seem to. The concept of a 'meltdown' is completely foreign to me, losing control over ones thoughts, actions, judgements etc. to ones emotional state is difficult to comprehend. I know that many aspergians don't share this with me, but are there many out there who do?

I've been seeing a psychologist recently (the same one who diagnosed me) who has been trying to get me to get more in touch with my emotions, she seems to think that I'm unaware of/out of touch with/repressing my more complex and intense emotions as opposed simply not having them at all. She has given me tasks such as keeping a diary recording my emotions, labelling them, rating them for intensity, things I think is probably quite simple for most people but which I find very difficult. I don't really see the purpose of any of it. Is there anyone who has had similar experiences with mental health professionals? Anyone who is perhaps further along the same process? At this point I'm probably going to stop seeing her soon as I can't see the purpose or usefulness of anything she has me doing.

I am exactly the same way. I had a therapist do the same notebook thing that your's is having you do, except mine would have me record events as I perceived them, and convince me that I had emotional responses in them. As it turns out she was right, I do have emotions, but after I stopped seeing her, I went back to my old ways and shut out my emotions like before. Emotions are dumb. Maybe you will be emotionally awakened as I was, and then fall back asleep like I have.

Yes i do the same thing , i have to write down thoughts and emotions and rate how strong they are percentage wise. Although i don't lack emotions and know this , i can feel happiness and equally despair. I am also seeing a physcologist , but i am nearly finished with him , fingers crossed everything will remain fine from now on after a bad summer.

I seem to have less of the positive emotions....Either I am feeling negative emotions or feeling more numb.

Be glad that you don't because it is miserable.
I am the opposite and my emotions are destroying my life.

I found more people here say they do have emotions than not. I have appropriate reactions, and expressions of emotions, more than I feel them. I'm not insincere though, if I sympathise with someone, it's because I understand their situation.

I usually find it really hard having to write down things that are positive and sometimes they don't make any sense. My mind can just go over some of the everyday things and not see them as positives , this is until someone points them out to me and even then i don't easily accept the positives.

I'm kind of the same way, I certainly have emotions but they're a lot more subdued than I presume most people experience, most of the time I just feel 'flat' (not in a bad way, perhaps stable is a better word). I actually practised facial expressions in the mirror so I'd seem a little less robotic to NTs. Plus emotions seem to be fairly optional, say I'm outside and it starts raining, the normal reaction is to hunch up, get annoyed/rush etc. I found you can just turn these reactions off everything stops bothering you (can do the same thing with cold/pain etc).

There's a weird condition called 'alexithymia' (lit. lack of words for the soul) where you experience emotions but can't label them as such. Say you feel anxiety, you wouldn't recognise it as anxiety you may think there's something phsyically wrong with you. Apparently it's more common in autistic individuals, some of the descriptions of it certainly sounded familiar for me.