Do you find that you are more sensitive to emotional things?

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Hi, I just wanted to ask if anyone reacted to reacting to things a lot more strongly than neurotypicals tend to. For example, while I find my neurotypical friends obviously get upset and anxious if someone doesn't like them but to me, it drives me insane and sometimes makes me suicidal. Another example is a friend suddenly cut me off and I feel like the normal response would be to be upset and maybe cry a little then move on. It has been weeks and I am still getting nightmares and keep on feeling like I will have a panic attack when I see people that look like them which is a WAY more dramatic reaction than what would be expected :'). Do you relate to having reactions to these things a lot stronger than most people? It'd be nice to know it isn't just me because I find it so embarrassing ;-;

I don't generally react to things that strongly. This is learned behaviour.

I do find it hard to let things go though when I don't understand them. I will go over them again and again in a useless loop trying to work it out, but I don't have the information that would answer the question. e.g. being cut off without knowing why. It's more the puzzle than the fact it happened though I think.

Yes, I react really strongly to rejection as well. I believe this is because most NT-s when they get rejected by 1 person, they have a bunch of other people to fall back on, while I don't. What is the most frustrating about it is that most NT-s don't realize that I get emotionally hurt. Quite the opposite, they assume I have no emotions. Yet, at the same time, they fully acknowledge I am obsessing about it -- in fact they get frustrated by my obsessing. So what I don't understand is how can they even conceptualize the idea that I would obsess over something that I PRESUMABLY don't feel? Yet thats exactly how they perceive me. And that feels very frustrating since I don't get emotional support I so badly need.

Apart from that, I also feel bad for flowers. So if I were to buy a flower I would buy the one in soil rather than cut one. I also noticed some things are sold in soil that are meant for food. But I decided to buy them and grow them instead of eating them. I also feel bad for flowers on the road and take them off the road so that the car won't drive over them, and even try to plant them in the soil nearby if nobody is looking. I don't do that good of a job of it, just a gesture, but that clears my consciousness. I also noticed that my mom used a thing that looked like duck face for soap. I felt bad for it constantly having soap in its eyes, so when I was going back to school, I sneaked it out into my bag in order to rescue it from my mom.

I can definitely relate.
About a year ago a colleague suddenly stopped greeting me, and seemed to avoid me. Previously (for a couple of years) she had been really nice and social.
And I overreacted, or did I?
It still hurts, and has scarred me. We weren't friends but it seemed to me like we got along fine.
It takes me back to school, where I didn't get to play with the other kids...
Breaks my self confidence.

/Mats

I do tend to overanalyze things and feel hurt easily. But my mum has always been the same and she's neurotypical but with anxiety. So it might be an anxiety/depression thing, being oversensitive.

I not only overanalyze, I also underanalyze.

/Mats

look up trauma and hyper vigilance... being on a high state of alert for anything and everything all senses and emotions always ready to blast off, fight, flight, not as often freeze and fawn (appeasement). I call it 'stampede mode" and I have been that way most of my life. abusive punishment before I could even speak hard wired me and although I am much better now, it is still how I have spent most of my life. Fear has been the predominant feeling I have experienced all my long years. Are you anxious and fearful, have you suffered trauma? I understand almost all the Why questions from my past now I am beginning to understand my autism and how it worked in my life all along without my knowing or even having a clue. Best wishes

I am also extremely analytical. I analyze everything all the time. I need to do that to survive. I have to analyze to make sense of everything in my life. But I also am very emotionally affected and can be extremely emotional. I am also an empath. So it's an interesting combination.

Sorta, it happens in a box and if I pay attention to the box I am, if I ignore it I'm not.