Heightened emotions

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Since turning 21, I’ve felt my emotions are much more substantial. For example, when Trump won the election, I got so angry that I stayed in a brooding mood for almost a whole day. When I made a massive mistake on something for my mom, I had to fight back tears after disagreeing with my family.

Is this a good thing, or is this bad?

It is neither good nor bad. It just is what it is. It's okay to feel large emotions. That is very common in Autism. Just feel them. Allow yourself to and know that it's ok. Don't act on them, just allow them to run their course and when they are done, they will leave. Don't be afraid of feeling large emotions. As long as you don't act on them, they will not hurt you or anyone else. I also feel extraordinarily massive emotions. I just understand that it's normal for me and I don't have to let them control what I do or think. I just feel them, acknowledge them, honor their presence, and they stop when I have felt them completely. There is no good or bad in what you feel. It just is what it is.

It sounds like it would be a frustrating thing to deal with, especially if it's mostly confined to the negative ones.

A lot of people had a lot of emotions that impaired them for a lot more than one day about Trump winning.

Anger and frustration can result from that which was unexpected.

I don't think that for me it's quite as how you describe, but I do tend to feel things strongly and get upset easily. I feel uneasy and anxious even when things are more or less okay, and then when something actually happens that is upsetting it feels overwhelming.

for many autistic individuals even recognizing their emotions is difficult. Since you have grown up, do you find it easier to find and express your emotions ?

Learning healthy ways to deal with our emotions is often not learned in family situations. Learning how to express emotions or "what to do with them" can take a while but may be helped by therapy or counseling. There are many good articles all over the internet dealing with emotional "how to" stuff.

I did not begin to recognize my emotions at all until after the age of 30. I was able to learn to express emotions in healthy ways once I began to recognize them. It can take time.

Its OK to feel emotions, something I learned in therapy.

Until I was fully adult I was punished for showing any emotions such as anger, frustration, disappointment, envy, resentment, etc. It all came out as tears. When I cried I was punished for that too. No wonder I was constantly in distress.

Each person's experiences will be different.

Some things you might want to explore would be "emotion wheels" which show in graph form how emotions are related to each other and help define the specific feelings we may be having at any time.

Cheering you on, do your best self care. Its OK to feel emotions, they are signals to yourself that you can learn to interpret and see how it might apply to any situation where strong emotions show themselves.

Learn all you can and get a good coach if you continue to struggle with "what to do" with your strong emotions. There are many techniques that can be learned to help yourself deal with any sort of emotional overwhelm and to understand their meaning. Its a lot to sort. Hang in there!

To the Original Poster I apologize for being too dismissive.

I think it is a good thing. Knowing yourself better is a positive. Autistic people do tend to have trouble expressing and understanding their emotions. Also Autistic people like the general population evolve and mature. While maturation is a natural process life’s events and experiences are important to the evolution of who we are. In your case it was apparently Trump’s reelection that helped you feel and understand your own emotions.

Autisticelders, it is so horrible that you were punished for showing such emotions. It's great that you are able to recognize and express them now.

My emotions can be very heightened sometimes. There are certain things that have an effect on my emotions. Certain songs and movies. I cried after watching Forest Gump.