Emotional Response to Media?

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When I watch television or a movie sometimes I get very emotional. It usually seems to be in response to family dynamics between the characters. I'm not certain why I respond so strongly at these times. I don't have the same types of reactions when I'm in my own dynamics with family. It can happen with music too. My father and I went out one day. I don't remember why. When he was dropping me off at my apartment the song on the radio was Cats in the Cradle and I began to feel extremely emotional. I'm not quite certain what the emotions I'm feeling are but they are very strong when things like this happen. They seem closer to happiness than sadness but I don't cry when I'm happy so I think happiness is unlikely.

Does anything like this ever happen to you?

Maybe it's because when you're watching a movie, that's all you're concentrating on. In real life, you have a lot of things to deal with at once. BTW, I'm the exact same way when watching movies.

I sometimes freak out totally over some stuff i see in the news etc. Its mostly that i see something that cause me so much pain that i cant sleep cause i cant stop thinking about it. Like i remember a few cases (most involved child abuse, wont go into detail) that caused me to not be able to sleep properly for weeks. Most people forget things like this, but i dont. They stay with me, and sometimes... they come back and make me feel just as bad again.

I get this way, too. Several times during the Long Distance Dedication of the America's Top 40 radio broadcast, my dad and I were practically weeping at a few of the stories and song requests.

I'm quite easily emotionally affected by media. Many a time I've been moved to tears or near-tears by the poignancy of even the most silly of TV-shows/films.

But there's a special kind of emotional response saved only for the media relating to my obsessions/special interests. Things that happen within that select set of media has the power to influence me far more deeply than anything else.

Sometimes just thinking on it too much can make me cry, lose sleep, even feel physically nauseous and have stomach pains. It can play on my mind over and over, and I can't think of anything else. It can be gutwrenching and feel absolutely real to me.

It does make me wonder what proportion of Otakukin/Fictionkin are Aspies... Having an incredibly real sense of certain media, experiencing it that strongly, where it pretty much IS real because it feels that way so deeply.

(Otakukin - people who believe they were/are a fictional character or that they have a link to a fictional world).

I think the fact that a television show or movie is designed to influence the emotions of the viewer. They use aspects of camera perspective, background music, pacing of the scene, actors who are deliberately trying to show emotion that will be understood. Being able to focus on the show and more passively observe all these aspect add up to make it more likely for people with AS to get the intended feelings. In real life you don't get the cinematic pacing with musical accompaniment to prepare you for the upcoming emotional moment.

Thus I feel more emotions from watching a show because it is designed to do exactly that. I also am able to take a much more passive and thus relaxed role in watching a show than real life, so I am more sensitive to the emotions that I feel.

Actually, what happened on 9/11 affects me to this day. I still have nightmares involving planes crashing into skyscrapers. I also hate the people who say America deserved it. My whole world view has changed after that day.

The USA is not exactly angelic, but no one deserves a 9/11 scenario. Not innocent people ...

I was playing an RPG videogame (Suikoden 4) recently and I was so sad when one of my characters died...I normally would not be emotionally attached but this time around each of your recruits had a touching backstory

I didn't shed a single tear when my father died.
But earlier this year when I watched a tv show called skins, the father of one of the characters died, and I burst into tears. Cried for at least a half hour. it was definitely because of my father. I'm glad I was watching it alone, or I would've looked like a pansy.

I would have understood. I wouldn't have thought you a pansy.

Sometimes, for me, grief gets delayed, and then released later on. I have had the experience described by the Daewoodrow, and realized that I was finally grieving over something. The movie coaxed the grieving out, I guess. Maybe processing time was a little longer than expected.

Lightning and kclark,

I've had very similar thoughts about why it might have that effect. I am concentrating entirely on that at the time, it is passive observation and it is crafted to evoke emotion.

I do wonder what this type of a response says about aspie emotion in general. If anything it seems more intense than what NT's tend to feel.

i'm sure it's the music and angles and such, as others have said.

but, yeah, i'm a total sap when it comes to movies and shows.



if i watch les mis, i start crying when fantine dies and i don't stop til the end.

i cried, sobbed at Hook!

i cry at the start of Sound of Music. and the end of the 1982 version of Annie, which is such a horrible, over thetop version of that show, but i still sob at the end.

and the end of Ghost - well, it was embarassing to say the least.


but, yeah, i didn't cry when i miscarried or any of my grandparents or aunts or uncles died or my husband was in the hospital or any of that.