Published on 12, July, 2020
Example 1: At my last psych appointment the pdoc said I looked happy. I didn't think I was.
Example 2: Was recently seen at main hospital emergency department because of chest pains. Tests were ok, but BP was higher than normal . Had to go for follow up the next day . Doctor said it had been raised because I was anxious. Apparently my pulse rate was fast. I hadn't noticed I was anxious.
I don't think it happens all the time ie I sometimes know when I'm anxious etc .
My daughter struggles a bit with this she can recognise extreme emotions like anger but struggles to identify smaller ones like frustration it's all or nothing for her
Yes, that's exactly my experience. I'm aware of 'amygdala' type emotions - anger, fear etc (although often can't connect it to a cause) but have no idea what I'm feeling unless it's powerfully overwhelming. I'm not aware of my emotional responses to things happening in my environment. Even with strong emotions, if I'm not able to do anything about it, I'll 'switch it off'.
I was going to say similar, I tend to only feel very intense or extreme emotions. I tend to describe my usual ‘emotional’ state as comfortably numb, which to be honest is how I prefer it. Anger, fear or sadness are not pleasant to feel and I’ve come to learn and therefore expect that when I feel happy I will inevitably land with a bump soon after! I’ve also had to learn to read my behaviour to see if something is affecting me or not, if I start feeling like starting smoking again or drinking then something is affecting me, it’s then a case of working out what...
THANK YOU. THANK YOU!
Please teach more of these "Food Group" metaphors. "You" should create a website discussing this because I can't find these things on the Internet. I'd bet on you to become rich as someone will buy the website from you because there would be nothing like it. You could spread it through the very young educational systems.
That’s interesting. Suffering from psychosis is A LOT more common among people with ASD. Do you mind me asking your MH diagnosis?
Not so much with other ASD symptoms more with 'psychotic' symptoms such as paranoia.
Yeah that very agitated feeling is what I get when I’ve got a meltdown brewing. But I’ve learned to recognise it and to work out what’s causing it so I can either ‘manage’ my symptoms, if I can’t avoid the event that I am agitated about then I will engage in diversional activities (I was playing word Crossy on my mobile in between my two ASD assessments as I had nearly an hour in between, I was also doing breathing exercises) this will tend to reduce the intensity of the meltdown even though it may still happen. If I can avoid the activity that is causing agitation then I do so and thus avoid the meltdown.
The medication that you’re taking is quite effective at reducing agitation levels. Does it help you with any other symptoms?
I'm getting better at it all the time but still really crap at recognising that I'm stressed and taking timely action before melting down Even when I'm in a stressful life situation and melting down pretty much daily with continuous physical stress indicators for months on end I just keep trying to find a way to cope until I'm no longer able to function at all.
I'm not even sure I have 'meltdowns' . I used to become very agitated when overly stressed , and my irrationality level shot up. Since I've been on regular Risperdal Consta and now Paliperidone that's subsided a lot.
I’ve separated causes of my meltdowns into two separate categories 1. Is when I’m really really anxious about something. It doesn’t happen too often and I only learned what was happening on the day of my Autism assessment. Basically an impending event is causing me anxiety and I can now recognise this anxiety because I feel it physically (palpitations; restless; etc) I’m glad that I’ve learned to recognise it because more recently when I had a similar situation occur I was able to delay the event and avoid (or possibly just postpone) the inevitable meltdown. 2. Is when a situation just suddenly spirals completely out of my control, unfortunately in this case both the situation and the accompanying meltdown are not something that I am yet able to do anything about. Time will tell.
With feelings per se, as I’ve said, I’ve had to learn to read my behaviour. If I’m starting to hit the self destruct button then something is clearly upsetting me; If I’m wanting to shut myself away and not be around people then something is upsetting me; and yes it’s then a case of tracing back to work out what was the cause.
Yes, I often don't realise something is affecting me until I have a meltdown - then it's a case of trying to trace what's causing it. I did work out a bit of a system using a meditation app after a meltdown or when I get hyper-stressed - it asks you to label what you're feeling - well, I wish I knew! But then I noticed that when the app asks me this, sometimes I roll over onto my side and curl up in foetal position, sometimes I start to cry, sometimes I start kicking out with my legs. Just from cultural metaphors I'm inferring that foetal curl means vulnerable or anxious, crying means distress/loss/disappointment, kicking with legs means anger/panic. Once I've got the emotional 'food group' established, I can start tracking back likely causes of that kind of emotion in recent experience. I don't think I'm ever comfortably numb though, I always seem to have a background hum of anxiety and a sense of holding it together unless I'm taking time off work.