Emotion

Yes.

The inability to identify emotions is called Alexithymia. 

Due to our different Salience Network, we sense-perceive things with intensity as we don't dull out / filter the same as non-autistic or non-ADHD peers. So the world feels 'too real'.

But Autists have this added *bonus* of a difficulty with vocabulary -and so expanding one's internal dictionary can help. 

Emotions are the response to a logic formula which might add a belief or bias/perception or understanding of a thing to an action or impact. If I'm in the kitchen and it begins to rain, and I've had multiple instances where I've been unprepared for the rain and also grown up with parents who continue to tell me it's bad luck, I might subconsciously assign an unsatisfying judgement to the day which will trigger the response of an appropriate emotion. I might not recognise it, but the expression might come out in various ways such as suddenly making tea and deciding to binge watch gardening shows, suddenly having an 'urge' to avoid work related matters. 

Logic is simply the study of how humans Reason, how an argument or judgement or evaluation is created in the mind. If you can begin to ask yourself, what is happening around me, how am I impacted (a change in weather/barometer  might genuinely affect our heart rate or blood pressure for instance) and what I believe to be true or false about the situation, this will help.

Now, someone hitting us is another matter as it is a more simplistic impact. But everything requires context. A child hitting us doesn't tend to have a larger consequence and might actually create a sense of responsibly if they're in distress. A random stranger is a different matter. 

Hopefully this will help. I started thinking about this when young and taking a little symbolic logic at Uni greatly helped. But eventually learning that we can Create our Feelings with actions (deliberately investing time into someone or doing a thing for someone can ignite a deep concern for instance). I don't always notice mine, but I've learned to value self-care in practical ways, as much of my younger years were so muddled with frustration that compounded everything else. Learning to value being kind to the self helped me identify others who value kindness to their selves and others, which meant I could choose better friends and so on. We may not be able to ID our emotions, but putting rules and boundaries in place can mean we have far less complex ones overwhelming us.

Thanks for this response, this has given me plenty to look into further.

For me I have a bodily response to emotion. Often, negative emotions cause my Crohn's to flare up, which is a very real response (I won't go into detail), so it's involuntary which is why it causes me so many problems

I can imagine - negative emotions cause stress. They should. It helps us recognise something is wrong and needs fixing. Stress in micro-amounts is meant to help keep us safe and help us grow. But when we lack tools, resources, education or help to overcome the problem, it essentially makes the stress worse. 

Stress which isn't paid attention or isn't resolved will eventually tax the body, just like stress can tax anything - a bridge, for example. Over time this produces further problems. 

Take on one thing at a time. I found that once I started changing my immediate environment and undergo actions of self-care (vitamins, minding health, a walk a day) this then began to give me space to focus on larger issues taxing my emotions. 

The more we invest in our soul, the better we expect from others and the better we also treat others. Afford yourself time to become more in tune with your own needs and desires. "What do you want?" This is a fantastic question that really helped me make some grounding change. I now want us all to be good to ourselves. Autistics have MUCH to offer society :) 

I can imagine - negative emotions cause stress. They should. It helps us recognise something is wrong and needs fixing. Stress in micro-amounts is meant to help keep us safe and help us grow. But when we lack tools, resources, education or help to overcome the problem, it essentially makes the stress worse. 

Stress which isn't paid attention or isn't resolved will eventually tax the body, just like stress can tax anything - a bridge, for example. Over time this produces further problems. 

Take on one thing at a time. I found that once I started changing my immediate environment and undergo actions of self-care (vitamins, minding health, a walk a day) this then began to give me space to focus on larger issues taxing my emotions. 

The more we invest in our soul, the better we expect from others and the better we also treat others. Afford yourself time to become more in tune with your own needs and desires. "What do you want?" This is a fantastic question that really helped me make some grounding change. I now want us all to be good to ourselves. Autistics have MUCH to offer society :)