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fabricated emotions

aurelis

Hey,

Something I've noticed more recently is how fabricated my emotions feel. Although I'm coming out of a burnout, I feel as if for the longest time, I've not had the emotional response to the things that should have an emotional response. Something I've noticed is that I feel I have to be feel more of an emotion than I actually do.

I've had things that I've done that people would say 'wow'!, but I feel as if I have to create an emotional response that corresponds to being happy, because I don't feel that way. Or people have strong opinions about things in politics or socially, and I want to be able to feel as passionate about that, but I don't feel that unless I fabricate an emotion to feel that way, and that's not real.

However, only after coming out of this burnout, I'm hoping I can allow myself to feel emotions more and take my time with them than force how I feel on something. Anyone relate?

Parents

  • Depression stops you having emotions, as does trauma and burnout. I had all three in Jan and I could feel little. I was numb.

    It is also possible in autism to not be closely in touch with emotions generally. So normal level emotions don't register. It is only strong ones that do.

    I read negative emotions are stronger than positive ones, I am not sure if this is true but it makes some sense. E.g. if you are enjoying some honey and a tiger comes up, fear and running away have to be above the desire to eat more honey and get killed.

    You tend to have stronger views about things you understand, are interested in,  or know lots about. If you don't take an interest in politics or understand it you will not have any passion for it.

  • in reply to Stuart333

    thank you for this reply, sorry I've replied so late. It's mainly the strong negative emotions that I feel. Any of the strong positive emotions I feel I somewhat suppress more heavily. I can come across as chill and non-chalant, but this is definitely not the case. I think I have a conversation with someone and it is my objective to find out what they like and try to relate in their area as much as possible. I do more listening, and then I often feel afterwards that 'I need to know more about that thing so I can relate to them more in the next convo'. It's exhausting. Did you get out of your depression, and/or do you feel your emotions now, or feel them more or less than in Jan?

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  • in reply to Stuart333

    thank you for this reply, sorry I've replied so late. It's mainly the strong negative emotions that I feel. Any of the strong positive emotions I feel I somewhat suppress more heavily. I can come across as chill and non-chalant, but this is definitely not the case. I think I have a conversation with someone and it is my objective to find out what they like and try to relate in their area as much as possible. I do more listening, and then I often feel afterwards that 'I need to know more about that thing so I can relate to them more in the next convo'. It's exhausting. Did you get out of your depression, and/or do you feel your emotions now, or feel them more or less than in Jan?

Children
  • in reply to aurelis
    aurelis said:
    It's mainly the strong negative emotions that I feel.

    This is a reflection of the way our brains have evolved. Fear is the most primitive emotion and is very much a survival instinct.

    Emotions are controlled by a small part of the brain called the amigdala and it is a part that has been with us since early on in evolution - often referred to as the "lizard brain" as it is shared with all species back to reptiles.

    The most deep rooted emotions are fear, anger, pleasure and anxiety so we tend to be able to feel these most readily. The simple fact you are feeling some of them implies that you are having the emotions but are having a harder time getting the higher functions of the brain to interprit them.

    There is an interesting article on this here:

    https://www.verywellmind.com/the-role-of-the-amygdala-in-human-behavior-and-emotion-7499223

    I was able to work through my emotional blocking issues with my therapist using initially the emotion wheel diagram to help me assign a name to what I was actually feeling, then a lot of talking therapy to really feel comfortable relating to them.