Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello, I'm reaching out here after doing a lot of reading and talking with a friend that has ASD. I'm a 35 year old guy that has struggled a lot with trying to get into work ever since leaving University in my early 20s, and I have been operating from a diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder for most of that time from my GP. I have had problems long before that including IBS ever since starting secondary school but until very recently I never suspected that it could be anything other than just me being bad at coping with stuff that everyone deals with. Thanks to nudging from my friend I have done a lot of reading over the last couple of weeks and from everything I saw about other peoples accounts everything I have experienced in life just clicked. I have a lot of examples of things that suddenly made sense and will happily go into them if people want but for now I'd rather ask a question if I may. Both me and my friend have had very similar issues and strategies for coping, and whilst she has had a diagnosis her support ended there and so she is unsure of the answer to this.
I am aware that the thing about lacking emotion or empathy is a complete myth but I was wondering: Is it a thing to be so acutely aware of others emotional states that you are very easily affected just by the perceived mood of others? (in my case I seem to be particularly sensitive to tone of voice). I have found that I am extremely susceptible to negative emotions in particular, when people sound depressed I feel sad and depressed myself, and anger provokes a feeling ranging from discomfort to outright fear depending on how hard the edge in someones voice is, the volume and if they are banging stuff around. The fear isn't out of any expectation of harm or anything as people in my life never pose a physical threat, I just mean people dealing with day to day frustrations and their own problems. I feel a lot and with great depth but REALLY suck at showing it. I guess the essence of what I am asking is can being extremely sensitive to emotional input be a thing in the same way that people can be hypersensitive to sound or light etc?
I have an appointment booked with my GP to discuss everything and ask for a referral in early January, but until I can get the process going I need some kind of answers to things that have bugged me my whole life if that ok.
Post diagnostic support seems to be lacking for adults unfortunately. It also seems to depend on where you live. I've only just been diagnosed so I don't really know the answer either. Others may be able to tell you more.
It's interesting what you say about being sensitive to emotion. It's not something I experience myself. Some of the children I work with mimic negative emotions and get upset themselves if someone is upset. I wonder if this is a similar thing.