Hi. I cannot fully articulate what I want to say so I will start with this question. How do I correctly process emotions, specifically guilt and shame over doing something wrong, without acting like a professional victim?
Hi. I cannot fully articulate what I want to say so I will start with this question. How do I correctly process emotions, specifically guilt and shame over doing something wrong, without acting like a professional victim?
I found a good way was to start with identifying the emotions I was feeling and once I could "label" them it meant I could more easily explain them to both myself and others.
There is a diagram called the Emotion Wheel which is a simple tool to help start doing this:
click on it to enlarge it.
The processing of the emotions is possibly something that will feel more intuitive once you understand what they are, but if you struggle with this then I would recommend getting a therapist who is experienced with helping autists and work through it with them - this is something they should be trained to do and will offer confidentiality to help you avoid the shame.
It takes time - for me was a few weeks to identify emotions clearly and months to be able to articulate them. To identify and process other peoples emotions took longer still but I am much better at this now.
I found a good way was to start with identifying the emotions I was feeling and once I could "label" them it meant I could more easily explain them to both myself and others.
There is a diagram called the Emotion Wheel which is a simple tool to help start doing this:
click on it to enlarge it.
The processing of the emotions is possibly something that will feel more intuitive once you understand what they are, but if you struggle with this then I would recommend getting a therapist who is experienced with helping autists and work through it with them - this is something they should be trained to do and will offer confidentiality to help you avoid the shame.
It takes time - for me was a few weeks to identify emotions clearly and months to be able to articulate them. To identify and process other peoples emotions took longer still but I am much better at this now.
