Delayed emotional reaction

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Could that be related to Asperger? Confronted with things that should provoke a strong emotional reaction, like dealing with aggressive people, emergency situations, accidents, even the death of a loved one... I usually don't react right away. I mean, I do what's needed to be done on the spot, but I will feel the blow hours later... Sometimes a day or two later... Is this common?

I'm similar, I either react so weakly that it looks like I don't care or there is nothing. I have experienced death and graduation that should of had a very contrasting reaction to.

I dunno if it's a thing, but I was just pondering it today with my delayed reaction to stress.

It's definitely a positive, I have a high-stress, high-intensity, life-or-death sort of job. During, for instance, a cardiac arrest or other life-threatening situation, I'm pretty calm and collected. Then I'll head home and the twitches will start...

Kind of similar. I basically have no panic reaction for actual danger. Being able to leap straight into action has been a literal life-saver.

I only get the twitchy feeling afterward if it was a really stressful event. Once or twice ever really.

Social panic is a frequent thing on the other hand.

It can certainly be a good thing, in emergency situations, or I can think of meetings in highly conflictual situations when colleagues thought I was being too soft with people that were clearly being disrespectful... Well, in that case, I'm not sure if it's good or bad...

Or like recently when my son had an accident... We spent the entire day at the hospital, waiting for a second scan, while the doctors were arguing about how it should be done because they were worried about his spine... It must have seemed strange to the staff, the fact that I was being soooooooooo calm. I think it's a good thing : my son was panicking, me panicking in return wouldn't have helped him. I got upset later. Once I knew he was fine.

I do that all the time, particularly if the emotion is a strong one. I will carry on for quite some time, and then, usually when I am alone at night, it hits me.

It is bizarre. I have always been that way. It must be an AS thing.

"Kind of similar. I basically have no panic reaction for actual danger. Being able to leap straight into action has been a literal life-saver. "

Makes me think of the fact that, in really threatening situations, I don't feel fear. It's like I jump straight to anger which, well channelled , is a motor to action in order to fix the situation. At least that's how I analyze it. I'm not prone to fear. In fact, I can't remember feeling fear.

Same here : it's when the emotion is too strong and it would be overwhelming that it's delayed. Maybe a AS thing... But maybe it's just "normal". I don't know if I have asperger or not.

I get this delayed reaction thing, too. The only time it didn't happen was when my mother died. I heard the news the next day, and I spent most of the day crying. But there have been other events that should have gotten me very upset or excited, but the emotions took a day or two, or even a week to catch up.

Yes, I often have this reaction. It actually helps because by the time I am ready to react to the situation, the event is usually past and I am better able to deal with my emotions if the event is over.

A few years ago, I had just gotten past a really stressed out period where I had to deal with a difficult relative, and with being homeless for several months. Not long after my homeless period was over, and things were looking up, I finally had Medicaid, so I finally had a female bleeding problem taken care of. The doc called me a week later and said I had cancer. He was upset, but I was super calm because I just wasn't able to react at the time, I had used up most of my upset juice while being homeless, so I wasn't able to muster enough to seem upset immediately upon being told of the cancer diagnosis. This weird calmness helped me focus on researching my situation, and helped me through a complete hysterectomy, and radiation treatments. I am now cancer free. The annoying female bleeding problem that led to the discovery of my cancer actually saved my life. This kind of cancer is often not found until it's too late, but the second biopsy, after the hysterectomy, said that it was a very bad form of cancer, but that they had caught very early, before it had a chance to spread.

I think if I had reacted more emotionally at the time, it would have interfered with my getting through this tough time.

There is a down side to appearing to be unemotional at stressful times. People often think you don't care, and it hurts their feelings. The truth is, it takes us on the spectrum longer to process input, and to formulate a proper output. While we are slogging through the process at snail speed, we appear to be unemotional. Also, we are not good at faking emotional responses regarding things and people not very close to us, but NT people still expect those responses.

In spite of the problems it causes, I think I prefer the longer processing time for emotional responses. I am better able to handle problems when the events are already over, or when I have had more time to absorb the situation.

I think this is to do with maybe a slower processing time when it comes to emotions? Especially when emotions occur in social context and these delayed emotions are usually social in character I think...they might have something to do with how you feel about people or how they have treated you. Maybe you are processing different things at the same time and that distracts from you focusing on that particular event and processing it properly on its own..?

I can only recall emotionally reacting immediately to things a few times in my life and that requires having to confront a particular situation enough times to truly understand it and understand how it affects you.

Sorry if this is vague.

I do the same thing. If something really traumatic happens, then it takes me about 3 days until I can feel the emotion. I guess because it takes me a while to process. With smaller things like hurtful words or arguments it usually hits me at the end of the day.

I can't say that it is because I'm autistic, but all I know is that I don't know any neurotypical people who do it. So I don't really know, but you're not alone in it!

I have this type of reaction and do not know anyone around me who lives the same. Recently I was at an Asperger group and I asked the counselor (a specialist in autism and Asperger) if this type of reaction is connected with asperger syndrome. The answer was yes.

Yes, I get this experience, and yes, I think it's related to Asperger's. I haven't seen it listed as a trait/symptom, but that might mean no one has chosen to research it. Or it could be something that is correlated with the autism spectrum, but not very helpful diagnostically.

I definitely tend to have delayed reactions to things. It can take me awhile to process what happened, what was said, what was intended, etc. For instance it may not sink in right away that a person probably intended to insult me, so my emotional reaction comes later after I think about it more. And my reaction is compounded by the fact that the moment to do anything about it is long gone.

It's also related to dissociation and not being fully present in the moment because I feel anxious or overwhelmed.

I have loadsa that. It's very useful in a dangerous situation, but the aftermath can be difficult. I once had an accident where I could have died, but got off with only a few scratches. The emotional reaction only came two days later when I went to work, and everyone was very annoyed with me for being a drama queen. That stuff is difficult to deal with.

Also, I had to learn to consciously stand up for myself without waiting for the emotional reaction. This means I sometimes come across as too confrontational, but honestly, I'd rather scare off some random people than have bullies walk all over me.