Page 1 of 2 [ 23 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

SteelMaiden
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,722
Location: London

09 Mar 2013, 3:18 pm

I noticed that when a lot of NTs watch TV that would generally be classed as "emotionally charged" (like a child dying of a ghastly illness, or people suffering severe poverty), they start showing sad emotions and even crying.

I don't.

I just stare at the TV and the following goes on in my head:
People showing emotion detected.
Searching for emotion in self.
Emotion files corrupted.
Functioning emotion files not found.
Emotion cannot be displayed.
Facial expressions file does not exist.
Error error error.

I end up just sitting there with a straight face going "what am I meant to do?"

I never find anything on TV sad.

I occasionally find things funny on TV (like Red Dwarf or The Big Bang Theory), but I never laugh out loud (although you might get a smile out of me).

But I never ever cry or show sad emotions at TV.

Do you get this?

Is this due to autism or am I just a really cold person?

When my mum was in hospital in a coma (she took an overdose a few years ago....mental health problems, long story), someone else in the bed next to hers died right in front of me. I was more interested in their oxygen saturation, erratic ECG readings etc, than the fact that the person had died.

Am I a bad person?

I am not twisted in any way, I've never hurt anyone because I wanted to or anything like that.....


_________________
I am a partially verbal classic autistic. I am a pharmacology student with full time support.


Pip
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 10 Jan 2013
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Posts: 160

09 Mar 2013, 3:26 pm

I am the same way. Unless I know the person who died personally I am not emotional about it. Movies and TV also do not trigger reactions from me unless I can connect to a character's situation on an intimate level.



franknfurter
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Jan 2013
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Posts: 738

09 Mar 2013, 3:35 pm

i dont think thats really unusual, i will not feel anything over most things on tv, the only things that are sad are animal adverts and when characters i love from books i have read die, like snape from harry potter, but even then i dont cry and to be honest i find it a bit annoying when people do, i did cry at the titanic but thats because i was imagining how it would feel to drown and that scared me.



Marc420
Raven
Raven

User avatar

Joined: 15 Feb 2013
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 110
Location: South Africa

09 Mar 2013, 4:00 pm

Same here, unless it is a dog that is dying or suffering.


_________________
Dx: Asperger's Syndrome

Help an Aspie become independent
http://www.gofundme.com/ft2o2w


SteelMaiden
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,722
Location: London

09 Mar 2013, 4:08 pm

To be honest if I saw a video of an animal being harmed on TV, I would be affected adversely, but I wouldn't cry, I would shout swear words at the TV and then change the channel. I'm a vegetarian for ethical reasons.


_________________
I am a partially verbal classic autistic. I am a pharmacology student with full time support.


fueledbycoffee
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Nov 2010
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 566
Location: Baltimore

09 Mar 2013, 4:29 pm

I'm pretty much the opposite. I rarely feel emotion over the things that happen in my real life, but I get sad or happy in relation to TV shows and movies. I often feel attached to TV characters in a way that I don't to people in real life, and I've often felt that one reason I'm so obsessed with TV is because it allows me to experience emotions with the show acting as a sort of guide.



rickith
Raven
Raven

User avatar

Joined: 29 Apr 2009
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 122
Location: The Netherlands

09 Mar 2013, 6:19 pm

fueledbycoffee wrote:
I'm pretty much the opposite. I rarely feel emotion over the things that happen in my real life, but I get sad or happy in relation to TV shows and movies. I often feel attached to TV characters in a way that I don't to people in real life, and I've often felt that one reason I'm so obsessed with TV is because it allows me to experience emotions with the show acting as a sort of guide.


This.



Triple__B
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 29 Jan 2013
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 141

09 Mar 2013, 6:26 pm

I don't show emotion in reaction to TV either. I do however notice my wife is tearing up or some other reaction to what is going on. I usually just stare emotionless at the tv or watch her react which is kind of neat to see all the different faces she makes.


_________________
AQ -48
EQ - 6
Your Aspie score: 164 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 29 of 200
Nothing is permanent in this wicked world. Not even our troubles. ~ Charles Chaplin


jk1
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Sep 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,817

09 Mar 2013, 6:40 pm

I find those TV programs or movies that purposely try to manipulate the emotion of the audience very cheap and unpleasant. I think these things are trying to plant biased values into people's minds. So, from that perspective, it's impossible for me to cry watching such things.



fueledbycoffee
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Nov 2010
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 566
Location: Baltimore

09 Mar 2013, 6:54 pm

I agree. I hate laugh tracks and such that try to entice a particular response, but if a show tells a genuinely sad story, is it manipulative to play a sad song? Was Schindler's List manipulative? Or the Tracy's death storyline from Scrubs? What about sad books? The problem with throwing the word manipulative around is that eventually, the only non-manipulative type of show is a bland, meaningless traditional sitcom.



mercifullyfree
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 21 Dec 2012
Age: 43
Gender: Female
Posts: 362
Location: internet

09 Mar 2013, 7:31 pm

I tend to be oversensitive to it, particularly when they try to induce adrenaline or grief. I get increasingly uncomfortable and agitated until I need to change the channel or leave the room (if I'm not in control of the remote). I don't understand entertainment that tries to induce adrenaline all the time because it's so unpleasant for me, but it seems to be what everyone else wants.



nessa238
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Jul 2011
Age: 58
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,908
Location: UK

09 Mar 2013, 7:39 pm

I do get a sadness reaction if a situation touches me emotionally ie tears might come into my eyes but it's only some instnaces of sad situations that cause this, not all of them

I've also had very over the top sadness reactions at the cinema twice, where I thought I was going to break into heavy crying but the trigger wasn't anything major on the screen - it must have been my state of mind at the time.

The higher my dose of anti-depressant the less likely I am to have a sadness reaction but if I'm off them completely, just reading a newspaper article or hearing certain songs or music might do it.

I do respond to other peoples' grief but I can't do it on cue as many people can - it has to be felt authentically before I can produce a display of emotion.

I think most peoples' systems are designed to respond to a wider variety of emotions in others via the mirror neurons in their brains. I think autistic people have less mirror neurons and/or they respond to a narrower set of emotional stimuli. The stimuli isn't as socially conditioned as it is for NTs.

Also, if I'm told that someone has died, the first thing I want to ask is 'What of?' ie I want the medical details and to try and factor in what aspects of their lifestyle could have led to their death. I'm more interested in the cause than feeling sorry about it basically so I have to emulate a display of concern and sorrow. I don't know the extent to which NTs do this too though so it may not be all that unusual.



Last edited by nessa238 on 09 Mar 2013, 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Adamantium
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2013
Age: 1024
Gender: Female
Posts: 5,863
Location: Erehwon

09 Mar 2013, 7:44 pm

I cried when I saw the "autism reality" movie. I think the music had something to do with it, but I don't quite understand the emotion that produced the tears.

It had something to do with Alex's parents talking about the school. But I think the scene that caused an emotional response was when Alex is driving in his car and talking about how tired he is after a day of being out in the world.

A well made film by a sympathetic artist can create all kinds of emotion in me.

Cheesy manipulation and exploitation makes me angry, but that is mor of an intellectual response. First I recognize it for what it is. Then the idea of people spending time, money and energy creating it seems like an insult to life. Then that idea makes me angry. So I guess that doesn't count.



btbnnyr
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 May 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,359
Location: Lost Angleles Carmen Santiago

09 Mar 2013, 10:11 pm

I can't watch movies in which anything bad happens to animals, even if they have happy endings. I can't watch animals suffer at all. I don't care what happens to people in movies. The more gory and gross, the more entertaining.


_________________
Drain and plane and grain and blain your brain, and then again,
Propane and butane out of the gas main, your blain shall sustain!


KnarlyDUDE09
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Oct 2011
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Posts: 685
Location: Manchester, UK

09 Mar 2013, 10:27 pm

fueledbycoffee wrote:
I'm pretty much the opposite. I rarely feel emotion over the things that happen in my real life, but I get sad or happy in relation to TV shows and movies. I often feel attached to TV characters in a way that I don't to people in real life, and I've often felt that one reason I'm so obsessed with TV is because it allows me to experience emotions with the show acting as a sort of guide.
This is how I would describe the way I express emotions; I have always wondered why it is that I get so attached to television shows...I guess your post makes a lot of sense to me.


_________________
Aspie score: 160 of 200, neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 44 of 200
(01/11/2012)

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNjuB4 ... WnSA552Xjg


MjrMajorMajor
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,714

09 Mar 2013, 11:37 pm

It really depends for me. I can watch some movies(Million Dollar Baby as an example)and it just seems so overdone that I find it irritating. Over Christmas, when the commercials seem to focus on bells and choir music it definitely hits a place of nostalgia and happiness. I'll cry if it's something sad with children almost always.