Trouble with emotions?

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Does anyone else feel like their emotions are unusually intense?

I can feel extremely anxious and I have a hard time calming myself. I also seem to feel the emotions of others intensely too. When I have to interact with someone who is very anxious, I find myself getting quite upset. I hate seeing people in pain. I find it extremely upsetting. I don't like making much eye contact because I find it extremely stimulating and I get overwhelmed with all the expressions. I don't like walking down the street because I see so many different expressions/emotions that I get overwhelmed. I feel like I'm too empathetic which doesn't sound much like autism.

Sounds just like autism to me. We have a high degree (higher than NT's?) of emotional empathy which causes issues with self-regulation. However, we have a low degree (much lower than NT's) of cognitive empathy which is where the perception of "lack of empathy" comes from.

Sounds normal, don't worry. Recognizing these traits is great. Now you get to explore them more as well as tools for regulating those high emotions. I try to embrace the positive ones and "observe" the negative ones, using MBT tools as a guide. Congratulations on the self-awareness!

My emotions are either non-existent or incongruous to what has unfolded. To visually exhibit sympathy or empathy remains extremely difficult for me; hopefully medication will help me in this regard.

I would suggest reading about highly sensitive people or high sensory processing sensitivity if you haven't. It's more common than autism and can cause someone to appear very aspie like. It's also possible to have both. Intense world theory is something else to read about as well.

Sometimes I wonder if other people have emotions at all because they never seem to show them at all while I'm practically in hysterics.

Are you saying that

1) People never show emotions

or

2) People never show emotions at the times you are in hysterics

If case 2 (I'm guessing it is) then observe if when you don't show emotions others are in hysterics. Voila! Autistic. Reconciling these two facts has been a gradual and painful process, but yet beneficial. I didn't have to change my feelings or emotions on subjects, just manage my outward expression of my feelings or emotions (and lack of the same at times.)

Whenever I have a panic attack, my family threatens to call the police on me, which they have done in the past. In turn, the police would have likely thrown into prison or a mental facility.

Can you please explain the difference between emotional and cognitive empathy? I find myself struggling with limited empathy sometimes, for example with friends. It's like there's some kind of invisible wall between me and their emotions, I am indeed accused of being selfish sometimes. But it also depends on people. It's different with my girlfriend....when she feels bad I feel bad too.

Cognitive makes me think of when someone tells me a story about their uncle dying. Unless there is a part of the story that I strongly relate to, I generally "don't care." However, when something happens directly affecting someone I love, I am extremely emotional about it and less able to detach at first. Detaching when I feel an emotional burst is something I still work on daily.

I feel like this too, but even when something directly affects someone I feel deatched. I don't know how to explain, but it made me have a low self esteem for a lot of time because I thought I was a bad person. Now I understand I'm not a bad person, just a detached person most of the time.

Thanks for clarifying.

Sounds standard. I really can't stand being around highly emotional people because I end up feeling how they feel and I'm not at all sure what to do with these feelings. It's just draining.

The worst thing is when I think their feelings don't make any sense but still feel how they feel. I have tried to rationally explain why they shouldn't feel a certain way but I can't help it.

I am not a good person to talk to if you've lost a relative. I can't offer any words of comfort instead I start crying and become overwhelmed. When my friend told me her bf's grandmother had cancer I started crying (on the phone she couldn't hear that), it was worse when she started explaining how he felt.

It is much easier to simply appear unemotional and try to shut them out, but that just ends up making you look as if you do not care.

"Cognitive empathy" refers to the ability to understand what emotions other people are feeling based on facial expression, tone of voice, body language, etc. It's pretty well-established that autistic people have a problem with this, and if you hear anyone claim that women have a better capacity for empathy than men, this is probably what they mean.

"Emotional empathy" is giving a darn about what other people are feeling, e.g. having a conscience. The complete lack of this trait is the defining feature of sociopathy, but it has nothing to do with autism.

The dictionary definition of empathy, which means to vicariously feel another person's emotions as your own, is a little closer to emotional empathy. I wouldn't say that "cognitive empathy" and "emotional empathy" are two different "kinds of" empathy, so much as they are two different traits altogether, that just happen to share the same word due to a quirk of language.

I too think with emotional empathy, i am very intune with how i feel, but they are extreme! when i feel sad i feel really sad, when i feel anxious i feel really anxious, i feel the pain of others aswell, but similar, if someone is talking about there relative passing away, i become more analytical, i will search for a suggestion that might genuinly help as opposed to trying to comfort them and say what they expect to hear....

I believe this form of empathy and cognitive detachment is ideal in certain areas, for instance i was with coastguard for 13 years teaching the jetski crew.. When dealt with a situation, i always had the calm head and able to picture the outcome of what needs to be done while observing most others using there energy to deal with their own anxiousness of the situation, it boggles my mind sometimes to watch NT's flap around like headless chickens! I will direct the crew to do a certain task, they will often question me on said task as they cannot envision how a came about said outcome, but once they follow instruction it only becomes clear at the end of the rescue/exercise! they always wander how i managed to know what to do in such a situation and how i come about resolving the issue, bottom line is, they will never understand that side of my thought process, this i realized long before going through AS diagnosis.... When someone does ask me how the hell did i know that, i just tend to say , lucky guess... so i dont have to go into a long winded explanation that will fall on deaf brains, so to speak...
So its ideal in the rescue services when you need a particular mind frame to cope and act out a situation! So what can be seen as a negative, also has very very positive uses in the world! ... Just saying


and yes, i also experience the same feelings when coming across individuals, i wont just see a human being but the emotional feelings and thought processes of every individual i gaze upon, and yes at times it can be VERY overwhelming!