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What is it like to have never felt an emotion?
31–40 of 101 posts
Re: What is it like to have never felt an emotion?
#32I would almost classify myself this way, because in my teenage years I developed a coping mechanism for childhood trauma that entailed detaching myself from my emotional state and becoming an observer of myself. I think it's otherwise known as building walls to protect yourself. It took me many years to realize what i had done, and try to get back in touch with my feelings.
So far as lacking emotional response to major life events; there is so much going on during a wedding, and giving birth to babies, I don't imagine it's uncommon to not really feel joy in those moments; you're just to busy. Watching babies grow and transform into toddlers and big kids in front of your eyes, now that is joy of a lifetime, imo.
Re: What is it like to have never felt an emotion?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think most of those examples have a rational basis and the non-emotional person could probably make better decisions than the rest of us e.g. choosing a job offer on the basis of benefits and prospects rather than because the office looked cool. Such a person would make an astounding diplomat. The reward mechanism would probably be in maximizing physical comfort in return for minimal physical effort.
Without emotions, what would cause a person to prefer physical comfort over physical discomfort?
Comfort and discomfort aren't emotions. Pain isn't an emotion, and the absence of pain is desirable by people who don't have emotions.
Re: What is it like to have never felt an emotion?
#34> The condition is found in around 50% of people with autism Oh please, journalism . Wordless about emotions? Maybe. Not knowing the words for emotions? Maybe. Emotionless? Ha. Spend time with any group of people with autistic spectrum disorders & tell me 50% are emotionless. Confusing words with the phenomena & further contributing to the barriers they have to express their inner life, not on. To say it matter of fa…
The article doesn't characterize the disorder as being without emotions. It quotes researchers as saying that while sufferers display the physical signs of emotions, there is some sort of breakdown either in the expression (as you mentioned) or self-awareness of emotions.
Re: What is it like to have never felt an emotion?
#35> The condition is found in around 50% of people with autism Oh please, journalism . Wordless about emotions? Maybe. Not knowing the words for emotions? Maybe. Emotionless? Ha. Spend time with any group of people with autistic spectrum disorders & tell me 50% are emotionless. Confusing words with the phenomena & further contributing to the barriers they have to express their inner life, not on. To say it matter of fa…
The article doesn't characterize the disorder as being without emotions. It quotes researchers as saying that while sufferers display the physical signs of emotions, there is some sort of breakdown either in the expression (as you mentioned) or self-awareness of emotions.
The title refers to the inability of feeling emotions - which is the same as "being without emotions".
Re: What is it like to have never felt an emotion?
#36I wonder how people with alexithymia respond to MDMA (ecstasy)? I've heard people say that the first time they really experienced emotions was on MDMA.
I came here to say the same as it was a profound emotional experience the first time I took it.
Re: What is it like to have never felt an emotion?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What is your motivation for getting married? "Other people are getting married. I guess I should go on with the program (shrug). Hmm, this person took an interest in me (or my friends/mother/etc hooked me up with this person), I could marry them maybe.". > Getting a job? Hmm, I feel physical hunger. Maybe I need to get a job. Hmm, here's a sign for help wanted. Maybe I can apply there. > Playing a game or watching…
Other people getting married is not something you would care about since you have not emotions. With regards to the thunderstorm thats not how it works. It's not the rational request thats the problem but the intuition around when it feels right. Emotions are fundamental to making any kind of creative decisions.
>Other people getting married is not something you would care about since you have not emotions.
They don't. They just copy what other people do because it's the default thing to do (everyone does it), and because they want to stop that annoyance (annoyance like we feel annoyance from a crappy seat belt or uncomfortamble shows, not emotional misery) and distraction (the nagging from other people, etc). No emotion mostly means that they aren't enthusiastic about getting married, and they are not miserable because they are not married either. You can conform to something just by thinking about it, you don't have to have any emotions on the matter. Same way people used to have arranged marriages back in the day (and still in some cultures). They didn't necessarily have any affection to the other person, not they had any great urge to get married.
>With regards to the thunderstorm thats not how it works. It's not the rational request thats the problem but the intuition around when it feels right.
You don't need to feel emotion-based intuition for when it "feels right". "Feels" is just a word we use to describe our selection process but it doesn't mean there have to be "feelings" involved.
You just need to check that your sound effect sound as you remember those things to sound. No need to be dissapointed when they don't, or feel creative or elated when they do.
Re: What is it like to have never felt an emotion?
#38> The condition is found in around 50% of people with autism Oh please, journalism . Wordless about emotions? Maybe. Not knowing the words for emotions? Maybe. Emotionless? Ha. Spend time with any group of people with autistic spectrum disorders & tell me 50% are emotionless. Confusing words with the phenomena & further contributing to the barriers they have to express their inner life, not on. To say it matter of fa…
I don't think you've discredited the 50% statement.
I spend a lot of time with people on the spectrum and my experience tends to match yours, however that's all anecdotal.
It would be interesting to know where that number came from. Have you asked the author for a citation?
Re: What is it like to have never felt an emotion?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's illogical about it? In fact being a psychopath is the most logical thing (promoting your interests with cold logic with care or mercy for others). All other behaviors need either a faith in some God or man-given morality, ethics, or emotions like love, mercy etc (which, as emotions, are not logical). Of course one can logically come to the conclusion that behaving moraly instead of like a psychopath is better…
Why would caring for yourself be "more logical" than for others? I don't think the concept even applies. Logic concerns itself with the validity of reasoning: Given X and Y, you can validly infer Z - it doesn't concern itself with the goals. So, unless there's an underlying axiom that supports the assertion that you should promote your interests above others', it's not "more logical" to do so than to dedicate your li…
>Why would caring for yourself be "more logical" than for others?
Because you ARE yourself, and the obvious thing is to maximize your strength.
And because caring for others implies "love", "affection", "altruism" (emotions, not rational calculations) and even sacrificing your interests for others, whereas helping yourself is immediately advantageous for you and is in your default interest.
Re: What is it like to have never felt an emotion?
#40Isn't this textbook sociopathy?
No. > sociopath: a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience. Nothing in not feeling emotions means that one would lack a moral responsibility or social conscience, or is antisocial and often criminal.
Well, there surely is a big difference in not having words for emotions, or being unable to feel them, and them not arising in the first place, at all.
But still: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexithymia
> Individuals high on the alexithymia spectrum also report less distress at seeing others in pain and behave less altruistically toward others.
Which doesn't surprise me, really; at least for me, for how I operate, there is a clear distinction between acting to avoid punishment or to seek reward, and a conscience; the latter is always connected to emotions, for me.
Here's another admittedly random tidbit from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilt_%28emotion%29
> As a highly social animal living in large groups that are relatively stable, we need ways to deal with conflicts and events in which we inadvertently or purposefully harm others. If someone causes harm to another, and then feels guilt and demonstrates regret and sorrow, the person harmed is likely to forgive. Thus, guilt makes it possible to forgive, and helps hold the social group together.
and
> When we see another person suffering, it can also cause us pain. This constitutes our powerful system of empathy, which leads to our thinking that we should do something to relieve the suffering of others. If we cannot help another, or fail in our efforts, we experience feelings of guilt.
Don't get me wrong. I absolutely agree with the impulse to reject any sort of "witch hunt" or even "just" looking down on people. It's not the fault of people who can't feel remorse that they can't feel remorse, especially since "harder variants" like NPD are very often the result of abuse and trauma (and in so far they are genetic, there's no fault either), and since all of this is on a spectrum, and most of us likely are on it, they also must not serve as scapegoats. But it's fascinating and important, and while the person this story is about is probably a decent guy, it can also be a very unsettling and sinister topic, yet still important - I'd even say we shy away from it at our own risk.