Understanding Emotional Differences in Autism

Autistic individuals are often told their emotional responses are somehow "wrong" - labelled as either "oversensitive" or "unemphatic." These mischaracterisations stem from fundamental differences in how autistic people process and express emotions, influenced by several intrinsic autistic traits.

Sensory Processing Differences

Autistic individuals sense the world differently. Their brains often process sensory information in ways that differ from non-autistic people, which can affect emotional responses in several ways:

• Delayed Processing: Emotional responses may appear delayed because autistic brains typically filter out less sensory input than non-autistic brains. With more information to process, emotional reactions take longer to form and express.

• Sensory Overwhelm: Imagine constantly being aware of your clothes touching your skin or hearing every conversation in a busy café simultaneously rather than focusing solely on your companion. This intense sensory awareness can be overwhelming and influence emotional states.

Sensory processing affects how our brains interpret environmental information to help us understand our internal and external worlds. These differences manifest in various ways:

• Interoception: This internal sense helps us feel bodily sensations like digestion or heartbeat. Heightened interoceptive awareness might cause an autistic person to experience normal bodily functions as distressing, triggering anxiety or discomfort without an obvious external cause.

• Nociception: Differences in pain perception can mean an autistic person might be irritable due to pain they haven't consciously registered (under-sensitivity) or might be acutely uncomfortable from minor injuries (over-sensitivity).

• Proprioception: Issues with body awareness and spatial positioning can create feelings of disconnection that manifest as anxiety.

Alexithymia and Emotional Identification

Many autistic individuals experience alexithymia—difficulty identifying and describing emotions. Research indicates alexithymia affects approximately 50% of autistic individuals compared to only about 5% of non-autistic people (Kinnaird et al., 2019).

Alexithymia presents significant challenges:

• Struggling to find words that accurately describe emotional states

• Difficulty registering emotions as they occur

• Challenges with emotional regulation when emotions cannot be identified

Emotions are complex, extending far beyond primary feelings like happiness, sadness, fear, and anger. Finding precise language to describe nuanced emotional states can be particularly challenging for autistic people with alexithymia.

Processing Speed Differences

Autistic individuals often experience emotional processing delays:

• Some may need hours or even days to identify the source of an emotion

• Small triggers might cause disproportionately big emotional responses because larger emotions are still being processed

• Even positive emotions can be overwhelming and require significant processing time

• Social interactions, sensory experiences, and emotional responses can all cause "burnout" or "hangovers" requiring recovery time

The Double Empathy Problem

Autistic academic Damian Milton describes a "Double Empathy Problem" between autistic and non-autistic people. Because autistic individuals communicate, experience emotions, and sense the world differently, mutual understanding becomes challenging in both directions. This isn't a one-sided empathy deficit—it's a two-way disconnect in mutual understanding.

Bridging the Empathy Divide

Here are practical ways to support autistic individuals with emotional expression:

• Validate their experiences even when you can't fully empathise with them

• Allow processing time rather than expecting immediate emotional identification

• Reduce sensory input when someone appears overwhelmed

• Offer communication options by inviting them to express emotions in ways that feel natural—whether through conversation, music, or visual representation

• Recognise developmental differences as autistic people may develop emotional understanding along different timelines than non-autistic peers

• Consider analytical approaches such as emotion cards or games that explore emotional experiences through questions about physical sensations and action tendencies

References and Further Reading

• Kinnaird, E., Stewart, C. Tchanturia, K. (2019). Investigating alexithymia in autism: A systematic review and meta-analysis. EUR Psychiatry.

• Loren Snow: What is Alexithymia? (www.lorensnow.com/alexithymia)

• National Autistic Society: Anxiety resources

• Scientific articles on autism, empathy, and alexithymia

• Sensory Processing Hub resources

• "Helping Autistic Teens to Manage their Anxiety" by Dr. Theresa Kidd