{"id":3847,"date":"2024-08-24T16:26:06","date_gmt":"2024-08-24T16:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latoriaa.wordpress.com\/?p=780"},"modified":"2024-08-24T16:26:06","modified_gmt":"2024-08-24T16:26:06","slug":"sadness-human-experience-autistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/2024\/08\/24\/sadness-human-experience-autistics\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadness is a key experience for all, including autistics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.” \u2013 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lately, I’ve become all too familiar with sadness. It\u2019s not just one of those fleeting feelings that come and go \u2014 it\u2019s more like an unwanted houseguest that\u2019s settled in for an extended stay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do I know it\u2019s sadness? I looked it up in the dictionary, and before I could even get a handle on sadness (thanks to the Oxford Advanced Learner\u2019s Dictionary), I had to check out what sorrow, distress, anxiety, and pain meant. Trust me, I\u2019ve felt those emotions in the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadness, as the dictionary defines it, is about feeling unhappy or sorrowful. But it’s more than just a definition \u2014 it’s that heavy weight that surrounds you, making everything seem a bit duller and quieter. Despite this, I couldn\u2019t help but reflect on how sadness and happiness are just two sides of the same coin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember writing in June about how happiness is an illusion<\/a> \u2014 a flaky emotion that never sticks around for long. You might find it in religion or faith, career or purpose, family or companionship, or whatever else you cling to for meaning, but here\u2019s the thing: it\u2019s always temporary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happiness has a way of slipping away just when you\u2019re settling in, often leaving you with new challenges or the next thing to worry about. It\u2019s the thrill of the chase and the rewards that define happiness, turning it into an ever-evolving game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science backs this up too. When we\u2019re happy, our brains light up with dopamine, the feel-good chemical that makes everything seem rosy \u2014 at least for a while. But sadness? That\u2019s a different story. Sadness slows us down, pulls us inward, and makes us reflect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not that one emotion is better than the other \u2014 they just do different jobs. Happiness pushes us forward, while sadness makes us pause and take stock of where we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, here\u2019s where it gets a bit tricky for those of us on the autism spectrum. We feel the full range of emotions, just like anyone else, but recognising and expressing them? That\u2019s a whole different ball game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take this past Wednesday, for example. I was so overwhelmed by sadness that I asked my editor if I could take the rest of the day off. But here\u2019s the thing \u2014 what do you do when you take time off because you\u2019re sad? Just sit and stew in it? That didn\u2019t seem like the best idea, so I ended up cleaning my room instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something oddly satisfying about scrubbing away at something, putting things in order, and making your space look fresh. For a moment, I felt better. But as soon as the cleaning was done, I went back to work, because sometimes, that\u2019s just how it goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For autistic people, sadness can manifest in ways that might not be obvious to others. What looks like a sudden urge to clean or a need for solitude might be us trying to process what we\u2019re feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research shows that we often express sadness through nonverbal cues or changes in our routines. It\u2019s not that we\u2019re indifferent or unfeeling; we just have our ways of dealing with things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding what others are feeling can also be a challenge. It\u2019s not that we lack empathy \u2014 it\u2019s more like we\u2019re tuned into a different frequency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders found that while autistic people do have empathy<\/a>, it\u2019s often expressed in ways that aren\u2019t immediately obvious to allistics. So, it\u2019s like we\u2019re all watching the same film, but with different subtitles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how do we deal with sadness? There\u2019s no one-size-fits-all answer here. Coping with sadness when you\u2019re autistic \u2014 or not \u2014 means finding what works for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people find comfort in sensory-friendly activities, like listening to calming music or engaging in repetitive tasks. For others, journaling can help when speaking feels impossible. Support systems are also crucial \u2014 whether it\u2019s a friend, family member, or an online community, having someone who understands you can make a big difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empathy involves looking beyond the surface and recognising that everyone experiences emotions differently. Kindness<\/a>, too, is vital for human connections, helping us navigate sadness, happiness, and everything in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadness is a heavy emotion that we all encounter, including those of us on the autism spectrum. Yet, it\u2019s a fundamental part of being human. By embracing the full range of emotions \u2014 both our own and others’ \u2014 we can connect more deeply and create a world where everyone feels understood, no matter how they express themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sadness isn’t just a fleeting feeling; it’s a fundamental part of the human experience. This story provides insights from someone with autism, revealing why sadness is so essential. Discover more here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[54,55,72],"class_list":["post-3847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-autism","tag-autism-spectrum-disorder","tag-sadness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asoebipay.com\/autismthrive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}