What does happiness feel like?
One of the strangest things for me, after getting diagnosed as autistic back in December 2024, was coming to the realization that I don’t know how emotions feel in my body. The psychologist asked me what it feels like to be happy. I was confused – when you’re happy, you’re smiling. Maybe laughing. But a smile for sure. She asked, but how does it feel? That threw me off. Happiness had a feeling ? I thought happiness was the feeling. It wasn’t a feeling I knew how to describe. She asked what it feels like in my body to be sad. How do you know when you’re sad? That was easy – sadness was when you cried. But crying wasn’t it either. I’ve been trying, this past year and 3 months, to pay attention to my body when I experience different emotions. I can make myself look happy, sad, confused, but to feel those feelings and be able to describe them? That’s where I get lost. Th...