Sometimes I wonder if my emotional reactivity is pathologically low.
But maybe it's actually, uh, normal.
It's difficult to say, given how all over the place in terms of mental health people are.
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If it's important to you, learn to put it under conscious control. It's hard work, but it can be done to a remarkable degree (no, I haven't done most of it, but I can see how it's done.)
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I have already started, but it's very hard work. I have to remind myself that being angry is OK in response to injustice, then I have to actually calibrate that anger, not make it a habit, etc. etc.
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look instead at how it feels, how it makes you act and whether or not you like it or find it useful.
The breakthrough comes, in my experience, when you get a decent awakening that "this is hurting me and doing no good."
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anger had two advantages. It gives you a shot of energy, and (sometimes, if accurately calibrated) it tells you when something is unacceptable or harmful.
Are there other, better, ways to do those two things?
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Are you misapprehending me, perhaps?
My original problem is precisely that I tend not to react. I've seen genuine sociopaths show more discomfort than me in certain situations. This makes me uncomfortable.
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Ah, I did misunderstand. You can learn to sync up consciously too, I suspect, unless you are genuinely a sociopath (I don't think you are.)
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Meaning no disrespect to your observational skills, I don't think you'd really know if I was. Sociopaths are very good at hiding their pathology, and we've never met.
I'm not saying I am, mind. If anything, the fact that the thought bothers me may be a good indication I'm not.
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Perhaps I wouldn't. But according to a friend who is a sociopath, people do notice that he doesn't experience their emotions. I had another friend in my 20s who I'm sure was a sociopath. (Great guy, we had more fun together than I've had with maybe anyone else. But, sociopath.)
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but as you say, we haven't met. Still, there's a certain lack of freedom in you that sociopaths tend to have.
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And further, the fact that I recently went through a massive dis-inhibition phase and it seems to have made me more responsible, not less.
Unless I'm deluding myself to a ridiculous extent, which is always possible, I am definitely not motivated only by self-concern.