Are you good at identifying emotions/feelings in yourself?

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Example 1: At my last psych appointment the pdoc said I looked happy. I didn't think I was.


Example 2: Was recently seen at the main hospital emergency department because of chest pains. Tests were ok, but BP was higher than normal . Had to go for follow up the next day . Doctor said it had been raised because I was anxious. Apparently my pulse rate was fast. I hadn't noticed I was anxious.


I don't think it happens all the time ie I sometimes know when I'm anxious etc .

In myself, yes, I can identify in a nonverbal, abstract, and conceptual sense.
But not express 'appropriately', to explicitly point out or describe -- this is more of my problem.

It doesn't help that the verbal medium doesn't have the words for certain emotions.
It doesn't help that because there's no 'appropriate' body language for it to begin with. How does one express several conflicting emotions at once? Nope, you'll only likely express the loudest if not the easiest to express.

Not even an NT could do that -- because, in my opinion, the language and symbols they use to associate emotions are limited, just like how language itself lacks for certain words for emotions. This is how my problem ends up with.



I'd likely know the when's and what's and why's, how many mixed emotions are involved -- even conflicting ones (hence saying parts of me is X, part of me is Y).
Which emotions are involving certain thoughts, which said involved emotions are 'louder' and dominant, and which isn't just as loud yet it's there or it currently exists. This is how I untangle myself from certain emotions.
Which emotions are not actually 'emotions', but something else entirely -- compulsion, instinct, hormones, some other involuntary sensations, etc... I can even nitpick between similar sensations.

It varies how much I could keep track and how much of these I could keep in check.

And at certain times knowing what I'm 'supposed' to feel contrary to what I'm currently feeling. Which emotions gives certain outcome of thoughts, which current emotions are filtered and change said outcomes and thoughts, etc.
If I'm in control, with good EF, I can 'shift' emotions' intensity to a certain degree as long as it currently exists (actually manual emotional regulation as opposed to manual expression regulation).

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It's something that I have rather a problem with - and it's a classic sign of Alexithymia, possibly coupled with poor interoception (internal body sensations). It's not unusual that other people can spot how I'm feeling before I do, or that an emotional state won't become apparent to me until a long time after the circumstances which caused it. There are a several good threads here discussing it, and even a couple of dedicated on-line forums which you might find interesting to lurk on for a while, so I suggest a bit of Googling to see if anything else strikes a chord with you.

I did this some time ago.

There is a time that I did wished that I'm alexithymic instead of moody...
Did the test once upon a time -- romance and sex isn't the problem nor how one should be more alexithymic, more like it doesn't seem to take account aromantics/asexuals from the expressively aromantics/asexuals due to alexithymia.
My score truly weighs on 'describing', 'expressing'...


But I'm alexithymic in a more literal sense -- as in, literally no words for emotions/heart/etc...
And yet, do have and can decipher non-words for emotions/heart/etc.

It's like NVLD to me; having the inversion of the case, yet having the near similar problems and issues.

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I used to think I was good at this, because Husband #1 was so entirely and classically alexithymic that it made me look like the Queen of Emotional Intelligence. But during my autism evaluation, the assessor identified that I seemed to have trouble with it.

I have a lot of trouble with this. I’m good at recognizing emotions in others, so I’m wondering if my struggle has more to do with trauma than autism.

Blunting emotion helps one get through awful times, but it makes it really difficult to know what one wants in the long run.

I used to be exceedingly bad...
These days I'm not too bad...

Far less anxiety now that I am in early retirement and have limited involvement with other people...

No. This causes me chronic frustration. I go months with a really painful longing for something and I have no idea what it is, I just know I need something. Sometimes I can resolve the meaning after extensive introspection but it ruins the point of emotion. Doctors can't help. It's not depression, and it's possible that it's just anxiety and I really don't have other emotions.

My emotions and needs are just different from everyone else's but the rest of my brain is just the same. I can't communicate what I need so I tend to become moody and hostile, and on the inside I feel frustrated. They diagnose me with a limited diagnosis like depression, medications only ruin my thinking and lucidity, and then ignore the rest.

It's just hellish and my attempts to express it to get help usually backfires in my face. I'm forced to stick to rationality to view myself and the world, because any time I try to deal with what's inside I am faced with loneliness.

After two years of therapy I got a lot better with it.
When I was starting my therapy it was like "I know there is a lot of something, I feel the pressure of some emotions but I have no idea what they are".
Now I have cleaned up a lot of it. I needed to learn new words like sensory overload to describe myself.

I'm often oblivious to it.