Alexithymia

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Hi

I've been doing a bit of research on ASD In advance of my referral for a diagnosis. While I was looking on the internet I came across alexythimia and did an online questionnaire on which I scored high. But in any case, I am really wondering how would a non-alexithymic compare to me - how do people who are able to describe their emotions do it "better" than I can? For me, I can be happy, disappointed, annoyed, etc. is that all there is to it, or is there some deeper level of description which is denied to some of us?!

I always thought alexithemia wasn't an issue of communication, but one of not being able to identify one's own emotional state. For instance, one of the therapies for my son involved attaching the appropriate emotion to the correct physiological response. He was coding everything as either "happy" or "angry" and was missing out on an entire range of emotion (fear, sadness, anxiety, etc.)

I don't think it was strictly the words, though - it was his responses that were inappropriate. For instance, if he was anxious about school he would lash out angrily...we finally got him to figure out when he's anxious and understanding that made a huge difference.

Thanks for that. Yes, that makes a lot more sense now!

Thanks for your help