A question about alexithymia ?

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firemonkey
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25 Jun 2020, 6:40 pm

An inability to recognise and verbalise all emotions , or just some emotions?

firemonkey
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26 Jun 2020, 4:15 am

I get the message.

naturalplastic
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26 Jun 2020, 4:27 am

We all plotted with each other to play a trick on you, and you fell for it!

We all figured that "if we dont respond to Firemonkey's post he will be sad and cry".

And if he cries then he will...realize that he is feeling emotion, which will force him to realize that he doesnt have Alexithymia! And then he will be happy that he doesnt have it! And it worked! Pretty clever isnt it?:D

Just kidding.

I googled it. One site said that alexithymiacs can feel certain emotions in certain social situations. Also that they can be aware that their heart is racing, but not be able to connect that physiological response to the emotion of excitement.So its complicated.

Here is a vid from Utube

Last edited by naturalplastic on 26 Jun 2020, 4:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Edna3362
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26 Jun 2020, 4:29 am

firemonkey wrote:

An inability to recognise and verbalise all emotions , or just some emotions?

'All' in a sense as if it's a form of internal processing issue, emotional dyslexia or lack of comprehension.
Not necessarily mean inability.

Technically, all humans are alexithymic in a degree that there are simply no words or certain descriptions for certain emotions.
Or some instance, fewer to rare emotions are unrelatable from others in general.
But this does not mean they are alexithymic, more like lacking vocabularies and awareness or experience that certain emotions have complicated descriptions -- but no real internal colorblindness in their part, only more like expressive shortcuts but still explorable when appropriate contexts meets.

An alexithymic, even with greater verbal expressions and experience themselves, will have a hard time grasping and discerning the internal sensations as if it's some sort of innate internal colorblindness.
But like any processing issues, it can be worked around.

:oops:

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firemonkey
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26 Jun 2020, 7:52 am

naturalplastic wrote:

Thanks. It was the,at the time, 63 views but no responses that got to me. I'm definitely a concrete thinker. I've never been that good at describing how I feel emotionally . It's nothing to do with, in my case , a lack of verbal skills and vocabulary . Both of those are significantly above what would be needed to get into Mensa.

I wondered about a possible link with interoception. More due to intellectual curiosity than having any definitive reason for doing so.

Alexithymia: a general deficit of interoception

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5098957/

The relationships between interoception and alexithymic trait. The Self-Awareness Questionnaire in healthy subjects

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10 ... 01149/full

The Feeling of Me Feeling for You: Interoception, Alexithymia and Empathy in Autism

https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 018-3564-3

On the other hand.

Interoceptive Impairments Do Not Lie at the Heart of Autism or Alexithymia

https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2018-39608-004.html

teddybears_and_twirling
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26 Jun 2020, 10:03 am

firemonkey wrote:

It was the,at the time, 63 views but no responses that got to me.

Sorry. I didn't respond because I don't have an answer to your original question.

Edna3362 wrote:

An alexithymic, even with greater verbal expressions and experience themselves, will have a hard time grasping and discerning the internal sensations as if it's some sort of innate internal colorblindness. But like any processing issues, it can be worked around.

Sometimes I have a hard time recognising my emotions, but I wonder if it's because I was never taught to do so or if I'm actually alexithymic. For example, after I was taught the physical symptoms of anxiety, I was able to recognise that I indeed had severe anxiety. Does that sound more like alexithymia or just poor education regarding emotions?

firemonkey
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26 Jun 2020, 10:21 am

teddybears_and_twirling wrote:

An interesting question . One that deserves a more comprehensive answer than I can give. What x emotion is, what y emotion is, etc was not something that was ever taught when I went to school. I can see how not having a clear idea of what is involved in emotion x or y etc can negatively affect your ability to recognise those emotions in yourself .

I would tentatively lean towards saying that is not alexythymia , but fully accept I could be wrong.

green0star
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26 Jun 2020, 11:22 am

Never was diagnosed with it so I likely don't have it

Edna3362
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26 Jun 2020, 11:56 am

teddybears_and_twirling wrote:

Edna3362 wrote:

Even I cannot specify that myself.

But according to this:
http://alexithymia.org.uk/isnt.html

Apparently, it would also mean...
Anxiety without alexithymia would say terms 'worried', 'fixated', 'anxious', 'fearful', 'tired', 'sad', etc.
Emotional contexts are identified with.

A person recently learned these terms would likely able to convey it whenever the occasion arises, yet dependent on their preferences and ability to express said terms.
A repressed person would subconsciously deny these terms.
A stoic is supposed to be able to take them all internally, narrative or no narrative.
An apathethic would mean there's nothing to deny or check at all, apathy is the narrative.

Anxiety with alexithymia would say terms 'heart racing', 'mind racing', 'cant sleep', 'being hot', etc. As if it's a clinical check of sorts.
The emotion still exists and still have to be dealt with.
Yet by internal interpretation and narrative, there's little to nothing to deny or act upon, there's nothing to identify with to the emotional terms either except it's symptoms for emotions.

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blazingstar
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26 Jun 2020, 1:01 pm

I have emotions, but identifying what I have is difficult. I was, maybe, in my 30s before I recognized anger. In my 40s before I recognized anxiety. Once identified, I became increasingly able to recognize the symptoms and from there, learn how to deal with it, neutralize it, so I can act rationally instead of flying off the handle.

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teddybears_and_twirling
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26 Jun 2020, 4:06 pm

Edna3362 wrote:

Anxiety with alexithymia would say terms 'heart racing', 'mind racing', 'cant sleep', 'being hot', etc. As if it's a clinical check of sorts.

Thanks for the clear examples.

I do identify most with this, be it alexithymia or something else. In any case, just being aware about this already helps.

HeroOfHyrule
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26 Jun 2020, 4:21 pm

Up until recently it was hard for me to actually decipher what emotions I'm feeling, besides for outright anxiety and rage. I do have emotions, but it's very hard for me to figure out what my body is sensing and put that into an actual "emotion" that I'm supposed to know. When I was a child it was even more of an issue and anything besides pure anger I couldn't properly recognize.

If you ask me what I'm feeling 90% of the time I'll probably just say "I don't know" since I don't.

Edna3362
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26 Jun 2020, 5:14 pm

In my case... My own traits of alexithymia is superficial at best.

I'm not alexithymic but more like developmentally delayed.

Most of my narratives are internal, subjective -- abstract, sensory, relative... Even as much as I tried to otherwise.
In spite of being in the spectrum myself -- except only to find that being autistic had no baring on such inclinations except for lack of experience and lack of reliable accomodations or guides (both internal and external)...
Turns out this is not how alexithymics typically would do it.

Almost everything I've experienced is too 'colored' for my own taste, that sometimes I wish have little to no emotional narratives myself because it's distorting.

I really, really just suck at expressing, monitoring, verbalizing and regulating it from further distortions.

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