What Causes Alexithymia?

This video answers the question: What causes alexithymia? Alexithymia is a construct or a condition, but it's not a mental disorder. It won't be found, for example, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Alexithymia really has three distinct components to it. The first is a difficulty identifying emotions and what we commonly see here is difficulty distinguishing between bodily sensations and feelings. The second component is a difficulty describing feelings, so this would be a difficulty in expressing or communicating an emotional state to someone else. The third component of alexithymia would be an externally-oriented cognitive style. What this means is that there would be a low level of introspection so if somebody would tend to focus on external facts and not on feelings. We could think of this as concrete versus abstract. Someone with alexithymia would tend to think in concrete terms and not abstract terms. We could think of this in terms of the five-factor model as having some similarity to low openness to experience, specifically low imagination and low levels of fantasy. Another interesting point here with this third aspect of alexithymia is that this also tends to affect dreams. We also see increased levels of impulsivity increased levels of aggression. There is comorbidity with a number of other mental disorders. We see comorbidity with all of the Cluster B personality disorders except for histrionic personality disorder, so this would include narcissistic, antisocial, and borderline personality disorder. We also see comorbidity with substance use disorder, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Some research has indicated that alexithymia actually predicts posttraumatic stress disorder. Alexithymia is thought of as being highly stable, it's usually conceptualized as a personality trait and, of course, personality disorders are conceptualized as an extreme manifestation of certain personality traits. The theory in terms of the etiology of alexithymia is that child maltreatment leads to alexithymia and alexithymia tends to contribute in some ways to certain mental health symptoms. There are five types of child maltreatment: there's emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical abuse, physical neglect, and sexual abuse. Of these five types, alexithymia has been most closely linked to emotional neglect and emotional abuse and really hasn't been linked very strongly at all to the other types of child maltreatment.
Brown, S., Fite, P. J., Stone, K., Richey, A., & Bortolato, M. (2018). Associations between emotional abuse and neglect and dimensions of alexithymia: The moderating role of sex. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 10(3), 300–308.

[spoatytheone]

I got a very good imagination but I don’t know any emotion but anger all my emotions are anger

[MrTonyJ]

Many people on the spectrum have this. They do not necessarily have any personality disorders, nor a history of abuse.

[sandangels]

Could you please cover alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder. I wish it had been addressed in this video. Alexithymia in ASD is the result of how the brain develops due to genetic factors rather than abuse.

[blubtasticc]

When my friends cried I’d find it funny because I knew they were sad but I couldn’t feel the empathy or what they were feeling

[diablominero]

I'm fairly certain that I have alexithymia from my autism (I wasn't mistreated in childhood). However, I'm also infuriatingly abstract in some situations. Other times, I'll choose a concrete example to represent an abstract concept, but the other person latches on to the details of the example and can't see the forest for the tree I chose to show.
Is it possible that the difficulty with abstract thought isn't true as such, but rather there's a difficulty communicating abstract thought? I don't know how an experiment could distinguish between those possibilities, but it's certainly worth thinking about.

[rachelg]

:( I think my son has alexithymia, I'm a single mother. I don't think I've abused or neglected my son. I only recently was able to get him diagnosed with autism. My biggest fear is being a bad parent. I know I've made mistakes, maybe I have left gaps and I'm not aware of it. I will continue to seek professional help for us both. Idk what to do.

[omsnaga]

In regards to emotional neglect/abuse I think it shows how important it is to mirror a childs feelings to connect with them, if you are unable to do so it will have an effect on them. I had that problem with my mother, in old pictures of us we have completely different facial expressions.
I think it's important to note that it can happen even if the parent is well meaning if the parent has some sort of untreated mental condition of their own.

[loverofmysoul]

It is like butterflies in stomach. I can't describe it.

[AlastorTheNPDemon]

Emotions are confusing to me. I know that I feel negatively and positively, but there are a few emotions that I just can't quite wrap my head around.

You said in another video that clinical narcs have issues seeing fear or sadness in others, and this is certainly true in my case. As for the feeling I get when I'm slighted... It is a rather vulnerable feeling. I looked in the mirror one day last year while I was in this mood and saw a most serious frown. Apparently, this is anger.

Wow, the mind is such a fascinating thing, isn't it?

[ruth]

I have this myself & BPD.
It has taken me a very long time to be able to "fill in the blank".
I correlate my physical symptoms & reoccurring thoughts/impluses to a possible emotion.

So I can tell (when deep enough into the emotion) when I'm angry, depressed, agitated, empty or maybe anxious. I can't yet "feel" any other emotion besides those 5.

I always catch them right before I "tip" over. Stops me from lashing out at someone or from having a full on panic attack.

Anyone else who has this issue, I highly suggest attempting to be more intuitive. Look up "symptoms" of certain emotions and ask yourself at least once a day "how am I feeling?".
Hope it helps x

[shadowthehedgehog]

Wow, I've often wondered why I have trouble feeling and expressing my emotions, as well as identifying what others are feeling. I also have always been frustrated by my dumb, mundane dreams [if I can remember them at all]. I had no idea the two could be related. Thanks for this informative video.

[Costerella]

I like to think I have an imagination, I like to imagine scenarios in my head of different lives I could have. I’m not able to really know the difference emotions, nor explain what I feel. But I usually just feel nothing. Like a empty feeling.

[lexiehollens]

What about Alexithymia and ASD? Is it a common comorbidity ? Are there any studies on this subject?

I heard a statistic that 40% of autistics experience alexathymia compared to the general population which is about 10%. Do you know if in autistic individuals it is due to emotional neglect as well?

[maddiebarlow]

I'm writing a story with a sixteen year old boy who was sexually abused as a child, which turns into alexithymia. This video really helped me understand this condition more, thank you

[jennifersinclair]

My mother has this condition to the MAX. I have never ceased to be surprised of her nonchalant responses.

[autismenlightenment]

I have alexithymia and post traumatic stress disorder. I have been working on it and last night i had my second positive dream in the last year. I had a lot of nightmares as a kid and stopped dreaming altogether for the bulk of my life.

[melodymacken]

Never heard of it. Now I have. Excellently explained and concise presentation Dr.

[bloopy]

I wonder how psychedelic drugs would effect a person with alexithymia

[retroactivejealousy-worldl]

What about alexithymia as a symptom of Autistic Spectrum Conditions?