What is Alexithymia? (Inability to Express or Recognize Emotions)

This video describes the concept of alexithymia. Alexithymia is a construct, which is sometimes thought of as a personality construct or condition, that involves difficulty identifying feelings or recognizing feelings or emotions in other people. Alexithymia is not a mental health disorder but it is a construct we oftentimes see when certain mental health disorders are present. We could think of alexithymia as having both internal and external components. With the internal component, we see that somebody has difficulty identifying their own feelings, describing those feelings, and expressing those feelings. There's a deficit in awareness of feeling also there's difficulty differentiating between feelings and bodily sensations. We also see a decrease in imagination and thinking is restricted to more concrete and logical than abstract. Dreams can be affected by this internal component of alexithymia. Dreams are basic and realistic as opposed to having a lot of fantasy, again consistent with the decrease in imagination. There is oftentimes increased impulsivity with alexithymia. As far as the external component, this is a failure to recognize emotions in other people, and just like the internal component, this can be specific to certain emotions. Alexithymia is on a continuum, so someone could have difficulty recognizing sadness or fear but be able to recognize enthusiasm. We see that alexithymia can be challenging because it causes suffering, it damages relationships, and can hurt careers. Even though it's not a mental health disorder it certainly has mental health consequences in a number of presentations. We can also think of alexithymia as having two dimensions, the cognitive and the affective. On the cognitive side, there is a deficit with identifying, interpreting, and describing feelings. On the affective side, it's experiencing and expressing feelings. Somebody could have a deficit in the cognitive dimension but not as much in the affective and the opposite can be true. Most times we think of alexithymia though, we think of deficits being present on both the cognitive and affective dimensions. Alexithymia is not a mental health disorder but it's often comorbid with specific mental health disorders. We tend to see alexithymia more with narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, some depressive and anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders. Alexithymia affects about 8% of males and 2% of females. Alexithymia can interfere with mental health treatment, so if somebody has one of those mental health disorders or another mental health disorder and alexithymia, the alexithymia can get in the way of the treatment because a lot of the mental health modalities focus on being in touch with feelings and being able to identify feelings in other people.

[engleharddinglefester]

I have this. First time I noticed it was I was told by a therapist that I needed to look around in my body for feelings associated with emotions. Totally foreign concept for me; I had no idea you could actually feel feelings. Also I suck at writing fiction where characters are motivated by the way they feel about things. So I think alexithymia is a kind of blindness.

[ivorymantis]

I have to remind myself to smile in good company or else I'm perpetually stone faced. I don't want diagnoses to further sink me into the social murk as I will be ostracized. I don't know what to do. I want friends and lovers too.

[adarshadasshrestha]

Hello sir...
I can recognize emotions well, but I have problems expressing them.

[CNDVL]

I miss being able to dream. I miss nightmares. Ive lost the ability to express most emotions. This is the closest thing to explaining whats wrong with me. Thanks.

[gurpremsingh]

Earlier i used to have a dead expression, even when my grandfather died my thoughts were, well, flat to put it bluntly, I niether felt sad nor did I cry and I said to myself it will happen to everyone one day why are my parents crying? I was 5 then. At school too most people would either thought that I was anti social or egoistic, the truth is I was just neutral,
I displayed emotions because I had learnt to imitate them by watching others. I made some friends and talked with them to learn more stuff.

It was around 8th grade I associated fear and anxiety when I did a public speech, later on sadness when I lost someone very close to me, and from there I figured out what the opposite of sad would be like.
My best friend says that the cyborg has finally gained feelings lmao.

Now i can identify sadness, happiness, anger, fear and most other emotions, does that mean I will be fine without any other help, I recognise them and 'feel' them but I can also like pull the plug and go blank.

About my dreams: There is one dream in particular I don't like, it constitutes of white and black lines in a horizontal fashion slowly expanding. They move in an incomprehensible way, I can't explain it. And for some reason that dream scares me.

[soldout]

I believe that I am creative, imaginative, have nice colorful dreams, but I rarely feel anything, I almost never cry, and when I do, I don't feel much, tears just fall for some reason.

Can this be Alexithymia ?

[jamesartmeier]

Thank you for the concise and informative video. Alexithymia also tends to be comorbid with autism and disorders of the corpus callosum.

[krillkoi]

I grew up in a emotional abusive household, I'm here because after awhile I just stopped feeling when they would insult me. They'd call me things that would usually make me start to sob but eventually I just stopped feeling everything. Now, I feel like I've got a wall thats between me and my emotional life, every time I try to show people I'm happy, it never feels real.
Should I try to go to a doctor about it?

[Astrid_Grace]

I learned my husband has this. I feel like an awful person. How often I would get sooo frustrated, thinking he was refusing to communicate. He needs more processing time for his feelings, and I need to give him that time and space.

[Imakecracks]

I had a small argument with my partner recently because she was saying I could be more romantic, I tried explaining to her that I don’t understand romance nor do I feel it, now I haven’t ever even bothered telling anyone about my inner self because I assumed maybe people were the same, she seemed perplexed and also annoyed because she couldn’t understand it when I told her I can have a laugh and a joke but I don’t get happy, it’s just the same monotone existence I see through my eyes and she started saying ‘well I know loads of guys who are romantic’ and what not, but I’m not those other people. I can identify being angry and that can be expressed internally (against myself) or externally (angry at others) I’m glad I’ve found this video, she tried to make it seem that I was the only one like this. Even down to love, my view of love is more a view of respect or down to how much I feel like I have to have something or someone in my life, therefor I don’t have a lot of people in my life and I find it difficult to make and maintain friendships, thus I have more fingers on one hand than I personal connections with people

[brayanace]

i dont think i have this but it is really really hard to tell people what i feel i wanna say it but i cant. i just cant get the words out of me...

[virginiamurrey]

As with the previous video, this video has offered good information that is comprehensive for those who are still learning about concepts (such as myself); It is also a great tool to utilize for research.

[salzwell]

I saw a psychologist for the treatment of my eating disorder when I was 17. She told me years later that I had very bad alexithymia. I am a lot better now, but it took me years to overcome my anorexia/ bulimia. I have learnt to manage my depression and anxiety and I can communicate my feelings a lot more effectively.

[larussomusic]

I was an alcoholic for 7 years so maybe that’s why I’m here. I’ve been clean 2 months but still feel like a zombie most days.

[kikixiong]

Thank you for your informative video! I like how detailed your videos are to explain certain traits or symptoms of disorders.

[dv]

What helps not damage relationships and you personal image as much is pretending/acting. Or at least that helps me. Either way, it's nice to have a word for this thing.

[TheAnonyomusGuy]

Is there a condition or disorder where someone is aware of the emotions they're feeling but it's physically incapable of expressing them and what would cause that to occur

[jareddebeast]

A lot of these things match up with what i have expirienced most of my life only being able to reconise anger and no other emotions is actually not as fun because i only remember the times i got angry in my early youth i also can’t link any emotions to specific memories

[meme]

I was talking with a friend of mine who's studying physiatric and I was complaining that nothing seems to triggers me anymore. For example, I was making out with a guy and I was bored. He even told me that "u know kissing doesn't have to last this sort" and I was thinking "you kidding me I was dreaming about the book in my bag for centuries", I had a fight with a friend of mine last month and she was technically fighting by herself and she said some pretty bad things to me and I was expecting me to cry but if you ask me now I dont even remember what she said. The same friend who's studying physiatric claims that I have anxiety and I was always denied that yet my hands are shaking and sometimes my legs as well. Even my voice breaks at times (mostly when I talk to him). I can hardly express any feeling verbal. I am able to describe a feeling with moves or pictures but not with words because I can never be fully sure if its pure. I don't seem to get hurt. no matter what people say or do to me. I don't feel like crying. I don't get enthusiastic as easily as I used to and when I do..well I can't explain but it dosen't feel right. like.. I coud be more happy, I could feel more. I just feel like the vibes I get are not strong enough, the feelings i get from people don't satisfy me. Its like I know I can feel more but.. I can't. And it's not like I am sad, I am just dissapointed. I have no idea what I am looking for bacause everything I do and everyone I meet boring me. Like the guy I mentioned before.I was never interested inrelationships and boys and all these but like I said I was bored and I wanted to try something new something different. He was honestly the most different person I could ask for, yet I was bored. The point is, I can identify others emotions and I do sympathize at times but I feel nothing myself. and its not the dark, poetic, depressing thing movies and 14 years old tend to romanticize, its a state where I am not sad at all but I can't gain satisfaction from anything. Emotions are there, they always are but I can't sense them.
So my friend suggested that I have alexithymia. I do recognise some of the sumptoms on me but I am not yet convinced that that's the case because like I said I don't have problem identify other people emtions or symathize with them and I can identify when I feel happiness but the amount of happiness I feel does not satisfy me. I always think that there must be something more.

[samizdatbroadcasts]

Fascinating <raises one eyebrow>