Dr. Dawn Neumann: What is Alexithymia?

Dr. Dawn Neumann explains alexithymia.

This content is made possible by a partnership between the Indiana University School of Medicine and WETA/BrainLine.

This work has been supported by research funds made available by the NIH NICHD STTR (Phase I), grant no. 1R41HD077967-01A1, Indiana University Funding Opportunities for Research Commercialization and Economic Success (FORCES).

National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research the Indiana Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems 90DP0036 and 90DRTB0002.

The contents of this video were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research the Indiana Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems 90DP0036 and 90DRTB0002. NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this video do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

[melvinmathew]

Well explained. Now tell me how to cure it

[maddiee]

So for me, I feel emotions, like love, excitement, happiness, jealousy. But I don't cry when someone dies. Like today I had my great-grandma's funeral, and I was pretty close to her, But I did not shed one tear. it kinda makes me feel bad in a way. I know I was not born with this because when my cat died when I was 4, my mom said I cried really hard, so I know that. But randomly my heart-rate goes up and I get really hot for some reason. I don't know why that happens though. And I cry for no reason sometimes, and my mom asks me why I'm crying, I just say " I don't know" then she askes me "So your crying for NO reason??" and it kinda hurts my feelings cause I can't express it, or tell her why I'm crying.

Sorry, I'm just spilling everything out, and btw if you read all this... wow.

[littlesailor]

I feel like I have alexithymia, but also a lack of emotion. I genuinely do not feel anything when someone dies. I do not understand what grief is and what it would feel like. However I can notice my anxiety by physical symptoms like heart rate, breathing and maybe sweating. I do not love, I do not feel happy, I do not feel sad, I do not feel jealous. I do understand the concepts and I can teach myself how to portray them. Portraying emotion is pretty much just lying tho. I do get excited sometimes?? I guess that's just my reward system that is intact? I'm confused lol

[rilly]

I seriously thought something was wrong with me and it was just me as I often don't know what I'm feeling and why I'm feeling it or how to describe it to people. I'm learning how to work through it, but it definitely sounds like I got it and I feel SO much better knowing that I'm not alone. :)

[evilspirit]

In my case I feel emotions, although I don’t know how to express nor differentiate them from one and other, I feel love, happiness and anger but the only ones I can “recognize “ is anger and confusion.
Complex emotions like love, excitement and confusion are some I can’t comprehend, and as I saw in many comments I don’t feel much grief either.
A good example is that I think I love this guy, but the thing is when I told him how I felt something didn’t sit right with me, I was convinced it was love but was met with the gut feeling that no it wasn’t, of course I explained myself and we cool, but the thing is i show “symptoms “ of love but idk I think that I can’t except the fact I may like someone

[lumina]

I think I was born with this, complete lack of emotions even as a kid but now I’m better at masking

[ketrielise]

I deffinetly have this, the weird thing is I know I havent always been this way. I used to have more friends, passions, be talkative and now I feel like a stranger to that person. Ive deffintly felt this along with apathy for extended periods of time in the past (6 months or so), but it was usually caused by some life event. In the past Ive always eventually come out of somehow and its felt amazing to feel emotions and drive again. Im really concerned though in this phase of experiencing this. Im concerned because I dont feel anything, I dont feel myself and I feel pretty hopeless as to how any therapy could help this since its hard for me to reflect on any of my emotional states or answer questions. I do have friends, but noone im really close to. Ive tried talking to a few people about this, but it really doesnt help. Its hard for me to talk about it and me talking about it opens up to others asking me questions that I cannot answer. I feel seriously lost about how to seek help for this... it seems like something that a psyciatrist or neurologist may be able to help with... but Im not hopeful. From what ive researched it can be a symtom of many illnesses, but its really not clear cut in my case. I feel like Ive been passivily living with this for too long hoping it will just resolve on its own and now is the time to confront it. I seriously feel that theres something off when my brain at this point based off the degree that this emotional blunting has gotten to, even honestly answering how I am to another is a serious challange... I default to saying Im good and not much else... even though I know something is off. Im not working right now and an completely unmotivated... every second of the day Im just trying to mindlessly pass... literally I could just stair at my phone scrolling facebook sitting in one place for 16 hours. Its embaressing to admit to, but that is how unengauged my brain is. If most people heard that theyd probably reccomend I do better things with my life and time... the problem is that everything feel equivlent to just staring at a wall for hours.. thats a very weird way to describe a feeling as its clealy not a feeling, but thats all ive got. It makes me feel sad that I just dont enjoy social interactions anymore, but something feels very off about having no social interactions... im not quite there yet, but I feel it coming if this keeps up. I cant stress enough that this is not a choice by any means... I feel like a ghost of who Ive been in the past and reminising on me at my "best" or when ive felt more "myself" does not feel productive. Any suggestions on how to seek the right help? I dont have a GP and it feels weird to go to a walk-in clinic over this kind of thing for a referral to a psyciatrist. On the outside this probably seems like nothing and Ive treated this that way for far to long... though I know sonething is so off, I cant recall ever feeling so much like a robot with absolutely nothing to express, no thoughts or feelings, difficulty even smiling or laughing, I feel like I just do these things to somewhat fit in... I feel like such an alien from myself. I have tried to wait this out and do things to make this better and nothing makes a difference. I dont think ive ever had a phase where Ive cared so little about anything... it concerns me how much I could just let pass without caring. Obviously I do care somewhere deep down otherwise I wouldnt be expressing this as an issue... but to which degree I cannot describe, this passivity incredibly concerning to me and I do not feel in control of myself. I dont feel like anything or anyone is hold me back, but Im stuck and this is weird. Thanks for reading if anyone made it this far. Im not usually able to express this much, but Im thinking maybe someone else is watching this because they've experience this too... to anyone else experiencing this I truely hope you find answers too.

[goat]

I definitely feel I'm on the spectrum of this, being mad, sad, jealous is just one feelings to me, when someone says they love me I do not feel anything at all, I do sometimes get sad about certain things but only in regards to family, never outside sources.

[hollyjollyxmas]

Thank you so much for this explanation because I thought for sure I didn’t have this since I knew when I was happy versus sad, but it’s obviously deeper and more nuanced than that.

[NikiProshin]

I think I have something like this, perhaps a light form. Do I feel happiness? I'd say it's rather a feeling of satisfaction. Sadness? A feeling of dissatisfaction. Grief, anger, and the rest of "negative" emotions are unknown to me. Sometimes I feel being touched by something, but this "something" is different from other people.
Do I need or want to cure it? Not, I'm satisfied = happy with who I am. My life's good

[flostack]

If theres a mild "version" of Alexithymia i think i would have it. Sometimes i cant control my emotions, or sometimes i just wont have the feelings that people say i should have. Yeah, i have reactions to death and stuff, but with other stuff sometimes im just stone cold

[asteilx.]

i dont know if i have alexithymia, like i can feel happiness but i cant express it. sometimes when people give me gifts or stuff, i dont really feel anything. like i feel like i probably felt happy but i just cant express it yk?

[lMariom]

I have this since 15 years old I’m 20 now It’s crazy I only feel something for a second in a day and for that second I feel so happy and alive and then boom shuts down whyyyy please help me

[Kotifilosofi]

I'm sceptical of whether I have psychological emotions to begin with, but just the physiological reactions of my body, oftentimes seemingly for no reason or connection to anything around me. I can only ever identify myself having four "moods" or responses:
1. positive (hyper) active
2. positive passive
3. negative (hyper) active
4. negative passive
I've tried to fit my responses to the descriptions of feelings, but it could as well be a blind person matching colors to their names. Sometimes a person names a feeling for me, such as "you must feel very sad/happy etc. right now" and I can't agree nor disagree. As a kid talking about emotions just confused and irritated me very much, nowadays I'm just neutrally sceptical 😆

[babeomi]

I think this condition can also be described as not being able to recognize emotion even on other people

[sebastianbyrgiel]

First, let me say I appreciate you taking the time to make this video with that being said as somebody who definitely suffers from this, I could tell you were just going down the list of symptoms and characteristics that someone may or may not encounter granted I’m speaking from a personal point of view Let me elaborate by explaining mention that this essentially is a poor insight of one’s emotions which I disagree with completely. I would say that I am extremely sensitive to my emotions. The problem resides in being able to separate these emotions from merging for instance things that should make me feel joy, often due to childhood trauma and family. Abandonment issues tend to make me feel sad, sad and angry separated by a very thin line. You also mentioned that people who suffer from this may not be paying attention to certain cues as in elevated heart rate things of that nature, if someone Has a elevated heart rate due to an emotion that their experiencing that they’re having trouble identifying it would be natural to assume that they would have problems identifying such cues. I think The video was made the intent to educate someone who will encounter someone suffering from an emotional disorder. I know I’m rambling a bit, but I just wanted to let everyone know that reading bullet off points that you memorized comes off as for a lack of better terms, cold and disingenuous. Please comment back anyone. I’d love to have this conversation. Maybe I’m wrong.

[xfatexzero]

is feeling exiting and happy the same thing

[pajuhasdied]

Clinically diagnosed with alexithymia. So yay i definetly have this

[Tooclosemedia]

Amazing video however, I believe I go through this myself due to upbringing other things so when she said they know they’re angry I actually believe they know that they are excited or we know rather excitement from us can look different

[imslothed]

I’m so confused 🙂. When I go to the psychologist I can’t tell them any emotion i felt😐. A long time ago I went to a funeral for someone i didn’t even know and I was balling but like for what? I didn’t care…