sankalp-indish/alexithymia-adhd-predictor
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string | title
string | text
string | created_utc
string | id
string | alexithymia
int64 | adhd_risk
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Alexithymia
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I hate having alexithymia
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I hate not feeling like one is “supposed” to. I hate it even more because I know I used to be able to feel just like everyone else. I’m literally going to Disneyland tomorrow because it’s my birthday and I can’t feel one single emotion. I hate having to act happy when something happens to not come off as ungrateful and having to act sad when something bad happens to not seem cold.
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2025-06-20T07:33:10
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1lfxyuo
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Think I have alexithymia - so what next?
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Sorry for the long post. I'm hoping that by writing this out, it helps me understand a few things.
I've never been able to articulate my emotions and thought I would Google to see what came up. Was amazed to find out I wasn't the only one! Had never heard of alexithymia before but really feels like the penny has dropped now. But can't figure out what to do next. I see a lot of people suggesting seeing a counsellor - but, given I can't articulate my feelings, how would this work? And would it be of any benefit to me?
I've found three online alexithymia tests: TAS-20 (scored 70/100), OAQ test and (scored 127/185) and Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (scored 72.14%). Each said my level of alexithymia was high.
Have also done some autism and Adhd tests which were a bit non-conclusive. Although I definitely have some traits associated with autism (routines, socialisation, tics etc), I don't think that I have autism.
From reading other's experiences, I think that I have probably underestimated scores in the tests. For example, I thought that I always knew my feelings but just couldn't explain them to others. But, on reflection, I can't remember the last time I was angry, anxious, elated etc. I know that I'm always feeling something, but it's on two levels - OK or not OK. I can't remember the last time I cried. Think it was at infants class at primary school - I remember a girl saying "only girls cry". Since then, have been a couple of times I've felt I needed to cry, but haven't physically been able to.
Also, have realised that I haven't been picking up on physical signals as well as I'd thought. For example, I can work a ten hour shift barely drinking anything whilst colleagues drink litres. I also have a very high pain threshold, poor smell, and hearing issues in a noisy background even though hearing tests say my hearing is perfect.
As I say, sorry for the long post. Literally first heard of alexithymia a few days ago and a lot of thoughts in my head now. But does make sense. Any and all opinions welcome!
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2025-06-19T23:07:58
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1lfotxd
| 1 | 1 |
Alexithymia
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Scored high on all alexithymia tests
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i took the paq-s, tas-20, and qaq tests and scored high on all of them.
paq-s: 42/42
tas-20: 94/100
qaq: 179/185
Anyone on the same boat? Kinda of weird to see the results and not feel much about them.
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2025-06-20T03:34:23
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1lfu2zs
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Is it possible to be HSP and have alexithymia? Also how do you find a therapist?
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Sorry this is more of a vent than a question.
I’ve always known that I am not the best at expressing my feelings, but it has recently come to my attention that I am very much detached from emotions entirely, especially the negative ones. I hate the question “how are you?” because I never know how I am other than a vague “good” or “not good”.
I’m not sure if I can be called a HSP, but here are some instances that I can recall right now:
- After listening to my best friend talk about her messy breakup, I went home and suddenly had a full bawling moment as if I was heartbroken myself (I’m not seeing or interested in anyone atm)
- It makes me nervous to the point of nausea watching audition/competing style shows because I stand too much with the participants.
I thought everyone was like this until I was talking about why I don’t watch the dance battle show with my favorite team on and my friend asked me if I was ok.
So despite having these intense emotions for other people, I can’t think of a specific moment where I was mad, frustrated, sad, jealous, etc. for myself. I have these random moments of rage, stress, or extreme fatigue where I fail to get to work, but I never know what the cause was. It just kind of appears randomly, and I just go exercise or binge eat to let the bad feelings go away.
So is it possible to be both HSP-ish and have alexithymia, or do I have something else entirely? (I. have depression and is medicated)
Also, for anyone going to therapy for this, how do you find a therapist that can work with alexithymia? The one time I went to therapy, the therapist recommended CBT, but since I couldn’t explain what I was feeling past a “it was not good” it didn’t really work out.
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2025-06-19T12:24:20
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1lf9haz
| 1 | 1 |
Alexithymia
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Alexithymia and GI Issues
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Hello! I'm wondering if anyone has any pearls of knowledge on the prevalence of alexithymia + GI issues (nausea, diarrhea, etc). It see these two things occur together frequently. Have you found anything that has helped with GI issues? Anyone have hypothesis on the link between the two?
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2025-06-19T04:05:53
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1lf1fah
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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What are indicators that your stressed?
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I can’t tell if i just have a stomach ache or if im actually stressed
Edit: sorry if I was being unclear. I more wanted to ask what physical symptoms your body showed, which showed you were stressed. Eg sometimes I zone out, feel low energy and tears fall from my eyes which is a clear indicator to me I’m sad. I was wondering what people get for feeling stressed. Eg with me my stomach starts to ache and I think I’m a bit jittery and I start lashing out.
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2025-06-17T08:01:27
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1ldhfhb
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Have any of you found success in psychotherapy?
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I am never able to talk about myself when I'm in therapy, and i can never talk about stuff emotionally. It doesn't help that 99 percent of the time I feel like i am completely fine, even though im not, so usually when i am in therapy i always end up feeling like "i don't really need this im fine!"
Ive resorted to just trying to improve the best i can by myself which never ends up truly leading to any success.
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2025-06-17T13:34:38
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1ldna88
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Survey - language & disability
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Hi, everyone! I’m currently working on an academic research project concerning disability, language around it being a major aspect. I’d appreciate if you could take out the time to fill out this short survey.
I’m aware alexithymia isn’t a disability on its own, but a lot of people experiencing it are diagnosed with autism, ADHD, etc (like me).
Thank you so much!
[https://forms.gle/kaiseRZoxRZL2yNS9](https://forms.gle/kaiseRZoxRZL2yNS9)
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2025-06-16T19:05:46
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1ld1ms1
| 1 | 1 |
Alexithymia
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How do I know?
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I've been doing a lot of research recently and Alexithymia is something that's come on my radar a lot. There are some times when I really connect with it and there are times where I'm really not sure. My biggest struggle with determining if I have it is that I don't know what it feels like to have it, or what it feels like to not have it. I've looked at various descriptions and explainations but they all feel wildly different and there are parts I really connect with and others I can't understand.
How am I supposed to know? I've had times where I've looked in and had no idea what I was feeling, just yesterday I couldn't stop shaking, my breathing and chest were tight and I couldn't place why or what feeling was causing it. But then there are times when my emotions are overwhelming and I feel them too much. Anxiety makes me feel like I'm drowning and I can DEFINITELY feel it.
How do I know? Knowing I have Alexithymia would be a huge help in allowing me to understand my emotions and find more analytical ways to figure them out. But I don't trust it. And I don't feel comfortable asking those around me what their experience is bc I'm a little worried I'll misunderstand and then start working to fix a problem I don't have. Idk, what has helped you be sure one way or the other? What does it feel like for you?
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2025-06-13T18:11:47
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1lamxoi
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Maybe You'll Never Be Happy -- by Dr. Devon Price
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I have to focus on work soon, but I wanted to share this response (second half) toward somebody asking about inability to feel pleasure or desire. This is something I struggle with frequently and is actually feel a great deal of shame around... so I appreciate how thoughtful and insightful this response is!
[https://drdevonprice.substack.com/p/maybe-youll-never-be-happy-but-you](https://drdevonprice.substack.com/p/maybe-youll-never-be-happy-but-you)
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2025-06-12T14:23:15
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1l9nrs1
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Anything I can do?
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So I've only just recently found out alexithymia was a thing and it explains a lot but I can't figure out if knowing actually helps me in any way.
I think it's really negatively impacted my life, I dont have very many hobbies cause I always get confused if im enjoying them or not, I've never had anything even close to a relationship cause responding to affection is overwhelming, etc. Im in therapy but I can't afford an autism specialist so she doesn't really know how to support me with problems that arise from that.
I also have ADHD and getting diagnosed allowed me to get medication which has improved my life quite a bit but it doesn't seem like there's much support out there for alexithymia, should I seek a diagnosis anyway? Or should I just live my life forever not knowing what the hell is going on in my brain
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2025-06-12T13:05:00
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1l9lywe
| 1 | 1 |
Alexithymia
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Rather confused.
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So, basically what we s going on is that I've got many problems but do not know what emotions I am feeling. This has led to a reflection of my entire life and I réalisé now that I've never really had feeling.
I've never had a close friend or a secret love interest. Not have I ever felt attached emotionally to anyone or anything.
I've done reaserch and stumbled upon this forum. I've done the TAS-20 multiple times and consistently scored 86.
I do not know what this means. Do I have Alexithymia? I think so... but I'm not want to make a oerfessional analysis by myself.
Compliments and positivity are weird. It always feels empty and un deserved.
Also, I do not really feel empathy, I only repeat to others what people say to me when I'm having trouble.
In order to feel things I resort to extreme mesures.
Thank you and please answer, I could really use some advice.
Edit: For those with confirmed alenithymia please share your experiences so I may confirm my suspicions, as well as how to confirm.
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2025-06-11T03:25:43
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1l8iiwg
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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How do I know if it’s toxic masculinity or alexithemyia? and some of his behaviors seem too familiar. It’s ver y triggering
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My partner claims he cannot put feelings into words. But he can get sarcasm and seems to judge others on the regular..is he just an ahole who’s gaslighting me? My ex of 20 years was a narcissist and some of his behaviors seem too familiar. It’s ver and I tell him; he shuts down when I do and I end up feeling like the Ahole. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Just the other day I snapped at him and told him he’s hard to love and he said the same back to me. I need to know if this is a toxic relationship..
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2025-06-11T01:39:16
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1l8ggfx
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Can Alexithymia be "cured"
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Sorry if the question sounds stupid. And also sorry for the incoming vent.
For context: I'm not on meds. Not on drugs. Not on anything. I was very depressed for a long time and things have just gotten... bland. I don't feel anything anymore and it is driving me crazy. It's messing with my memory and I actually really want to *feel*. There are situations where I act as if I did feel just because if I didn't, I'd be seen as a sick twisted person (or at least, that's what my mind tells me). I am really tired and I am even starting to struggle with suicidal ideation and suicidal thoughts. I have a good life, I guess. I have friends, even if not many, I have a wonderful, beautiful, loving and caring girlfriend. I don't see why I am like this. I just kinda feel ungrateful.
Is there any way to stop this or this is a point of no return?
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2025-06-10T19:36:54
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1l884hv
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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I feel like a monster again.
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My grandmother is in the hospital. The doctors said the surgery might not go well. She's in pain, and honestly… part of me thinks it might be better for her to go peacefully than keep suffering like this.
The thing is, I grew up with her. She helped raise me. But right now, I feel nothing. Just silence. It was the same when my father passed. Everyone cried. I didn’t. Not because I didn’t care—I just couldn’t feel anything. And now, I’m stuck in the same loop again.
It’s a quiet kind of guilt. Like I’m broken. Or heartless. Like I’m watching everything from behind glass.
If you’ve ever felt this—how do you sit with it? How do you explain to others that it’s not that you don’t care… it’s that you just can’t feel it?
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2025-06-10T10:21:29
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1l7v5ie
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Research - Can Journaling Improve Emotional Awareness in Individuals with Alexithymia?
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Dear r/Alexithymia Community,
I hope this message finds you well. My name is Dr. Jardin, and I am a researcher studying alexithymia. I am reaching out to invite you to participate in a 1-week study examining the potential benefits of journaling for individuals with alexithymia.
**About the Study:**
This study aims to explore whether journaling can help individuals with alexithymia better identify emotions in themselves and others. Your participation will involve keeping a daily journal for one week and completing a few brief surveys before and after the journaling period. Participants will be entered to win 1 of 5 $20 Amazon gift cards.
**Why Your Participation Matters:**
Your insights are invaluable in helping researchers better understand alexithymia and develop more effective treatments for those who struggle with this condition. By participating, you will contribute to advancing knowledge in this field and potentially improving the lives of individuals with alexithymia.
**Previous Research:**
I have previously conducted research in this subreddit, and I am grateful for the support and participation of this community. You can find more information about my earlier work [here ](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-42332-001)and also over [here](https://aurco.org/journals/AURCO_Journal_2024/Jardin_Alexithymia_v30_AURCO24.pdf).
**How to Participate:**
If you are interested in participating, please use this [link](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYp4sDVGbn8TXQK-hBaSO9hY5qCQy-lVGX9OxET-mozxoqCQ/viewform?usp=header) for more information.
**Confidentiality:**
Your participation is entirely voluntary, and all responses will be kept confidential. My college’s institutional review board has approved the study (#02374r), and I am happy to provide further details about ethical approval upon request.
Thank you for considering this opportunity to contribute to research on alexithymia. Your time and effort are deeply appreciated, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards,
Dr. Elliott Jardin
Assistant Professor
Miami University
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2025-06-10T15:04:14
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1l81253
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Are we more likely to get into abusive relationships?
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I’m an autistic alexithymic with a disorganised attachment (what a wonderful title) and I often find myself chasing the high of people who display an interest in me but ultimately breadcrumb me and bring out my anxious side, as it triggers some of the highest emotional responses I’m capable of feeling. Because they make me feel so viscerally I become dangerously attached and lap up the minuscule affection because to me that’s what feels the most real.
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2025-06-09T22:25:38
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1l7igq5
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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I don’t have preferences
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I’ve been thinking recently about this thing for awhile..do i really have preferences? A weird fact about me is that i don’t have a favorite color. I don’t even have a clear idea of what i wanna be in the future. Does anyone else think/feel the same? And please do tell if you know how to solve this issue or what you think of this.
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2025-06-09T22:56:07
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1l7j5so
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Forcing a happy appearance
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My friend said something to me recently that made me realize I force myself to appear happy so people don’t really realize I can’t tell what I’m feeling most of the time. I always make it seem like I am feeling very happy all the time and try to be positive. Yet most of the time I have 0 idea what I’m feeling or essentially feel nothing (to my extent/knowledge atleast)
I didn’t really realize I was doing this as it became more a subconscious thing to do for me.
I was wondering if others do this or something similar?
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2025-06-09T12:37:12
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1l73ocr
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Is this substaintial?
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Like when people ask how are you feeling or something similar can they actually feel something?
I can very much recognise immense guilt, sadness or happiness or joy in myself. But that's a rare occasion.If you ask me what I'm feeling now I would say nothing.
Whenever someone has asked me how I am feeling I have always said alright even though its a nothing. I heard that its like a neutral state but I have this for like my whole life and only every 5 months do I really feel something. Even then Im not so sure what it is other than being unpleasant or not. I've been writing for some time and I have also noticed that when it comes to emotional states I default to someone having an "indescrible expression" on their face.
When I look back at my speech I can tell on a surface level that my voice is more intense and its "shoutier" but only on the surface as during such times I feel nothing under so I think its "acting" in some aspects? To actually Identify which Emotion I feel I have to go through hoops of analysing things on the surface level so other folks actually have more understanding of what I feel in the moment than myself.
There was a point in my life where there was enough guilt that my physical body suddenly stopped functioning well where I couldn't digest anything and breathe properly and had crazy stomach pain though it only happened once.
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2025-06-09T10:03:38
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1l70w41
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Is this considered alexithymia or is it another thing?
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So I feel emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, but I don't know why I feel certain ways, some times I don't really feel anything. For example if I feel sad I don't know why, only if there is an obvious cause, I sometimes even tie it to the wrong causes. For example I may be feeling sad or anxious, but I may not know until someone points a cause, with good emotions it usually happens less, for example I know why I feel happy, but I have never felt "peaceful", when I'm sad I don't know why I feel sad, I only knew I felt sad when my cat died. I have always been told that I'm not self aware and mostly smiled because I was told to smile. As a child I remember when I got out of school I ran smiling to my parents, the sight of their face made me smile, but I couldn't connect it to any cause (it was because I was happy to see them but didn't know at that time). I have got called insensitive many times, and got told that the only emotion I felt was happiness or anger.
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2025-06-08T18:07:26
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1l6io3y
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Alexithymia connected to sensory issues
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I found this publication super interesting, showing that sensory issues (and possibly other conditions) are genetically connected to alexithymia rather than the autism.
When I stumbled upon the alexithymia condition, I was able to lift quite some bit of my "what is wrong with me" thoughts. I also suffer from sensory difficulties, mostly related to sound, taste, smell. I always wondered how alexithymia affects other parts of my perception. I have generally really bad interoception, which I "felt" was connected to my alexithymia. I am feeling things but a lot of times it has to be extreme for me to feel it. Emotionally or physically, cant say I am hungry, thirsty, the urge to pee and so on. Even sleeping is an issue, I often forget I am tired.
That said, I am not diagnosed with autism, but consider giving it a try, once I have gathered enough information about differential diagnosises and conditions. Regardless of my autism status, its helpful to understand that alexithymia plays a role in my bad interoception, emotional landscape and sensory issues.
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2025-06-07T20:23:54
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1l5u9ry
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Trouble with empathy
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Having alexithymia makes it really hard for me to understand what I’m feeling, and because of that, I struggle a lot with empathy too. Sometimes I see that someone is upset or going through something, and I know I *should* feel something in response—but I don’t always feel it the way I think I’m supposed to. That makes me wonder if I’m doing something wrong or if I’m just missing something that comes naturally to other people. I don’t want to come off as cold or uncaring, because that’s not how I feel inside—but it’s hard to connect with emotions that I can’t even recognize in myself. I keep asking myself: is it actually possible for someone with alexithymia to feel empathy, maybe in a way that just looks or feels different? I’d really like to hear from others who might relate.
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2025-06-07T22:17:34
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1l5wr7y
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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“I wish I had that too.” Why do people say this when I tell them I have alexithymia?
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Every time I try to be honest with someone about having alexithymia, they respond with something like, “That sounds nice” or “I wish I had that too.” As if not feeling your emotions clearly is some kind of superpower.
I get it—maybe they’re overwhelmed with what they feel, and they imagine not having emotions would make life easier. But this isn’t peace. It’s just... silence. It’s like reading a story without understanding the meaning, flipping through life like pages in a picture book. You remember things, but there’s no emotional texture to them. Just blank outlines.
It’s not that I’m cold. I want to feel things the way others do. I just can’t name what’s happening inside, or trust that what I feel is even real. And when someone tells me they envy that, it just makes me feel more misunderstood.
I’m not emotionless. I’m just disconnected. And I’d trade anything to close that gap, even for a moment.
Anyone else experience this? How do you usually respond?
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2025-06-07T10:50:58
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1l5i19i
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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I am so happy I have found this place and this "condition"
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I am 45 and had no idea this condition existed.
I have spent my whole life wondering why I don't feel things like other people. I look at emotional moments like going to the zoo or something, making observations about how people act and react. And I think to myself, "why don't I act or react like they do"?
I have thought about all the possible options. Autism sort of fits me, but I'm very high functioning and do not struggle with friendships or social interactions. I can read social cues, and I'm empathetic. Autism didn't really fit.
I have wondered if I'm aromantic. A lot of aromantic tendencies fit me, too. My ex-wife thinks I am aromantic, but I am unsure.
A lot of dismissive avoidant fits me too, but not all. I think, unlike "true" or "pure" dismissive avoidants, I feel a drive to connect and form a connection with someone. I crave intimacy, but I don't know how to do it. And when I get it, I'm uncomfortable and overwhelmed.
While married, we had many fights. I'd have to run and retreat during them. I remember one time telling her, "it's like my brain is on fire" and she looked at me like I was a complete insane person. I never tried to explain the physical sensations my body felt again. It was too scary for me, and I was too afraid of her judgement.
But the reality is, all my emotions are felt as a sort of undefined static. It's so hazy I can't even see it clearly myself, much less explain it to someone. I need a lot of time to process them, and I spend a lot of time dissecting past emotions and asking "why?" as if I could solve the problems of emotions logically and cognitively.
Despite feeling this way my whole life, and despite being married to a mental health therapist and seeing many different therapists over the years to become more connected to myself, no one ever mentioned this condition to me. No one.
I found about it through ChatGPT of all fucking places. I fed it in my Reddit history, where I post about my stories and emotions in an attempt to figure them out. ChatGPT "diagnosed" me and everything about this condition fits me. Every word is relatable.
I'm now digging through this subreddit like Indiana Jones who found the treasure he's been seeking for his whole life. It's like I'm finally here. I found it. I'm reading your stories, from the people who also have this to the people who are struggling to be with someone like me. I am doing my usual thing, trying to understand every bit of this so I can apply these lessons to my own life and my own relationships.
I just want to say hello to the community here, to praise the bravery that both sides have in confronting these issues.
I hope we can all find peace with ourselves, improve as we can, find partners who can accept our love the way we feel and show it. And to those partners struggling to deal with partners like us, I hope the clarity also brings you a little peace. It is not you, and it is not that we do not feel. Stay strong for your partner if you have that strength, but look after yourself, too.
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2025-06-06T11:47:24
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1l4qdid
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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I can’t connect to my own sadness, and it’s starting to scare me
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I’m trying to understand myself better, and I could really use some insight or advice from people who’ve been through something similar.
I’ve noticed something strange about myself: I can get excited. I can feel happy, even thrilled, when something good happens. But when it comes to sadness or pain, loss, disappointment I just go blank. It’s like my brain refuses to process those feelings. I know I should be sad sometimes. I understand the situation. But I just feel... nothing. And then I feel guilty for not reacting “right.”
I think a lot of this started in childhood. I wasn’t really allowed to express my emotions growing up. I got shut down a lot told to be strong, to not complain, to stop crying. I guess over time, I just stopped trying. Now, I’m the eldest son in a big family, and I have responsibilities that don’t leave room for emotional breakdowns or vulnerability. So I keep things in. I ask for nothing. I keep my distance, even from the people closest to me.
What I do feel often is rage. Out of nowhere, I’ll feel like I want to scream or break things. I don’t act on it, but it scares me sometimes how strong that feeling is. I got into rock music because of this—it’s one of the only things that channels that energy and makes me feel like someone out there gets it.
From the outside, I probably seem like the goofy one. I make people laugh. I don’t take things seriously. But the truth is, I have a lot of insecurities, especially about myself. I hate being recorded or having my picture taken. If someone clicks a bad photo of me, it can ruin my whole day. It sounds shallow, but it cuts deeper than just looks it feels like I’m being seen in a way I can’t control.
Even with close friends, I don’t talk about this. I have a female friend who often cries in front of me, and I comfort her but I never say a word about my own emotions. I don’t know how. I feel like I missed some essential lesson in how to be a person.
I want to change. I want to be better. I want to feel things like a normal person and stop living like I’m just getting through the day.
Today I feel like bawling my eyes out, but I just can't.
If anyone here has felt this way and managed to move forward, I’d genuinely appreciate hearing how.
Did therapy help? Is there anything I can try by myself?
I don’t want to stay stuck like this.
Thanks to anyone who read this far.
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2025-06-05T15:53:12
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1l42pyq
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Next steps
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I just took the TAS-20 and got a 66 meaning I likely have alexithymia. The one problem is that I'm 13 and everything I found online said its recommended for 16+, is it worth it to pursue next steps or is it likely a fluke?
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2025-06-05T16:57:59
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1l44cwo
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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is this alexithymia? or just not fully understanding emotions
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as a human being i am susceptible to emotions, obviously i can cry, i can laugh or i can get angry or frustrated. but i don't exactly recognise anything "internally". i might act pissed but inside the most i can "feel" is "frustrated" which is well, mostly based on my thoughts.
if i cry, it just comes to me even when i dont want it. it doesn't happen very often but when it does (usually triggered by what i assume is fear and/ or paranoia) i cannot really foresee crying. after a while i "feel" fine but my body is still crying. even right now, i have no idea how I'm feeling aside from being physically slightly tired and nauseous. considering the events in my life i can logically "firgure it out" - assume what emotions i "should" be feeling. or by physical reactions - fear can be a sharp pain in my heart, dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, etc. sometimes the pain gets so strong it's actually concerning - like the feeling of my heart beating in my chest for 3 days straight (so, i get worried that it has something to do with my health and i get ever more anxious ...) i can smile when it's expected of me but i usually feel awkward during it. i always considered my face very expressive and full of emotions but a friend in real life told me i'm absolutely wrong. alexithymia was suggested as an anwser to my issues online a few months ago. im autistic as well since that might affect it.
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2025-06-04T05:48:30
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1l2xwxg
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Starving
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I’ve been married to a man for 24 years who recently (in the last 2 years) was diagnosed with ASD and alexithymia. He sexually discarded me a few years into our marriage. I’ve stayed. My children are just about out on their own.
I’m literally starving for a form of emotional and physical intimacy I can feel and understand. I’ve met him with nothing but patience, grace and unwavering care and understanding. I’ve decided to leave because I am an intelligent, radiant woman with a huge heart. I have everything to give and want to experience deep love and knowing with someone who can see me with their whole selves. I know I am not alone in this. I also cannot begin my divorce for over another year. What have you woman done to find love and intimacy in this in between space?
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2025-06-03T01:47:56
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1l1zwtu
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Feeling strongly for the first time in a while, don’t like it
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Had a breakup after 4 years of being together. Cut my hair really badly. Behind by 2 weeks on multiple university assignments. Reality of all 3 is setting in at once on a random Monday morning and I really want it to go away now
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2025-06-02T10:32:50
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1l1em3b
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Social media break benefited me
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Okay so I tried and failed to do a week long social media and general phone break but I lasted long enough to notice benefits. I was able to be present more and notice and accepted my anger and was able to understand why and stay with uncomfortable emotions, I had more mental clarity in that short period that i realized when I went back on my phone that I started to get confused about feelings and just numbed it out with distractions. I mean obviously this common but for me it was significant enough that the more I think of it the more I realize how I always found a distraction immediately after something uncomfortable or traumatic, wether it’s reading (yes I was addicted to reading as a form of escapism) music, tv shows or social media. I think out of all of them, social media is by far the most damaging. In the past my attention span was so terrible so I didn’t realize how these things affected my emotions. So I want to do something very hard for me and get offline for the summer and see how I feel. Have any of you tried to get offline and noticed your emotions?
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2025-06-02T02:34:25
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1l16wes
| 0 | 1 |
Alexithymia
|
Used to be the life of the room, now I feel numb and disconnected
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Went out with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while. Good people — I actually like being around them. But for some reason, it felt like a part of my drive was switched off. I was so damn silent, emotionally dull, had little to nothing to say. My brain wasn’t interested in engaging or connecting, I was just… there. Straight face, nothingness. No stories, no jokes, no memories coming up, and whatever I did say felt forced because it was expected.
4 years ago, I was the life of the room. I’d crack jokes, tell stories, pull pranks, start conversations effortlessly. Now it feels like my brain forgot how to think. Memory’s a mess too — can’t recall events, can’t make conversation naturally. Feels like my mind isn’t forming memories properly anymore.
Now to the point: I’ve been one month p\*rn-free after 6 years of compulsive use. I used it for everything — boredom, anxiety, sadness, you name it. Tried to quit for 3 years, and only when I dropped the triggers (social media, alcohol, weed, bad sleep) was I able to push past 100 days once a few months ago.
Some of you will say “see a professional” — I did. Saw a therapist 3 times, didn’t feel it was for me (maybe later, idk). Saw a psychiatrist twice — prescribed me magnesium citrate, then milk thistle. Not sure what he’s aiming for, maybe playing it safe or maybe doesn’t know what to do either. I’m seeing him again in 4 days.
I’m honestly terrified of meds. I’ve read so many posts about people regretting it, talking about being numb (which I already am), brain zaps, lasting effects even after quitting. It freaks me out.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but this isn’t living. Overthinking every interaction, analyzing everything, never in the moment. Missing out on life. I don’t approach girls, I feel detached from my own mind.
I go to the gym 4 times a week, eat healthy, read books, sleep well. Quitting p\*rn this past month has been emotionally brutal, which makes me think it could be withdrawals. But what if it’s something deeper?
Has anyone here gone through this? Is this normal for withdrawals? Or should I be looking at something else? Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been there.
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2025-06-01T09:24:59
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1l0kt8t
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Why do I feel embarrassed to tell people I'm doing dance as a hobby?
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Idk which sub to post this to 😭 Why do I feel embarrassed to tell people I'm doing dance as a hobby? I think I feel shame. I feel like keeping it a secret. Why would I feel this way about salsa dance classes? I'm confused.
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2025-06-01T11:24:05
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1l0mmoz
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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self exploration is tough (long and rambling)
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I’ve been trying to find the boxes I can best fit my sense of self into. Something about lining up my experiences with scientific literature makes me feel seen, maybe like there's a way out. Alexithymia came across my path this time and it seems like there’s a lot of overlap
I don’t feel a wide range of emotions. The hardest part about death is, of course, trying to empathize with other people. I’ve had to think about it a few times recently, and personally I only taste a mild and fleeting sense of frustration that time’s run out. Sometimes I wonder if anyone else is faking it.
I’ll spend hours agonizing over mundane text messages with family members because I’m not sure why we’re talking or what they want me to say. I'd just leave if it was appropriate. Am I supposed to reciprocate your emotions, ask questions, etc? It’s that I very rarely have much I want to say to people, I think there are emotions that were supposed to drag those words to the surface.
The external thinking/logic based thinking fits me. The only kind of conversation that’s easy for me to hold is one based on the current task or puzzle. That or spam I guess. Then, the only thing that gets me out of bed is not being extremely late and I only get in bed because of the former.
It’s said that alexithymia can mean not differentiating between exhaustion, hunger, and emotions. Mysteriously, I am always tired and yet I can stay up for days without stimulants. Not to say that that's a regular or healthy practice.
Another piece I liked was the description of living day to day in a haze. I’ve been trying to describe how every day feels foreign or off or alien for years. Every day is a lifetime spent wandering and continuity is only contextual. Maybe it’s because I don’t know how I’m feeling when I go to bed so its very confusing when I wake up to something else. There's been a fundamental shift to the self that I can't even register. Like waking up slightly taller or shorter, then spending the day wondering why you keep bumping into stuff and overcorrecting your movements. Am I dimension-hopping bodies?
I heard emotions, especially in alexithymic males, can wind up being channeled into the single umbrella emotion of anger. I never feel very angry but I am anxious. If I had to describe 99% of my experienced emotions it would be along the spectrum of a paranoid anxiety to the low end of happy. I used to get psychotic levels of paranoia but it’s just less anxious to sort of happy from there. Not much movement on the y-coordinate
I think the biggest hint that I’m experiencing things I can not feel is my cognitive state. Some days I can barely think. I can’t feed myself or do important work, yet I feel exactly the same as yesterday. I don’t feel depressed, I just, for whatever reason, can’t convince myself to think, move, or talk. It’s like I have to win a slot machine every time I need to do my homework.
I don't know if I only feel motivated one day a month or that's just when expectations reach full saturation but stuff tends to pile up waiting for a functional day.
Every once in a blue moon I’ll have an emotionally unsettling dream and I feel great the day after. Most of my dreams are like a dissociated TV show but when I have one that bothers me, I think it’s like a relief valve for everything bottled up down there.
I wish I could have more bad dreams and I dream of crying. Sometimes I try to force tears out when exceptionally bad things happen but it’s agonizing, like trying to pick up a penny off linoleum without any fingernails. I get so preoccupied trying to feel something that the moment passes and I'm back to flat again. The fact that I can do practically nothing but move on would be nice if I didn’t think it was killing me. I get this vivid sensation of needing to pour draino down the channels of my brain. There’s all this trash and gunk in there and I can’t do anything because I can’t get at it.
And this process of self-examination is all sort of a clinical experience. I'm like a sociopathic doctor copping a feel in someone else's chest cavity. I have no clue if this hurts!
When I was in middle school I had this idea that part of me got trapped deep in the subconscious. That some portion of my cognitive capacity was being channeled “elsewhere.” That what's left of me is more like a little mech pilot than the big picture.
I’m feeling it now, years of trauma later. The part of me that’s conscious has been sucked dry by my emotions. I feel like I’m working with that last little bit of toothpaste in the tube just to keep the lights on. Everything’s done in little panicked spurts when I catch a hint of that minty fresh. Half of that is spent on silly stuff like writing this.
That might be a tangent but I feel like it’s partially the downstream effect of this experience. People say not to bottle up your emotions because you’ll pop but I think I’m just being auto-cannibalized.
And that seems like the kind of thing I should scream and crash around about, but it winds up being more of a morbid intellectual pursuit. There’s a sense of urgency to the decaying self but a lot of it is just spent waiting around, trying to guess the shape of a whale by the way the water ripples.
Overall, I’m verging on asexuality and aphantasia. My life is directed by a poorly cobbled together apparatus of cattle prods. I
And it’s hard to form meaningful relationships because I can’t relate to emotional subtext. Honestly, I feel disabled. That’s a little melodramatic, that I’m here is proof of progress, but god if every step hasn't been unduly exacting. And now I'm emotionally tired and/or hungry for breakfast. Who knows??
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2025-05-31T19:56:46
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1l0611x
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
I cannot feel love, I only “know” someone loves me
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I was doing Google searching at 4:30 in the morning asking about this and found this sub.
I had a conversation yesterday about “love” with my mom and she asked me “do we love you” and sure, I know the answer is a yes. They have put up with me more than I would like to acknowledge, but do I \*feel* their love? No. And it’s been on my mind now.
I only “know” their acts of love. The actions I have done that were unsavory and their subsequent acceptance of me, how they helped me in school, how they bake sweets for me, etc.. But other than that, nothing. I know that love is shown through certain acts like helping but I do nothing for them out of the feeling of love it’s more mental.
I’m also indifferent to a large majority of people, and even if we were friends, if you are not in my life I would not remember you at all.
DAE experience this?
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2025-05-29T11:35:27
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1ky8im4
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Not sure....
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I'm kind of just looking for direction and wondering if anyone might have a similar experience and can direct me in a helpful direction or if this is under the umbrella of alexithymia and I'm just not recognizing it.
My dilemma here is that I can understand/sense that I'm having an emotion, but except for some extreme circumstances, I cannot actually /feel/ the emotions. I'm good at describing and analyzing psychological situations, and can understand their roots, what they translate into, but I don't feel as though I feel the emotions.
It's a bit out-of-body but also not, and it's very easy and most common for me to switch between emotions very quickly without it really affecting or changing my general thought process? Idk, like, for example, I can be on the verge of the biggest breakdown of my life but can immediately switch off the tears and feelings at a moments notice to turn and address a table I'm serving while coming across as completely genuinely happy and kind because, well, I am now. I can then proceed to not feel that immense pressure until I randomly break down in the shower or at 2am in bed for a grand total of 40 seconds of sobbing and then boom, it's like nothing happened and I'm back to whatever I was doing before without feeling any relief/different from the emotional release? It's hard to explain?
TLDR: Please help, I don't feel like I feel emotions and when I have a breakdown it's short and I can turn it/emotions off like a switch immediately.
I'm open to elaboration or whatever, Im just curious and it's been bugging me and there's only so many Google pages of alexithymia quizzes and blogs I can scroll through :)
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2025-05-30T00:16:28
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1kyqhdi
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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I did a writing exercise on emotion today. It was very difficult
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After my creative writing class, our teacher said to go home and choose a random thing we saw, and then describe with different emotion. I saw a little creek on my way home and decided to write about that. I tried and tried, but I couldn't recognize any different emotion in the description of the creek, no matter how hard I tried, it just looked like the same description with different words. I'm not sure if this fits here, but I just wanted to share it.
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2025-05-29T14:01:26
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1kybk76
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Everyone thinks I’m happy
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I don’t know what I feel and when people ask how I am I say good - I smile and laugh and seem like I’m good but then I’ll blow up and cry and I don’t know why nothing has triggered it I just am crying. Do other people feel like this? I feel like I’m gaslighting myself and everyone else that I’m fine and then they are gaslighting me that I’m fine
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2025-05-26T03:07:25
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1kvk4wa
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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I feel like other people understand what I'm feeling better than I do
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Like the title says, sometimes other people comment on my actions by saying that I was seemed angry, upset, or overwhelmed, but I didn't feel those things at all, I just felt neutral. I don't know how they can understand my emotions when I can barely figure out if I'm sad when I'm actively crying.
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2025-05-24T21:43:57
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1kumnjm
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
“I struggle to feel or recall emotions — I’m trying to understand if I’m emotionally blocked or just broken.”
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Hi everyone,
Its my first time ever posting on reddit. Forgive me if i do something wrong.
I’m 18/m, and for the past few months, I’ve been trying to understand why I can’t feel my emotions fully — or even recognize them sometimes. I recently went through a breakup after a year-long relationship with a really kind, genuine person. I was the one who ended it, telling her I didn’t feel love for her anymore. But after the breakup, I didn’t feel relief or clarity — just confusion and guilt.
The strange thing is, when I remember her, I don’t feel the pain or sadness of the breakup. Instead, I just remember her warm smile, her laughter, and how at peace I felt with her. But there’s this constant dull ache inside me — like a knot in my chest that I can’t untangle. It’s not exactly sadness, not fear, not anger. Just… something heavy.
What scares me is that this isn’t new. I’ve had other intense emotional moments in life, but I barely remember what I actually felt at the time. I experienced a serious trauma a few years ago that left me bedridden for six months — and I don’t remember how those days felt emotionally at all. It’s like a whole part of my life is just blank. Same with other painful moments from my childhood, including my parents’ separation — I remember the events, but not the emotions. Even some happy memories feel empty or muted, like they belong to someone else. It's like watching an old video from your gallery, without sound or color, just small, broken frames.
I often feel like I should be feeling something — guilt, grief, longing, or joy — but I can’t identify it. Just saw my ex’s photo on social media and instead of sadness or guilt , i just felt nothing. It’s like there’s a wall between my head and my heart. I feel detached from the version of me who lived through those things.
Sometimes, my body reacts — tears come suddenly, or I feel completely overwhelmed — but I can’t tell what I’m crying about. And then it passes and I go back to feeling nothing again. I worry that I’m not processing things at all, that I’m just moving forward while everything inside me stays stuck.
Another part of this is that during emotionally intense conversations — like the breakup, or any vulnerable moment — I become physically and mentally overloaded. It’s like my system just shuts down, or starts spiraling into guilt or panic. It’s scary and confusing.
I’ve started journaling and writing long letters to myself, trying to dig deeper. It helps a little. But I still feel lost in a fog. I don’t know if this is alexithymia, emotional suppression, trauma, dissociation… or all of them. I don’t have a diagnosis. I just want to understand what’s happening to me.
Has anyone else felt this way? Like your emotions are there, but buried so deep you don’t know how to reach them?
Any advice, thoughts, or just knowing I’m not alone would really mean a lot.
Thanks for reading.
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2025-05-24T23:49:31
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1kup74k
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Job Suggestion
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Hi, does anyone know how to find a suggestion for a Job I mean in Terms of Joy. How do I know wheter that Job will make me Happy when I dont Feel it?
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2025-05-22T13:04:03
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1ksq634
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Devices? HRV?
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Are there devices that could monitor and report on our emotional states better than we can?
For example, I've read that measuring Heart Rate Variability (HRV) can give an indicator of your stress levels, whether you're in fight/flight, etc. Has anyone experimented with using tech to get data on what makes things better or worse for them?
(For context, I keep getting blindsided by questions similar to "Do you feel better after _______?" I experience myself as entirely unequipped to give an answer. All I get when I try is the equivalent of TV static. Further context, and acknowledging that the venn diagram isn't 100% overlap with this subreddit, I'm in an uncomfortable mix of developmental-trauma-induced alexithymia, anhedonia, and major depressive disorder. So I feel rotten. That gets through crystal clear: cry myself to sleep without knowing why, cracked a crown from gritting my teeth through the stress of the day, and specialists from multiple disciplines have said they can't help me because of a "chronic hyperactivation of the sympathetic nervous system." But hell if I know what might calm me down, and when I try things that make others feel better, or that I used to seemingly enjoy, I just feel numb.)
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2025-05-22T07:32:42
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1kskujt
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Follow-up: looking for more responders on Alexithymia Question Sheets
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Hi everyone,
This is a follow-up to my earlier post a few weeks ago. I’m looking for responses to 2 different question sheets about alexithymia. These are not formal surveys, just open-ended sheets meant to gather different perspectives. You can choose the one that best fits your situation:
**For people who experience alexithymia themselves**
[https://forms.gle/tirVzGTRUgLggzEJ6](https://forms.gle/tirVzGTRUgLggzEJ6)
**For people who do not have alexithymia but are interested in understanding it or have had contact with someone who has or might have it**
[https://forms.gle/4SPbbi3hbSZeM5kW7](https://forms.gle/4SPbbi3hbSZeM5kW7)
Please answer as much as you feel comfortable. It’s totally okay to skip questions or leave things blank if you're unsure.
Feel free to share the links with others who might be interested. I really appreciate everyone’s input so far and am grateful for any additional help.
Thank you!
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2025-05-20T07:45:17
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1kqz6wb
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
How to tell whether my mood is positive or negative?
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My therapist always asks me whether my general mood over the week was positive or negative and I never have any idea what to respond. So I just say "slightly positive" because that sounds like the best option. And like I'm not making it sound worse than it is.
I'm not sure whether this is just an alexithymia thing, or more me having been mentally ill so long that I can't remember what having a truly positive mood means.
I think my mood is actually negative because a positive mood isn't something you'd complain about and would actually be enjoyable (i have anhedonia). But again I'm not sure, because as I said I have nothing to compare it to.
Please help.
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2025-05-17T16:47:47
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1koxgqf
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
I just discovered what Alexithymia is and think it fits me perfectly, can someone with personal experience give me some advice or tell me if I might have it?
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I was literally just scrolling on insta and came across a post about Autism and Alexithymia. I went ahead and looked it up cause I’m well aware I have autism already but I have never seen something explain what I’m feeling to a fucking T and I actually almost lost it. I didn’t know this was a thing, I thought I was crazy or it was my autism. I have NEVER been able to express or explain my feelings and emotions to myself or other people. Im just a ball of pent up frustration and tears. I am such a sensitive person and cry at any inconvenience but can never explain or understand why, my body just reacts and I can’t do anything about it. This has heavily impacted my relationship and the way I communicate with other people. I’m extremely nonverbal, but not by choice; my brain literally will not let me speak. I don’t even know how to describe it other than that. That’s probably my autism but idk if it could be related. A symptom I’ve read and also noticed is reduced affective empathy. I’m an extremely empathetic person but sometimes I feel I have to force it and feel absolutely no emotion towards the situation. I’ve had so many life changes and shitty things go on in my life and i didn’t have a great childhood either but i don’t feel I should feel so detached from everything and everyone. Best I can describe is it’s like looking through a window, my mind and body do not connect. I feel sociopathic sometimes because of it and I hate it.
I still don’t even know how to express or explain it other than what I’ve wrote above. I tried to pin point every symptom but It’s all over the place and I apologize but this is literally the only way my brain will let me explain this all. It’s gives me so much anxiety to even post this. Any questions or advice is greatly appreciated
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2025-05-17T11:03:23
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1koqcid
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
I am pretty sure i’ve got Alexithymia, What do you guys think?
|
Hi!
So I’ll just try to get straight to the point.
I feel from i’ve been able to gather, 5 to 6 emotions, and i am unsure about 2 or 3 of those. But i am really good at knowing what emotion i should be feeling, and often react accordingly on instinct. But my biggest issue is kinda the opposite of what most people struggle with. Rather than only having physical sensations as a indication of me experiencing an emotion, i only have thoughts. Like if i see a cat I’ll go “oh cute kittyyyyy!! I love it, and it makes me so happy!” But emotionally, i am almost aggressively neutral. Or if i see a sad, disgusting, or aggravating thing, I’ll have thoughts that are appropriate to that situation, and it isn’t like i am actively forcing myself to think or react this way. I just sorta do.
I also don’t really have a problem with having no motivations or hobbies because in my eyes, you don’t really need emotions to have those. Why do i want to win a spelling bee competition? Cause i have spent 6/7 years learning english on my own with 0 outside help. Why do i enjoy reading? Because i enjoy stories. Why do i enjoy stories? Cause they’re fun. How do i know what kind of stories i like? A) I think about them often, B) Vibes. Just things like that. That’s not to say that the struggles of people who do have trouble with those things are invalid, just that i don’t really have a problem with them.
I think i am pretty empathetic, but i don’t really know.
One thing that really sticks with me though, is that a few years ago, a dear family member had a major health scare, and while they were still in the hospital, barely alive, i was at home just, playing while doing the whole “getting interviewed by an imaginary person” thing. It makes me feel like the worst person to ever exist.
When my dog died, i only showed signs of mourning for a day, and than pretty much moved on the very next day. It wasn’t like I didn’t love him or anything, or that i don’t think of him, i just didn’t feel anything after the initial day of his death.
One thing about me though, is that i am very prone to crying. I cry at alot of things. Most things can make me cry, like a typical Pisces. But i‘m unsure if I actually feel anything. Is your throat hurting as you cry a sign of sadness? Or is it just a effect of crying? Is the way my chest hurts when i cry because of sadness, or is it because my heart is beating too fast?
A few weeks ago, i gave a really bad test at school, and got so anxious (one of the few emotions i am confident that i am capable of feeling), that i started bawling my eyes out. It was horrible, because i felt like i was forcing others to feel pity for me.
Around the same time, i won a spelling bee competition, and didn’t feel even an ounce of happiness. It is kinda sad to be honest with ya.😅
I am just a constant ball of anxiety, occasionally sadness (as in when ever a sad occasion occurs😅), maybe unsettlement, and thoughts filled with self-hatred (no emotions accompany these thoughts though). I maybe occasionally feel anger, or irritation, or frustratio, or something along those lines, i don’t know at all. Just i think it is one of those things. I think i can also feel excitement, but it isn’t a super dominant emotion. One thing i do know, is that i don’t feel any positive emotions outside of potentially excitement, as stated above.
That is about it really. Hope you all have a nice day😊😊
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2025-05-16T18:24:26
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1ko81cr
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Do I sound like I have alexithymia?
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I want to try to say this all in one go but I don't think I can honestly. My entire life, I have been confused about why I experienced the world differently. Even recently I developed language about saying that I simply feel emotioned physically not mentally. I think that is true, I can only feel emotion's physically. As in, my reactions are very instinctual. It's like my body is armor and everything is absorbed by my body. But my mind remains unaffected.
I used to think I was a psychopath or sociopath. Maybe I am. I used to think this specifically because I have the inability to feel even innate empathy or remorse. I will admit, My home situation was not great growing up. I remember seeing my abuser crying and thinking it was absolutely stupid. And I saw crying as a whole being stupid. I was a detached kid, my entire emotional life being completely hazy. I often describe my current life as being much more vibrant than my childhood while people my age have nostalgia for how vibrant their childhood was. Good for them I guess.
I wasn't a very good kid growing up. I stole, lied, gaslit, all that before 11 years old. I knew right and wrong and I honestly didn't care. I grew up in a way that did not allow me to really feel okay being vulnerable. I don't think I even had that vulnerability much. Being vulnerable just didn't click from me.
I have been going through a lot of major trauma recently. Even right now I'm in the midst of a dangerous situation, though it has gotten less dangerous due to no longer being into physical presence of this person. All I feel has been absorbed into my body. My body became the thing that absorbs everything. Yesterday when my parents left the house, I curled up in the corner of my room and did a mix of crying and yelling into my stuffed animal. I was overwhelmed. I did that for like a minute and then it felt really tired after. I guess that serves as proof that I can feel.
When I was suddenly thrust into the physical presence of a past abuser, I had a panic attack. It was pretty extreme, my hands even went purple. I didn't faint or anything, but I was pretty restless. Even then I managed to look at the abuser to the point of the abuser needing to shield her face. It wasn't a mental challenge. It was purely physical. Heck, all my trauma currently affects my physical self at the moment. I even worry about my health.
Growing up I didn't really have a morality. I had the word honor in my mind a lot even though my parents never even mentioned it. Eventually had to create a morality from scratch as a young teenager, and thankfully succeeded. I am committed to it deeply. That's where the issue is. I can't actually feel emotional empathy. In fact, I see people's struggles as annoyances. I think you crying is annoying. But I completely obey my moral code to the point where when I open up about my lack of regular emotion, I get told that I overestimate how detached I am. I get told that I actually do feel empathy. I don't. I get cognitive empathy but that's it.
I used to think I had alexithymia. But then I saw how I honestly do have the words for my emotions. I developed a language to describe them. I was just now able to describe that panic attack I had. But maybe I do have it. I don't know.
|
2025-05-15T23:54:45
|
1knn428
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
I'm not sure if this is alexithymia
|
I'm very good at identifying emotions but something else is abnormal. I don't have a sense of emotional permanency (I can very quickly go from hating someone to liking them and back again), I'm bad at remembering how I felt during [event] and I usually feel nothing. I have problems regulating my emotions, seeking out positive experiences and talking about feelings (for example answering "How are you?" or "Did you like X?" by talking about my physical state or what I learned) but I don't need the famous emotions wheel. I lack the most defining trait of alexithymia but I don't know what else to call this.
I'm diagnosed with ASD.
Edit: Anhedonia without depression?
|
2025-05-15T06:47:07
|
1kn1ot5
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
I still feel like a bad person and it sucks, because I don’t actually feel anything.
|
Hiiiii!
So it has been a while since i posted on here, but i just wanted to share some thoughts about things that have happened in my life recently.
l have started going to school again, and it has been stressful. Cause while i am pretty good at most subjects, i am absolutely horrible at the two subjects that are primarily in my native language. And even though everybody keeps telling me to just keep practicing so that i can get good at it, i just can’t.
I always forget, or everything else feels more urgent, or i just can’t get up. It is horrible and makes me feel like a terrible person. And while my family has been exponentially supportive, and have been telling me to stick it to the one teacher who seems to really not like me, i just can’t. Because at the end of the day, i am the one who is at fault here.
A week or two ago (can’t remember), we had a test, and i failed miserably, and i felt so bad and anxious about it that i started crying. And that really sucks, because later(or before that) i won my first ever spelling bee, and I didn’t feel even an ounce of happiness. Everybody around me was happier for me than i was. And i know for a fact that if i had lost, than i would‘ve felt at least mildly upset. I felt more about getting one wrong than i did about getting every other one right. And if i have Alexithymia, than i am really upset that i got the “can’t feel any good emotions“ one rather than the “can’t feel any nuanced or specific emotions“ one, because at least in the former i would be capable of feeling happy.
Actually, now that i think about it, what does sadness truly feel like? And i don’t want metaphors like ”oh it feels like you have clouds over you head” or something like that, or even something vague like “it’s something in your chest” i want anybody who knows that they feel sadness to tell me what it feels like.
Also, the thing that brought up the above question was me realising that I didn’t actually feel anything about getting that one spelling wrong, it was just my thoughts that were upset, but emotionally i felt nothing.
Anyways, onto something a bit nicer, my new neighbours’ cat gave birth recently, and i have gotten to play with the kittens, and i have grown kinda attached to one of them. Not really in a emotional sense, i don’t even know what being attached to someone emotionally feels like. But intellectually, i am really attached to that cute little girly. And even though i constantly say that i really love her, and i would be upset if my friend (the one that the kitty’s mamma belongs to) were to give that kitty cat to someone else, or she makes me happy, I don’t actually feel anything towards her.
I just look at her cute little face and the way she seems to kinda like me, and i want her to stay with me.
I also just feel like a bad person because it feels like i only spend time with the aforementioned friend because of her cats, and cause she helps me with school works that i didn’t quiet understand. Because as is to be expected, i don’t feel a single thing towards that girl. I can go days without talking to her. And maybe it is because i have spent so long without having any friends that weren’t my sisters, that now the only friends i’ll ever be able to feel things towards are my sisters.
Lastly, if anybody reading this has read my previous posts, they would know that i had gotten some press-ons, well, the glue from those still hasn’t come off. Well, most of it has, but not all of it, hopefully by the next time i post one here, it will have some off.
Also, i think that i might have scoliosis, and will be going to the doctor soon to get checked out. So wish me luck, and hope that if i do have a squiggly spine, than it is either mild or moderate.
Okay, hope y’all have a lovely week!! Byeee! ☺️☺️
|
2025-05-14T09:50:35
|
1kmb7bl
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
I dont feel sad about my grandma
|
I DONT HAVE DIAGNOSED ALEXITHYMIA
My grandma, who I grew up with – we used to cook together, go for walks, buy lottery tickets and bet, work in the garden, and joke around – is now in a long-term care facility and probably won't make it until the end of the year. She barely moves, hardly speaks, has hallucinations, and doesn't really know what she's saying. She has end-stage Parkinson's disease. But I don't feel sad. I don't really feel anything about the situation.
|
2025-05-12T20:25:08
|
1kl2zmx
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Cure for alexithymia
|
I've apparently been diagnosed with bipolar and I realised I have alexithymia. I've been discouraged to take psylocibin mushrooms for the possible risk of psychosis or mania. Yesterday, I took some and I had the most beautiful experience I could ever imagine. It's like my eyes were opened and I could see. I felt emotions. I walked around and someone smiled at me, it sent a wave of pleasure running through my body. I saw a child and smiled and spoke to him, I yearned to make him feel what I felt. I saw a women walking and she looked down, I felt that she was shy. I though about my current and past relashionship and I felt how broken they've made me. I felt how their abuse broke me down and I felt how I've been ignoring it. I felt how vulnerable I've been. I felt disgusted by how I've been used. I felt the true core of who I am. As my feelings were leaving my body and I was becoming numb to myself, I wrote a text about how I felt: Nothing can lighten the sorrow and despair that afflict my heart.
My soul suffers and struggles without finding a remedy.
Grief is the only language I can express.
The sun has lost its brilliance, joy has lost its effect.
I am blind, without a solution to the source of my pain.
Numb. I don’t know.
It was an alien experience and I want to have it again. It truly made me understand that we don't know what we're talking about. We're blind and deaf.
|
2025-05-12T14:02:36
|
1kktam2
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
alexithymia ( I hope this helps someone- you are free to reach out)
|
"There is a harsh difference in being able to feel and being able to express.- and it matters"
Speaking for a whole bunch of people here ,
They say,
We only understand the value of things that we don't have ---
Well sometimes we have too much of something and we have had it for so long and sometimes so early in life ...then what happens ? When we were forced to understand hate before we knew love ...when we were left alone before we felt warmth ...when I say "we" I am talking about all the people who were forced to understand emotions before they learned to feel them, we aren't the best of people the best of friends the best of partners the best of parents the best of children and the best of sons and daughters deep down ...we know that we also ask to ourselves every day that - It...it really OUR fault?." For the people who are reading this and relating i know I can't ever say enough to convince you make you feel safe , feel secure but still I will just give you this moment - "It is not " .Childhood Trauma , ADHD, lack of emotions and ""alexithymia"" it all connects in some way or other and yet it is not necessary that you need to weigh the reason for your condition against any social standard .
A scratch is too little of a wound? but not for a baby
a small gush of wind or a few blazes of fire cannot harm a tree..
Does the same apply to a sapling
I am here to speak about all those children who had those slits and scratches too many times ...far too many times that now they don't no how to react to metal ...
I know I am just giving metaphorical comparisions that circle around and around the point but i just can seem to convey it ...just can seem to ...express it
That is how we are ...we are really great are drawing our emotions
In songs
In paintings
In words in poems yet it's just always incomplete because we ourselves don't have a touch of it ...
I will try again ...maybe we just aren't able to turn feelings into emotions because we are too scared of them
So scared that we choose to run away from them before we can see them...
We just try not to look at them
We hate ourselves,our pasts our feelings and just our life's so much that we ourselves don't accept it ...
Many of us grew up feeling different and hated ourselves because of that ..and we tried to fit in be like everyone else then we started hating everyone else and hated ourselves for being like that ...well deep down we never ...had any emotions for anyone else barely plenty for ourselves
We just don't know why we are feeling cold, lonely , sad and empty
We are generally good at something or a few things and we impress a lot of people with it but neither those people nor those things ever matter for us cause we don't have emotions .
Still i don't have a point i don't think I will ever have
Just round and round the same point that i am too scared to touch
"Cold is just the lack of warmth,
Loneliness is just the lack of
company ,
And fear is just the lack of hope"
A drop of water flows over a wet surface it only sticks to a dry one ..
People without emotions tend to stick to sensitive people maybe because you felt the feeling in us that we couldn't...maybe you could see in us what we did not, when we say we want to be understood we have nothing that we already understand we want you to tell us what we feel.. if you are that parent that sibling that romantic partner , that bestfriend or that mentor I am talking about i just want you to think of why we stick to you because it is you we trust ...we do not care about other people and other things not because we don't find meaning in them we hate them cause is emptiness and in you we find that meaning that warmth that shelter ...from you we just want a bit of help to be able to think to be able to process ...we want to you see us not as different not as a burden but as someone who needs help ...if someone has a cast on their leg ...you help them to get across the room if someone is blind you help them to cross the road if someone is not able to move you help them it ..that is exactly what we need from you ...we don't have emotions so we need you to ....feel them for us ...you...because we can feel you ...unlike ourselves we feel you ...sense you ...like you ...we don't wanna listen to ourselves but listen to you ....
We are also normal people just like you all we lack is maybe ..a peace of our heart ...help us heal it please help us...feel ourselves ...the things we do the way we act it just maybe completely strange awkward abnormal hurtful and painful to you but please understand we don't mean...to ..we are in the need of help ..we are in the need of you ....we come with a promise that we also want to be normal if you help us be...a promise to not be like the others a promise to never leave you a promise to always be yours a promise to stand by you no matter what ...we are really sturdy we are really low maintainance we don't need fancy gifts or ...sensitive care or lots of time all we want is acceptance all we want is a bit of unconditional love just some blind efforts...it doesn't matter how little it is i promise we don't know the difference nobody never loved us without a condition except you ....the person who send this to you either found every word I wrote relatable and you are the only person in the world they have who they could gather up the trust to send this to...or they just wrote the whole thing themselves to send to someone. I hope we find peace and love.
|
2025-05-12T17:23:34
|
1kkyby0
| 1 | 1 |
Alexithymia
|
Does your body ever react?
|
does it ever react as if you’re feeling something? a few days ago i cried. not sobbing, just silent tears for a few minutes. i was thinking about my life and my lost dreams, all the invalidations and injustices and insensitivities and it happened. i haven’t cried in years. but when i searched within myself for the emotion that supposedly brought about my reaction, i found nothing. i went soul mining and where i was supposed to hit gold i struck cold hard granite. it’s like before i can even apprehend the emotion it’s filtered through this automatic analytical lens where feeling can never be felt only deliberated upon. as if it’s something that exists entirely in the abstract. and i’m always wondering whether it happened, but maybe so ephemerally that i couldn’t process it or whether i’m permanently, irreversibly numb from decades of employing that isolation of affect defense mechanism. what even is sadness? love? need? craving? how do i experience rather than imagine it?
it’s like i can feel only the most basic primitive emotions of anger and anxiety. maybe shame. but even then, so hazily. emotions are always, *always* crowded out by thought. they can’t take hold.
|
2025-05-12T05:30:11
|
1kkkuaw
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Emotion Dictionary?
|
Hi all,
I have been looking for something that may be able to act as an emotional dictionary, potentially with examples of how they typically feel in the body, the behaviours or urges that may be associated, and the needs that aren't being met when feeling these emotions?
I have found apps like How We Feel and Animi useful, but I would really love to have a physical copy to refer to, preferably a printable pdf, but if there are book recommendations that'd be great too!
Has anyone found anything like this?
Theo :)
|
2025-05-11T15:39:52
|
1kk3vxf
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Looking for people who can share their experiences with me
|
Hi! I’m an interaction design student working on a project that explores how people with alexithymia can experience and express emotions - especially through non-verbal and visual means. I’m building an interactive art piece that uses real-time body data (like heart rate) to create visuals that reflect emotional states, without needing words.
Since I want to design something that actually makes sense for people who experience alexithymia, I’d really love to talk to anyone who’s open to sharing their experience (whether you are still alexithymic or you were in the past). Nothing formal - just a casual chat about what tools (if any) have helped you connect with your feelings, what definitely hasn’t, and what annoys you in this whole process. I was alexithymic myself, but I don't want to base this whole project on my experiences only :)
If you’re interested or have any thoughts, feel free to DM me or reply here. Thanks so much!
EDIT: I've got enough people now, thank you all!
|
2025-05-10T11:50:53
|
1kj8fy2
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Do you have good or bad days or neutral?
|
I've been asking myself this for a while now. In my head, good moments are yellow and bad/sad moments are blue and neutral is gray, but when I look back on my day to analyse how it's been, it's almost always been gray woth VERY few exceptions. Do you feel something similar? I'm thinking i might have alexithymia.
|
2025-05-09T04:52:27
|
1kiads3
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Help needed – survey about alexithymia for school project
|
Hi everyone!
I'm doing a school project on alexithymia and have created a short survey. I'm looking for people aged **15 and older** who are willing to fill it out.
It only takes about 5 to 10 minutes and is completely anonymous.
**Link to the survey:** [https://forms.gle/dX7fCH2fuE1a1niV6](https://forms.gle/dX7fCH2fuE1a1niV6)
Thank you so much in advance – every response helps a lot! 😊
|
2025-05-08T08:07:30
|
1khkrlq
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Another perspective on not feeling.
|
I haven't felt anything for several years. I don't even remember what it was like to feel, but I reflected a little and discovered several things about myself. I simply don't need to feel. I can live just for the pleasure of tasting food and the pleasure of conquest. It's better to do this than to keep brooding and trying to change the impossible. It depends on the person. Most people would like to feel it, and so do I, but since I don't feel it, all I can do is enjoy it.
|
2025-05-06T19:44:50
|
1kgdqp6
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Friendship
|
I'm 26 yo female living in an international town in South Asia and it has been hard to make and more so in maintaining friendships and i was wondering if it is worsen connected to alexithymia .
I have many disabilities and I never initiate conversations and i would never know how to include myself, for example ... At an fashion event (I'm lowkey into fashion and even thought of being a professional model when I was younger but failed to do so partially due to me being too small/short )
everyone is talking, but i always just standing because i dont know how to approach someone , and start/join a conversation. I have a speech impediment but not to the point others won't understand what I'm saying .
And even if im talking to someone i never know what I'm supposed to say, so i just stay silent most of the time and let the other person carry the conversation . . Whats your experience with friendships or making conversations in general ? ?
|
2025-05-06T02:23:04
|
1kftqcr
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Don’t really know where else to ask this, feeling “intellectually sad” but not “emotionally sad” ??
|
Apologies if I end up explaining any of this poorly. I think by nature describing emotions is kinda hard without a lot of metaphors anyway.
Basically, I feel like I “know” I am sad, without actually… feeling sad? My thoughts are horrible and self hating and frustrated and screaming, but emotionally I feel nothing. I’m just at a neutral, constantly. I can think some things which make me panic, and I’m able to feel that in my chest, but it usually doesn’t last longer than a couple seconds.
I feel like I can never properly experience an intense (anything above neutral) emotion unless it happens TO me, from some outside source. I can’t just feel things on my own. I can never cry, even when I wish I was crying, just to have something to prove for “feeling” so shitty.
My inner monologue just becomes a screaming crying performance trying to make myself really feel these things, and when it doesn’t work I just end up more frustrated and self hating, and STILL somehow feel completely fine on a.. somatic(?)/emotional(?) level. I think this might be why I’ve been stuck in self harm for so long. When I can see it on my body, at least I can kinda say the emotion occurred, and be done with it. (Sorry if mentioning that is not allowed but I’m not intending to be graphic or say I’m in any kind of danger right now.)
Other people can make me feel plenty of things, but I don’t get to have any self actualized emotion? I don’t really understand this. I wish I could have actual crying breakdowns or panic, instead of just circularly thinking and ruminating over the issue. I process nothing and move on from nothing because nothing is happening in my body, it’s all just in my mind. At which point I start wondering, “am I just CHOOSING to be sad then?” I have to actively force it, so that must mean it’s my choice what to feel. And in that case why should I choose to be sad? Why hold yourself back on purpose? Maybe I really want to suffer??
I guess the only thing I’m asking is if anyone here can relate to this? I don’t expect anyone to have a perfect solution, I’m not very willing to try drugs anyway.
|
2025-05-03T00:23:40
|
1kdg4tm
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
struggling
|
I'm not sure what to feel. Or if I'm supposed to feel anything at all. A friend I've known my entire life just passed, as well as my partner of five years. There's nothing there. Nothing. Its just grey. I almost want to say I'm mad at myself for not feeling anything but it just won't happen. I'm not really looking for help I guess. I just dont know. I dont understand. its not fair
|
2025-05-03T02:16:11
|
1kdi93i
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
How did you find a partner while dealing with alexithymia?
|
I’m someone with alexithymia, and lately I’ve been reflecting on love and relationships. I often feel like I’m incapable of love or even recognizing emotions clearly — my own or others’. When I hear people talk about what they look for in a partner, they often say "someone emotionally mature" or "with high emotional intelligence" — and I can't help but feel like I'm just... fundamentally incompatible with that.
I’m not even actively looking for a relationship right now, but maybe it’s because deep down I’ve accepted that I might never really connect in the ways most people do. My friends are starting to get married, and I still feel like I’m trying to understand what emotions even feel like.
So I wanted to ask:
If you're alexithymic and in a relationship — how did you meet your partner? How do you navigate emotional connection when feelings are so hard to name or feel?
Also, I used ChatGPT to help structure these thoughts because it’s often hard for me to organize and express what I’m feeling — just wanted to be honest about that in case anyone else does the same.
Any thoughts, experiences, or just shared feelings would mean a lot.
|
2025-04-30T09:46:59
|
1kbcij4
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
I'm jealous of people who felt feeling
|
I didn't felt anything until 18.
And I'm jelous of people's happy momments, struggles, angsty teenager phase
that they learned that struggling, negative emotions, positive emotions are normal. They learned how to deal with them (at least at some level). That their body and mind automatically does not reject feelings
Fuck, like I'm jelous that saddnes, grief, and anything else was with them throuh their all life.
I'm jealous that my friends had angsty teenage phase. And I never experienced anything. I couldn't discover myself and it's very fucking hard to ho through things that everyone was going through at age 5, 12, 16... when you are in your 20s.
Like you cannot just act weird in gallery, You cannot have breakdown and cry randomly... but it's something I need to experience at some point. But it's socially hard
|
2025-04-30T10:21:34
|
1kbd0sc
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Is it possible to have alexithymia while still being an emotional person?
|
When analyzing my decisions, I know most of them are based on deeply held values and principles, and it doesn't feel natural for me to rely on hard logic. I crave connections with other people, and I'm by no means withdrawn. People say I'm too emotional, But when I try to describe what I'm actually feeling, I run into a dead end. Therapy is a nightmare when I can't explain my lived experience. I know I act based on feelings, but I don't know what the feelings are, other than intuition and some bodily sensations. The sensation of anxiety makes me feel physically sick, and I have often mistaken normal sensations of anxiety with a serious illness. And I can't even tell anxiety apart from sadness and even excitement. PMDD is a nightmare to deal with because it makes me agitated for no reason whatsoever.
I can't even tell sexual feelings apart from a normal sense of comfort. It's driving me insane. I know trauma somewhat caused it, in addition to autism. I have "kinks", but I don't even know if they're sexual, or if all of it is just a trauma response.
But can I really be a feeling person when I don't know what feelings I have? People say I act too much based on emotions, and I see what they mean. But to me it's just "if I act this way, I get an uncomfortable sensation, so that's why it's wrong."
|
2025-04-27T05:37:34
|
1k8wqdb
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Alexithymia and video games
|
I am curious about what everyone’s experience has been with playing video games. What genre do you play? What do you avoid? I have avoided really tough games because I know I won’t feel happiness or relief or anything motivating like that when I overcome a challenging opponent, but I also have a weird sense of fomo that is hard to explain or dismiss. I have been playing more story oriented fighting games lately, but only on easy mode, and the one’s I have fomo about don’t have an easy mode, because the reason people keep playing is the emotional rush after beating a difficult opponent, but as I won’t feel that, I keep thinking it will just be frustrating, and even boring after a while. I would post on a gaming page, but I don’t think most would understand this problem, or just tell me not to play it, which isn’t helpful.
|
2025-04-26T04:08:34
|
1k84aan
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
What are your experiences with meds?
|
If you are open to sharing your experiences with meds, I'd be very happy to hear. My specific questions are: Which med were you on, how did it make you feel (how did it help you? How did it damage you?), what were the side-effects and was it worth it? If you have been on lots of medication and don't want to list every single question for every single one, you don't need to, any experience is valuable to me.
Here's optional info on my situation and my problems with meds. You don't need to read this if you don't want to but any and all advice and thoughts on this would be appreciated.
What's preventing me from taking meds is:
1. I think if the psychiatric system fails me one more time, I won't be able to let go of the rage and feelings of vengeance that come with it. I've been treated horribly by mental hospitals, therapists and psychiatrist and it has damaged me in a lot of ways and have made my anger issues much more severe and frequent. If I am damaged on a literal physical level (as in, my body is damaged, my brain is damaged, my quality of life decreases), I don't believe I could live with that.
2. I can't handle feeling worse, not even a little bit. I'm already at the limit of what I can take without wanting to die. I'm on other meds for my chronic illness and whenever they have side effects that are bad (like tiredness for example), it amplifies my depression so hard it makes me want to die. And I'm usually never someone who feels suicidality as an actual urge that I want to follow through with but sometimes even non-psychiatric meds make me feel that way.
3. I have never had actual, long term therapy. I switched therapists countless times and never stuck around for long enough to receive long-term therapy (except in mental hospitals but that was mainly diagnosis and not actual therapy). And I feel like first I should try if therapy might be enough to have a good life.
But also, I have been urged by psychiatrists and therapists that I should try meds. Though I feel a large part of why I am dysfunctional is because of the outside world - I have autism and I am very certain that I would not have depression if I was in an environment that wasn't so hurtful. I even question often times if I really have BPD or if this simply the natural, severe reaction of being disabled and sick yet being in an unfruitful, damaging environment too.
|
2025-04-25T19:19:30
|
1k7tdvg
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
No facial expressions, anyone can relate??
|
Since I was around 18.. I have completely lost my ability to form any facial expressions.
Even if something surprises me suddenly, like let's say a jump scare image , I'd only open my eyes a bit wider as a reaction to it , ... and then that's about it.
Only emotion I can experience is dysphoria . But for the most part I feel nothingness .. like a blank piece of paper
|
2025-04-25T17:35:57
|
1k7qvjb
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Do I have alexithymia?
|
My mental health hasn’t been doing the best as of late, and I want to understand my situation better so that I can find a way to combat it.
I largely feel empty inside, like there’s nothing there and just a “weight” in my chest. Sometimes I feel physical sensations like tingling or goosebumps, but other than that inside I barely feel any change, and when I do feel something I cannot seem to tell what I’m feeling by with any certainty. There are also a few instances when I feel something overwhelming inside, but I also can’t interpret it.
|
2025-04-25T09:20:41
|
1k7gm6w
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Is this alexithymia
|
I was wondering if this was an alexithymic experience. Like right now, I don’t FEEL anything in this moment, I just feel normal and like I’m observing. I am enjoying what I’m doing right now, I know that, but I don’t really have anything going on. I’m just here right now, witnessing everything going on around me, worrying about whether I’m alexithymic or not and that’s it.
Like I don’t feel like I’m fully in my emotions and experience. It’s like a weird autopilot/baseline, and I definitely have emotional flareups sometimes but it never feels long lasting. Idk I’m just ranting
|
2025-04-24T15:45:44
|
1k6vhzy
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
What is this called?
|
So everyone always says stuff like “alexithymia means an inability to describe emotions, not an absence of emotions”. If that’s the case, what is it called when you genuinely have an absence of certain emotions? Or what conditions lack deep emotions?
|
2025-04-24T15:27:02
|
1k6v1dd
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Possible way to cry
|
Hi, so reccently I discovered the Game "Tell me why". it is on Steam and is ery emotional. It Made me cry twice already and I have Not finished playing it yet. Do any of you Guys have Heard about that Game or played it even, If so did it make you cry as Well? And did you feel anything while crying, I didnt.
|
2025-04-24T09:38:28
|
1k6o4iu
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
I miss crying
|
I just wish I could cry again. It's been about a year since I've really been able to cry it all out or bring myself to the emotional state where I could. I just feel sad with no outlet for it and I just don't know what to do with it all. It just leaves me to lay there and not be able to process anything I'm feeling
|
2025-04-24T00:14:29
|
1k6en7s
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
|
Cognitive/Affective Alexithymia?
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So after a whole bunch of "is it normal to tell your emotions based purely on physical sensations?" I finally came to the conclusion that I probably have cognitive alexithymia.
But like … I *can* tell my emotions? Like if I'm feeling really intense emotion. If I'm extremely stressed about a deadline I forgot about or really upset or angry. Or super duper hyped about an ADHD hyperfixation.
But my therapist goes "okay, how are you feeling right now" and I just go ??? Or I'll be able to narrow it down to "good" or "bad" then have to use context clues like external factors or thoughts running through my head to figure out what emotion would make sense from that.
So first question is, can you have cognitive alexithymia but still be able to identify really strong emotions?
Second question, can you have both?
Cuz … I've been experiencing GI and appetite issues. After a bunch of people going "you sure it's not stress?" I asked Perplexity, and after some followup questions, it pretty much said "you're 100% stressed."
…
But I don't *feel* stressed? I'm just experiencing the physical symptoms of stress due to external stressors. Emotionally, I feel nothing. I'm so confused like all logic points to me being stressed. I have stressors, I have literally *all* the physical symptoms of chronic stress. And I'm just. Not. I'm *fine*. (Maybe this would be a good time to bust out the "this is fine" meme.)
Which … sounds like affective alexithymia, right?
It's not just stress. Sometimes, I'll be crying in bed and be like ??? I no sad??
And then three months down the line I'll realize there was an undercurrent of upset but only noticed it after I started feeling better.
Also these sorts of things almost always happen in the evening.
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2025-04-23T05:14:52
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1k5rbvw
| 1 | 1 |
Alexithymia
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Motivation letter
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So hi, I come here to ask for help. I need to write motivation letter (for phd entrance exam). It has two parts: in first you write about your experience (so that’s fine), but the other half is for your motivation and I struggle a lot, because I kinda don’t have motivation to do even simple things and with depression and lack of emotions I truly don’t know what to write there.
So if someone has some advice on what I should write there (phd is in molecular biology) I would be very thankful. 🙏
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2025-04-23T07:29:17
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1k5tag0
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Is this alexithymia? I have emotions, but I don’t feel love, or care, and I don’t miss people
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Years ago, when my daughter was little, I was away from home on business for a while, and when I finally came back, she cried real tears and said, “I missed you.” I was flabbergasted. I didn’t know what to make of it. The idea that someone had a feeling about my absence was a weird, foreign notion. But suddenly, all these years later, I think I’m starting to get it: people actually FEEL love, don’t they? It’s a feeling, it feels good, it makes you want to be with that person again, it makes you think about them when you’re apart, isn’t that it? I guess it sounds daft, but it’s just now finally dawning on me.
I don’t have that. I don’t miss anyone. My cat ran away a few weeks ago; my neighbor worries about it, I don’t ever think about it. I care about people, but it’s not a feeling, it doesn’t feel like anything, except maybe duty. I feel bad if I imagine them suffering, and my guess is, most people have that feeling too. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? Caring about someone is supposed to feel like something, isn’t it?
And love. My daughter used to make this little happy sound when I said “I love you” to her. I never thought about it until now, it must have felt good to her, in a way that I’ve never felt — I don’t feel anything when people say they love me, or care about me. And — please don’t judge me — I didn’t feel anything when I said “I love you” to her, except the desire to be a good parent, and the knowledge that kids need to hear that sort of thing from their parents. I get it now, it explains so much of my alienation from people for my whole life.
I have emotions. Anger, shame, humiliation, terror, anxiety, and I even laugh sometimes. But there are supposed to be emotions relating to connection too, right? Love and care and missing people. Someone please reality check me. I’m feeling really deprived at the moment, it seems like most people have a built-in reason to resist the urge to end their lives prematurely, a reason I’ve never had. My only reason is because I don’t want my loved ones to suffer, not because I want to hang out with them again.
Is this a form of alexithymia? Is there a “cure”? A treatment? Is it possible to teach a blind person how to see? Or maybe I’m misunderstanding what love and care are like for most people? Thanks for any gentle reality checks, or any kind of input, really.
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2025-04-22T00:29:59
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1k4t7qs
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Help! AuDHD empath married to alexithymic.
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I love my husband. We’ve been married for 12 years, been close friends for 15. I do not want to live life without him. But his alexithymia is wearing me down. I feel so unseen and lonely. I don’t know to do. I don’t know how much longer I can take it. We are finally in couples therapy, which is beneficial. Is it reasonable to make a strong ask that he get in individual therapy? Would that even be helpful for him?
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2025-04-21T01:31:01
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1k41v1p
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Gp offered me emotional blockers for a condition I can't understand my emotions
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I explained to my Dr I was suffering with my alexithymia, she told me she didn't know what that is, I expected this so I asked her to good it and she refused and ask me to explain it.
I explained in short its an inability to notice my own emotions like autism.
She then suggested to put me on an SSRI an emotions blocker, when SSRI ca have very negative effects on autism patients
So I countered with you want to put me on medication that block my emotions when I have a condition that means I can't understand my emotions, and I belive this is negligence.
She then began to play the race card and she didn't understand what I mean so I spoke to her in her national language to avoid the language barrier... to wich she replied I only speak to my clients in English! Like my Multi culture background was me attempting to be racist( or maybe the common use of I don't understand you being unable to use was a hindrance to her sweeping me under the carpet and i was some sort of racist) baring in mind I'm a reverted Muslim with an African fiance.
I've been told but untrue that some NHS gp's push these and other drugs to meet quaters and gain bonuses, is this true.
From then on in I began to record my sessions..this the surgery became very uncomfortable.
Why do they push these SSRI if there in no benefit to them.
It then took me month of haggling to get my medical report and alot was missing from my reports.
Including dyslexia, I've been diagnosed with 3 times but a gp hasn't accepted them, anxiety not on my report, depression and my gp alo refused to accept one of the top mental health workers in the country's giving me a probable diagnosis of alexithymia meaning it wouldn't count as a diagnosis and says on my medical report this is only a clame of mine.
Any help would be hugely appreciated.
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2025-04-20T11:56:43
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1k3kx8h
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Living out my emotions and physical sensations in my head
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Heya! Was wondering if any of yall could relate to this? I’ve been going down some medical rabbit holes as of late, and while I’ve had trouble figuring out others emotions…I’ve had more issues figuring out my own emotions and being able to identify what inner physical sensations I’m feeling while being able to accurately describe them.
Most physical sensations that I physically experience or “feel” aren’t felt in my body, but are visibly shown to me in my head. Kind of like how one would watch a tv. Same would be for experiencing inner emotions as well - I don’t “feel” them as much as I just “view them in my head.” So like…anyone have and ideas or relate to this?
For a small bit of context, I’ve been doing this a majority if not all my life and I’ve never been evaluated by a doctor or anything for it, yet. Just wanting to see/hear from yall first. :)
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2025-04-18T13:19:56
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1k24rdi
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Romantic and emotional support
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First of all: I dont have diagnosed alexithymia, but i literally have most of symptoms. And i never had girlfriend.
I was thinking I probably won't be able to give my future girlfriend (if there is one haha) any romance. For me, just saying "I love you" is unnatural, let alone having romantic moments with her. Furthermore, it is a huge problem for me to have real compassion for her problems and support her emotionally.
Yes, I've never had a girlfriend, but I infer already from the fact that I can't even support some very close family members who have major psychological problems and I don't even have compassion/pity for them even though I want to - I care about them, but my brain doesn't respond with any pity or compassion
UPDATE: I've tried Alexithymia Questionnare and i got 125 points
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2025-04-17T21:22:08
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1k1o3q7
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Recognizing feelings via physical sensations
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Some physical sensations that give me hints on what my emotions are at that moment:
- A burning in my chest usually means anger.
- A "spark" kind of thing in my chest, usually after someone tells me good news, means either excitement or happiness. Sadly this sensation lasts as much as the burning one, which can be at best five minutes more of less.
- A warmth in my chest. Not exactly burning. All my body starts to feel warm from that sensation on my chest. I usually feel it when I do something I really wanted to, or I thing about something. Often feel it when I'm having a good time with my friends. I interpret it as "peace" or "joy", but since it is usually more extended than the other sensations, this one I usually describe as "feeling good".
- Pain in my stomach recently means hunger.
- Or that last thing can also mean nervousness / excitement.
- Less noticeable for me, but when my thoughts feel heavy and I start to think very fast, that's what I describe as feeling bad. I wouldn't describe it as sad, though.
Anyone else got any other hints to know what they're feeling?
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2025-04-17T18:06:13
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1k1jgym
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Do you have trouble with noticing and acknowledging other people's emotions?
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I have been reading a lot about emotional dysregulation lately as I have a friend with BPD that I struggle to communicate with. Particularly the necessity of validation of emotion which I believe is where things frequently go sideways with us.
I mentioned on another subreddit that I have trouble validating as it feels intrusive for me to ask about or name another person's emotions (and that I also struggle with this with my own emotions) in most circumstances and someone linked this subreddit.
Is difficulty addressing someone on an emotional level common with alexithymia? If you have tried learning to validate do you find that hard?
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2025-04-17T16:43:40
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1k1hftu
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Relationships and alexithymia.
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I'm 16 and I've been going out with my first girlfriend for two months now. I'm kind of a lonely person; I've got lots of friends but I prefer to stay home most of the time. I got told that I had Alexithymia when I was 13-14 at the hospital after an attempt, and I keep getting it told by my psychologist from time to time, when I mention having trouble identifying and managing more complex emotions, especially anger.
My girlfriend and I go to the same classes, so we basically spend six hours a day next to each other. Since we started going out, I've had thoughts of breaking up for no actual reason. No actual feeling behind it as far as I can see. But now I'm on vacation, and I'm kind of using being sick (which I actually am) as an excuse not to go out with her as often. When I see her everyday, when I go home and think about her I feel heavy, and I don't really want to see her. But now that I don't see her as often, I feel good when I think about seeing her and spending time with her. I know I love her, because I feel better that I usually do when I'm around her, and I feel tingly things on my chest and overall body, but she's very clingy (which is not a bad thing) and she has told me she feels sad when she doesn't see me for a long time (which can be around 4-7 days), but I don't feel anything if I don't see her in that period. I may feel bad If I didn't see her for a longer time, but for now I just feel nothing.
It's also hard for me, since I now have the trouble of two people; hers and mine. I don't have nearly as many problems as she does since she's a teenage girl with low self-esteem, and I get it, I've been there, so I understand, but of course her problems make me feel bad, and knowing she feels bad makes me feel bad. So recently I've been pretty down because she is telling me all her problems and I don't know how to process or deal with the feelings she's passing onto me, and the only way I can find a slight peace is by listening to sad music to try and make me cry, which I haven't done since last year. Does this happen to anyone else?
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2025-04-17T18:03:30
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1k1jekz
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Online questionnaires are full of loaded questions
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I'm not sure if this is just a further sign I have Alexithymia or if it's a sign I have something else.
The thing is, I don't talk to people, I prefer to keep to myself. I've worked at my current job for 4 years and I've never initiated a conversation with anyone, and when they initiate a conversation with me I have to remind myself to ask questions back to not seem rude.
I have a single friend in my life and our relationship is businesslike, we set aside 2 hours a week to play a video game together and then we end it. I have no idea what is going on in his personal life and he has no idea what is going on in mine. We never talk about it.
Since I never talk to people most of the questions in Alexithymia questionnaires I can't answer accurately. "People tell me I don't listen to their feelings properly, when in fact I'm doing my utmost to understand what they're saying!," "I don't like people's constant assumptions that I should understand or guess their needs... its as if they want me to read their minds!," "Some people have told me I am cold or unresponsive to their needs."
Another issue is sex. I'm a sex repulsed Asexual, but there are many questions that assume that I participate in the activity in order to answer it. "For me sex is more a functional activity than it is an emotional one." "Sex as a recreational activity seems kind of pointless."
Finally, and this is one that makes me think I don't have Alexithymia but something else. It isn't that I can't identify my emotions, it's that I don't feel them at all. So many of the question talk about feeling something but no knowing what that feeling is, being confused about physical sensations. That isn't my problem.
I always know when I'm stressed or embarrassed because I can recognize the physical symptoms I experience because of them. And since I learned about Alexithymia, I discovered that I can tell if I'm happy or sad by sensing if I'm smiling or frowning, before that I assumed that I couldn't feel those emotions. I don't remember ever being confused about what I'm feeling, rather I always assumed that I didn't have the full range of emotions others have.
I was depressed for years but I never knew because I thought I was incapable of feeling sadness and no one ever told me that being lethargic was a sign of depression, I just assumed this lethargy was just who I was and never questioned it. Me getting out of my depression was a complete accident, I started taking a medication for something else and that medication also helped with depression. I was surprised when I suddenly had motivation to do things and had to research online what happened.
As a result of all of this, I can't answer most of the questions on these questionnaires accurately and it always results in the conclusion that I don't have Alexithymia.
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2025-04-17T14:09:42
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1k1dqnk
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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How to tell if my partner has alexithymia?
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I've been in a relationship for about half a year, and I'm starting to think that my partner might have alexithymia. She has mentioned that she believes she may be on the autism spectrum to some degree. What are the best ways to recognize alexithymia in a relationship, and how can I best support her?
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2025-04-17T13:30:37
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1k1cu5k
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Emptiness
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At times I shut myself off from everyone; only talking when I have to. I also became less open; since most people I know find me annoying whenever I talk a lot; yes I know im in a bad crowd but its the only crowd I have anyways so I just stay around it.
I don’t know what to do anymore, it feels like midday I’m in a void of emptiness, devoided of any emotions and truly dissociated; I already talked about this to my school therapist and I doubt they care since they always say I’m lying or something. I’m always tired too, no matter how much I sleep; what I eat; if I eat little or a lot, if I dont eat sugar or eat a lot of sugar, nothing changes. I feel like I’m in a constant loop of failure and my energy is like an energy bar in a video game. Does anyone have an answer to what could be the issue?
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2025-04-16T11:08:33
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1k0hqsx
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Is this alexithymia?
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I recently heard abt this word not so long ago while talking about a character and I thought that it felt sort of what I thought abt for a while. I've had a bit of experience with dissociation in general in the way that I would feel out of body and it'd take a few to get back to a fully normal state and it'd sometimes come back I think I've gone past that and it only happens rarely now compared to the almost everyday I used to have. I've had a lot of high stress situations and idk at what point emotions all blended the same to me and they only feel like small bits of what I felt in those situations (fear?) Ive been having a lot of problems with violent thoughts because I don't realize when I'm angry and have no way of letting it out properly without feeling fake or wrong in a way. I've panicked a few times as in my breath would get quicker and stuff builds around my chest in anger and or disgust or panic idk. It's just rlly strange I would say I feel scared all the time but that's not particularly true because I can feel okay I know it I just want that feeling back of feeling content and safe. At some point I thought it might bipolar or BPD bc it feels so heightened at times but BPD ik is way more rare and severe, bipolarity is prolly out of the question tbh. When I was younger I thought I was apathetic, psychopathic but as I grow I notice that I actually do care and maybe too much to the point where its weird I think I'd rather just not care at all. Does this sound like alexithymia? I'm 17 turning 18 this month is this just part of growing up? Am I too young to be questioning something like this?
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2025-04-16T08:07:07
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1k0f5f8
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Hermeneutical injustice.
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Hermeneutical injustice occurs when someone's experiences are not well understood — by themselves or by others — because these experiences do not fit any concepts known to them.
Heard this term recently, and I just felt like it was very similar to what I feel. Any thoughts?
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2025-04-15T17:56:31
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1jzygbl
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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shortly about my experience od alexithymia and bad experience with gestalt therapy
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hi,
so as you may know alexythymia is not always about ONLY lack of emotions but can also be about not really getting signals from your body (like sensory stuff for instance) and it's true for me
my alexithymia stems from dissociation (and I deffinitely have some kind of dissociacion disorder
and for context: I've never developed emotions till few years ago but because iof an 'incident' I lost them
.
my bad experience with gestalt therapy:
don't get me wrong, I strongly recommend therapy with my whole heart but not this kind
gestalt is about "takeing matters into one's hands" and "one has control over one's life"
and well, I'm starting to feel again (because things) and I was told that 'everyone feels different amount of emotions, but I was like 'I felt more before' and she tells it again. That's my biggest problem can we try to fix it?
girl doesn't understand how my alexithymia and dissociation overlaps and tries to fix effects of my problems not my problems
And I told her I was disabled and in a bad state mentally (as I cannot take care of myself) and well she denied it. She told me I'm privileged, I'm a student and I should leve my comfort zone.
Well I left my studies because of bad mental state and I'm slowely recovering from a place that made me unable to even eat but surely I should reject help I'm getting and start my own life. bullshit
so I think I'll change therapist again (last was ok but I needed to change it sadly)
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2025-04-15T07:49:22
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1jzm6jq
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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struggles
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Hi my name is Max. I'm ftm and personally have never met anyone even similar to me and it's a constant struggle to make friends. Does anyone else have Alexithymia and Aphantasia? It's come to my attention that I am very not normal. And these are a few new things I've learned about myself in the past 2 years. I have sociopathy or ASPD, BPD, autism, ADHD, OCD, Alexithymia and Aphantasia. Developing a panic disorder too. (: I'm not exactly found of myself most of the time after learning this it's been really hard. I enjoyed going through life not knowing thinking I was at least a little normal. I've tried medications before but I think I was made worse from them. The doctor I was going to put me on 7 different medications from august 2023 to may 2024 (SSRI's, NRI's, NDRI's and Norodrenergic and specific serotonegic antidepressants) Does anyone else struggle with these specific things or similar ? How do you keep pushing? What has worked for you?
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2025-04-14T15:15:07
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1jz1cny
| 1 | 1 |
Alexithymia
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Depression and Anxiety
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I only recently learned about Alexithymia and that I certainly have it. I do feel like my alexithymia is a learned case and not something I was born with. There's a video on tiktok that explains it very well. I've never felt so seen and validated while hearing other people's experiences and the similar issues they face.
Has anyone found an anti depressant or anti anxiety medication that has worked for them? I've tried a couple antidepressants in the past but I felt like my apathy was worse. I haven't tried or considered anti anxiety yet, but I'm considering it now.
My anxiety has gotten so much worse these past several months. I've actually made a friend at work that I feel a connection to and have happy experiences with; and they actually take the time to understand me. But then when I'm reflecting on the day my brain will convince me that they only put up with me and find me too overbearing to the point of tears and distress. I'm tired of my brain constantly being my own worst enemy...
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2025-04-13T19:04:13
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1jyf9bl
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Has anyone here actually learned to label emotions better? What really helped you (if anything)?
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Hey everyone,
I know that for most here, naming emotions feels somewhere between confusing and impossible. But I’ve seen a few posts where people seem to have made some progress, and I wanted to dig deeper.
Personally, I’ve tried a few tools. The Emotion Wheel was mostly overwhelming (too many words that I didn’t feel connected to). The How We Feel app felt more approachable with its 2-axis model (pleasant–unpleasant / high–low energy). But even then, I get the impression that if I just pick a word from selection I just read, it’s like re-reading a textbook: the learning effect is limited (compared to doing exercises and quizzes on the topic.)
So I wanted to ask those of you who’ve actually spent time trying to learn how to label emotions:
* What helped you most?
* Did you use specific apps, journaling methods, or something else?
* How did you go from “I don’t know what I’m feeling” to starting to know?
And for those still struggling:
* What’s holding you back?
* What do you wish existed to make this easier or more accessible?
I know this is a lot of questions, so feel free to answer just one part. I’m wondering if we can piece together what works (or doesn’t) from each other’s experiences. Thanks in advance. 🙏
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2025-04-11T21:47:54
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1jx1klo
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Help!
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I’m writing a story based on how someone with Alexithymia may see the world, I have never heard of this condition before but recently found out about it and felt a creative surge. I apologize if it seems disrespectful or insensitive to ask but how would someone with Alexithymia see the world? If you were to see your Grandma cry in front of you how would you feel? How would you see it?
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2025-04-10T16:03:29
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1jw1ip4
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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My boyfriend has Alexithymia and issues are coming up, any thoughts?
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We’ve been together for 3 years, but these problems have only really come up within the past 2 months. My boyfriend was isolating themself and we talked about what was going on; they’d been struggling with understanding their emotions and these thoughts they’d have about a mutual friend of ours. What was explained was that they would have thoughts like “They look so good!” and “They’re so funny” and “I had fun playing games with them!” in reference to the friend, and they would begin to panic thinking “why am I thinking this? I have a boyfriend, am I being unfaithful?” etc. My boyfriend went and talked to their therapist and came to the conclusion that my boyfriend has Alexithymia, and it’s been compounding with other issues recently. After that session, we talked and they said that they felt a lot better and that the thoughts were basically gone. I was happy, we were happy, moved on after some more conversation about the topic.
Fast forward to last night, we have a huge blow up because they’d been isolating themself and I decided I needed to actually talk about how I felt and what I needed from them. The nitty gritty of that one isn’t important, but they brought up that they’d been “instinctually lying” to me for the past two months and that the thoughts never went away, they just learned to ignore them.
This made me super worried so I questioned it, my boyfriend explained that the thoughts aren’t fantasizing thoughts, but that they couldn’t really put a word to what they were. I asked if it was a crush (same way as before) and they said they couldn’t tell, but they just chose to ignore it. I was really confused because before they had told me that they were able to fight the thoughts on the basis of “I love my boyfriend, I’m monogamous, I feel disgusted when I think about the possibility of these thoughts being attraction” etc. But last night I asked if this was still the case and my boyfriend said they didn’t know.
Can anyone shed some light on this? I’m really getting thrown into the deep end here with no preparation, is this normal? Are there ways to combat this? Is there something I can do to help? Anything?
Please help me out, thank you 😓
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2025-04-10T14:31:39
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1jvzcl6
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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DAE relate to this?
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First of all, idk if I’m alexithymic, I don’t have a diagnosis, but I do relate to a lot of what ppl say in this community. Anyway, one thing I like to do is drive around for hours with my music on full blast and just ponder what the hell is wrong with me. It’s borderline obsessive and concerning. I literally spend most of my money on gas bc I do this so much. Anyway, I was driving around and came to a realization. Maybe realization isn’t the right word but I found a way of wording this experience that really fits the way I feel. and I was wondering if anyone in this community related to it. My realization was that in my day to day life, even though I’m thinking about my experiences and do a LOT of introspective thinking, I only do that. I spend all my time thinking and I have SOO many thoughts but I don’t spend my time feeling. My experiences are always thinking, rarely ever do I go about my life “feeling”. Like even as I type this, I’m thinking a lot and I feel kinda weird but I’m not FEELING. Even in situations where I should be feeling, I’m mostly thinking and not immersed in feeling. Does that make sense?
I’m about to go on a walk in nature and I feel like when people do that they’re experiencing feelings or whatever. For me it’s just a ponder sesh where I think about what’s wrong with me or think about anything without feeling much. Unless I’m angry bc that I do feel a lot of. But other then that, I’m just gonna “feel” the exact same I always do when I walk, which is just a lot of thinking and getting agitated about these thought loops
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2025-04-08T18:12:51
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1jukefu
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Does therapy work for alexithymia?
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15f, I got diagnosed with ASD 2-3 years ago, and I was also told I had alexithymia. It’s a huge struggle for me to not be able to communicate my thoughts and emotions, and I was wondering if therapy would help? Like if it would teach me how to communicate them or how to learn what they are. I’m just not sure it would be useful cause I think I would end up replying with ‘I don’t know’ to everything.
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2025-04-08T11:43:45
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1jubi5p
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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I don’t know how to title this one.😅😅
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Hiiiii!
I have realised that whenever i am upset i never feel upset. Y’know?
Like when i am upset with someone, i‘ll act super upset, often even end up crying, but i don’t actively feel upset. For example, a while ago, a few people made fun of me, and even though i was hurt by their behaviour, and have been thinking about it since, I didn’t actually feel even slightly upset. My chest did feel a bit weird, but nothing beyond that. It feels like i am pretending, but at the same time, it feels completely natural.
Now, todays little anecdote it that i finally went to the bookstore that i have been wanting to go to. I didn’t find the exact book that i was looking for, but the ones i did end up getting, i’m really looking forward to reading.
That is it for now. Hope you all have a lovely week! Byeeeee!🤗🤗
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2025-04-08T16:40:06
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1jui2ya
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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I used to be a pretty lively kid?
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I’ve been through a lot of emotional abuse growing up but I remember I was so talkative and happy as a kid but I guess something happened to me one day where I just became so fed up with the world that that little boy just retracted inside and never came back up, I never know how to explain how I’m feeling, where I’m feeling it, mood charts don’t work, the only thing I can definitively feel is anxiety and other negative emotions like that, I cry and the most random of things, I can’t seem to figure out what specifically happened to me as a kid that completely erased the light from my eyes.
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2025-04-07T21:44:07
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1jtx80l
| 0 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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Alexithymia without autism, PTSD, etc...
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Hello! I'm just wondering, is it possible to have alexithymia but not as a symptom of any disorder (commonly autism, sometimes as a PTSD/CPTSD response, possibly some more)? I have alexithymia with main deficits in identifying emotions but I don't have other symptoms of any disorder and I don't have any trauma or stress that could have brought it on. Can it just be a standalone trait?
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2025-04-07T15:53:01
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1jtom0o
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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DAE say things they don’t mean?
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I THINK I have alexithymia but I haven’t been diagnosed. I resonate heavily with everything it stands for but I still feel like I’m being an imposter about it or like it’s not exactly the right thing LOL anyway. Do any of yall say things you don’t mean? Like for example, I’ll say one thing and in the moment I think it’s the truth. Like I’ll say “I don’t want a relationship with the person I don’t have feelings for them.” But then a few hours later, I won’t be able to stop thinking about they person in a romantic way and il start sweating and get a tightness in my chest and all sorts of symptoms of shit. In other words, I’ll say things almost like I’m on autopilot and genuinely feel like that’s the truth bc I don’t feel anything in that moment but then later on, maybe why I’m alone or something, I’ll be like “oh shit maybe I do actually have some feelings about this thing, that I just can’t reach or access at every moment.”
Does that make sense to yall or does anyone relate?? Or am I just rambling lmao
I’m not totally sure if I have alexithymia but I definitely have some emotional/social issues that have been present since a very young age, maybe since birth. For a while I never felt like I had any emotional depth and just felt neutral all the time growing up. Or I felt things but they never felt like full emotions. As I’ve gotten older, I feel more but still nowhere near what I think is enough. I feel like I’m on autopilot a lot, little thoughts or feelings other than “I should feel more than this”. I feel empty a lot too in social interactions and idk if it’s because people just aren’t my thing or if I just don’t mesh well with the people I see everyday or if I have a weird brain that makes me weird about stuff.
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2025-04-06T03:40:22
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1jsl7rl
| 1 | 0 |
Alexithymia
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What do you wish your sibling knew? Looking to understand Alexithymia as a sibling to someone who has it.
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Hi! I would like to learn more about how I can support my sister more. I’m 23 and she’s 26. She is diagnosed with Autism and displays all the traits of Alexithymia (not formally diagnosed as professionals are limited in our area). My family is very neruospicy but I don’t share this with her and I really would like to make sure I am a trusted person to her and make sure she understands I’m a person she can come too. She also has c-PTSD so trust is complicated. I just really want her to know I am a safe person bc for all of her life she’s been very isolating and she said she doesn’t want anyone close to her. For some context, she and I are basically strangers, and I understand through her autism why that is but I don’t know to best interact with her. I don’t want to accidentally trigger anything but bc of Alexithymia she doesn’t know what she feels and the origin. I just feel that unintentional resentment has formed in our relationship bc of Alexithymia.
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2025-04-06T03:11:00
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1jskq3e
| 1 | 0 |
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