How did I get alexithymia?

Several subsequent studies suggested that alexithymia might develop in response to overwhelming stress to avoid experiencing agonizing and unbearable emotions[97,98]. During the previous two decades, this “state or trait” issue has been assessed in several studies discussed in the next section.

What is the root of alexithymia?

In fact, subsequent research both from the field of developmental psychology and from neuropsychology has found that the root of alexithymia could lie in either a problem of cerebral organization, or in a marked lack of suitable emotional models during the passage from childhood to adulthood, or else a combination of ...

What kind of trauma causes alexithymia?

Another study has found that childhood trauma experiences can affect people's ability to communicate and identify emotions [34, 35]. Moreover, Young and Widom confirmed that childhood emotional neglect can have a negative impact on children's understanding and recognizing emotions, thereby leading to alexithymia [36].

Is alexithymia caused by trauma?

Considering that alexithymia is associated with both childhood trauma and psychopathology, it is thought that the level of alexithymia may be a risk factor or a predisposition factor.

Is someone born with alexithymia?

Alexithymia can occur at two levels — as a primary trait and as a secondary state. Primary Alexithymia implies that the individual is born with a genetic abnormality that hampers the ability to feel and express emotions and empathize.

What if I Can't Tell What I'm Feeling? (Alexithymia)

Can parents cause alexithymia?

Studies conducted on the general population have found a link between family pathological functioning and alexithymia, in particular between family emotional dysfunctions and difficulties identifying feelings.

Do people with alexithymia cry?

Some alexithymic individuals may appear to contradict the above-mentioned characteristics because they can experience chronic dysphoria or manifest outbursts of crying or rage.

Can alexithymia feel love?

People with alexithymia can feel love when it's strong enough. They just can't describe or express it in a way that provides others with emotional validation. Instead, they may express their love through action, rather than words or affection.

Can alexithymia go away?

Alexithymia is a complex and challenging condition that can have a significant impact on a person's emotional and social functioning. While there is no cure for alexithymia, therapy and other strategies can be helpful in improving emotional awareness and expression.

What are the dangers of alexithymia?

Individuals with trait alexithymia (AL) display poor cognitive assimilation of thoughts, feelings, and emotions. This may result in the persistence of stress, anxiety, and depressive disorders.

How does a person with alexithymia act?

Alexithymia is not a condition in its own right, but rather an inability to identify and describe emotions. People with alexithymia have difficulties recognizing and communicating their own emotions, and they also struggle to recognize and respond to emotions in others.

Do people with alexithymia get angry?

Given their inability to express their true emotions, alexithymic patients exhibit high levels of anger [14] and more aggressive behaviors [25, 26].

Who is alexithymia most common in?

Alexithymia is a term to describe problems with feeling emotions. In Greek, it loosely translates to “no words for emotion.” It is estimated that 1 in 10 people has alexithymia, but it is much more common in those with depression and in autistic people.

Is alexithymia low empathy?

A core aspect of social cognition, empathy, has been reported to be reduced in alexithymic individuals (Moriguchi et al., 2007; Grynberg et al., 2010).

Is alexithymia a psychopathy?

Our findings reveal that in HDIs, alexithymia is uniquely related to the impulsive/antisocial features of psychopathy (PCL:SV Factor 2) but not to the interpersonal/affective psychopathic traits (PCL:SV Factor 1).

What does someone with alexithymia look like?

People with alexithymia are often articulate, likeable, and high functioning in many other ways – they just cannot talk about their own emotions. People with alexithymia may experience sensations in their body, such as tension or pain, but not be able to associate that with a feeling, such as anxiety or anger.

Is alexithymia a form of autism?

It is important to note that alexithymia is not autism, but simply a distorted emotional processing that is co-occurring among individuals with ASD. Alexithymia is a psychological construct that is defined by difficulties in emotion procession, and should therefore not be considered as a diagnosis of a condition.

Is alexithymia a PTSD?

In conclusion, alexithymia is, on the one hand, often considered a premorbid trait that facilitates the development of PTSD as a response to traumatization and a risk factor for a chronic course of PTSD.

How to love someone with alexithymia?

Help your partner work through their own feelings, if needed. Sometimes, people with alexithymia may face big emotions that they don't understand or know how to handle. If your partner is dealing with this, you can help by validating their feelings and helping them label and work through their emotions.

Can people with alexithymia smile?

He has found, for example, that people with the condition have no trouble recognizing faces or distinguishing between pictures of people smiling and frowning. “But for a few of our really alexithymic people, while they can tell a smile and a frown apart, they have no idea what they are.

Does alexithymia get worse with age?

For instance, one large-scale study found that the prevalence of alexithymia increased with age, with the highest TAS scores obtained by participants aged 85 years and older (Mattila et al., 2006).

What to do against alexithymia?

Can a marriage survive alexithymia?

Alexithymia, while effectively isolating a person emotionally, does not always prevent them from getting along well enough to end up married. A spouse with alexithymia, though, will have a lot of trouble relating to their partner and expressing how they feel.

Can alexithymia feel pain?

Alexithymia has been shown to be associated with pain in patients with chronic myofascial pain [25], temporomandibular disorder [11], rheumatoid arthritis [24], migraine headaches [24], systemic lupus erythematosus [24], low back pain [28], fibromyalgia [15], and cancer pain [30].