We can all struggle to find the words to explain ourselves, but if you regularly experience feelings that you can't identify, you might have alexithymia.
As well as having difficulty naming emotions, people with alexithymia may not be able to easily distinguish between feelings and bodily sensations.
Imagine you’re walking down the street and spot your old school crush. Your chest tightens and your heartbeat races. These physiological changes could indicate nervousness or excitement.
Someone without alexithymia would be able to quickly tell which emotion they were experiencing, but a person with alexithymia might not know how they were feeling, or they’d have to look for clues within their memories, or in the context of the situation before they could name their emotion.
As identifying emotions is an important part of emotional regulation, alexithymia can make it hard for people to manage intense negative or positive feelings.
It’s also a personality feature, rather than a distinct syndrome or disorder. We don’t know its exact cause, though research has found both genetic and environmental factors.
Around 13 per cent of the population experiences alexithymia in some way and some studies point to higher rates in men than in women.
Alexithymia is also a common feature of neurological diseases, like epilepsy or after a stroke, and can be acquired after trauma or a brain injury.
In 2018, psychologists reviewed past studies into alexithymia and found that there was a large overlap with autism. As many as one in two autistic people may struggle with alexithymia.
While there are no treatments for the condition, it has been suggested that it is possible for people to improve their emotional awareness through practice.
This includes training games that connect bodily sensations with corresponding emotions, and efforts to expand your ‘emotional dictionary’, so that you have more descriptions to choose from when trying to decipher your inner feelings.
This article is an answer to the question (asked by Lochlan Booth, Durham), 'Do I have alexithymia?'
To submit your questions, email us at questions@sciencefocus.com, or message our Facebook, X, or Instagram pages (don't forget to include your name and location).
Check out our ultimate fun facts page for more mind-blowing science
Read more:
