Alexithymia Examples

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I scored 139.

I suppose I might have some issues expressing emotions.

I scored 139 also. The daydreaming questions pulled me down a bit more than otherwise. I daydream a lot.

I don't think it's the case, I'm a very, very emotional person, however, I think the reason why I cannot describe emotions more pertains to my communication skills because a lot of things I am like "I know what it is, but I cannot explain it" and often times I need time to take everything in before I can express myself...

I also love daydreaming and have a really wild imagination...

I think I might have a little too much remorse... remorse is a biggie for me... also I have way too much empathy to the point where it can sometimes feel like a burden...

Like happymusic said, sometimes these things seem to come on suddenly for me. One moment I'm fine, then I realize suddenly that I feel like I'm starving or dying of thirst. This isn't often the case, though--just sometimes. I suspect I'm not as aware of physical pain as most people because I apparently have a rather high pain threshold. If it's only a slight pain, I recognize it much like an emotion: "Hm, I feel something." I am keenly aware of illness-type discomforts, though.

And yes, I am alexithymic. I have found becoming aware of my alexithymia has helped me to become more aware of my emotions as well, though I often can't tell what they are. Most of the time, I can only tell that I'm feeling something and it's positive, negative, or a combination of the two. Sometimes I feel something and I can't tell if it's an emotion, but I suspect that it probably is because it has to be something and there's nothing else it could be.



That's an interesting idea. Personally, I have always felt a strong disconnect between my brain and my body. Emotions are physiological, so you may be onto something.



I tend to describe emotions physically (I'm told that when I feel bouncy, it might be excitement, for example) or with physical metaphors (like how someone might say they are nervous by saying that they have butterflies in their stomach--which I don't understand, as this sounds nothing like nervousness to me, but I make similar metaphors).



"Upset" is a feeling, but it's vague. There are different varieties of upset: angry, jealous, disappointed...probably some others as well.

That pretty much sums up my opinion. I never really thought about whether I was alexithymic or not but I do know that I have to search for the words to describe what I'm feeling when anyone asks. I usually end up saying something stupid like "you know that movie with (actor) and he was doing (whatever) and he ended up (whatever he/she did that is similar to what I feel like)"

Any time I'm angry/irritated/frustrated/negative emotion, I just pick one of those words because they are all the same as far as I can tell. I just pick the one I think whoever is asking me would most likely accept in the given situation based on prior dealings.

I got 129 on the quiz

I think this might be why my last therapist kept the conversation to whether or not I liked something. Sometimes she would pull out a card that she has with a bunch of emotions listed. There was a little thing on it you slid around to pick the one you wanted to described. It really helped.

Could you perhaps describe this device in more detail?

Interesting link. I scored around 101, which is pretty much in the middle.

A lot of my scores were either at one end or the other, of the array. I have some alexithymic features, but in other aspects am very imaginative and very good at accurately
describing my emotions (not very good at actually knowing what's going on at the time though).

I score 172. I have to see a lot of therapists because my children have ASC and we are sent to people, I really hate it as i always answer 'i dont know' and make them cross with me, its so hard discussing feelings with these uber high EQ therapists as Im so not able to and never understand what they are talking about. It makes something which is supposed to be helpful a real unhelp.

Interestingly I think all tests are a bit subjective and rely on the person seeing themselves as they are. I would like a family member to score the test for me, to see if I see myself correctly. Lots of people might think they are good at something which they are not good at or because of poor esteem think they are bad at something which they are good at, so its very hard to get an acurate or trustworthy apraisal of the true situation from a self assessment questionnaire.

I'm not sure what category i fit into but i will describe.

If someone tells me their father just died I feel nothing... but if I see a character in a film that I associate with, experience the same pain in a similar fashion it will touch me deeply. I have a bizarre discrepancy between affection for unreality compared to reality. i also have sever selective mutism, where i will talk compassionately and obsessively towards some and completely ignore others. My emotive response is very polarised.

I was actually trying to remember exactly how it worked all night long. It was like a big card, maybe 5"x6". There was a piece of paper that made a box around the different emotions, and you slid that box around. I really can't remember exactly how it worked, it's starting to drive me nuts.

Sorry!

I'm just really interested in therapeutic devices for various conditions at the moment.

Not your fault, I didn't read this till this morning. It was driving me nuts, cause I can't figure out how that little box moved around without blocking the view of everything else...

One problem I had with the test is that I really don't know how to answer the questions. I don't know enough about how I express emotions to be able to answer the questions accurately. And I don't associate with other people IRL so I can't really answer any questions that involve what other people might say or think about me. How should I know? So I make some assumptions. I took it again and scored 151. The first time I was conservative about always or sometimes, the second less conservative. But how do I know if I am under reporting or over reporting when I have no benchmark to compare to myself?

wavefreak, I'd just use your score as a rough guide. Objectivity is never going to be perfect and I'm pretty sure tests like this are just meant to be an indicator anyway.

I would feel frustrated answering questions that don't apply too, though. The one that didn't apply to me was the one about feedback; even when I associate with people I just never
seem to get myself into situations where I get a lot of feedback, so people telling me to describe my emotions, or reflecting what I'm like back to me just never happens !

There are several categories of alexithymia listed, under the quiz. It helped me in my awareness to read through them. For me, some applied and others didn't, which explained my
right-down-the-middle score.

I don't know what i am feeling usually and its comfortable for me. When it try to use what i have learned to determine how i should feel and try to convince myself that is what i am feeling i get stuck obsessing over how to make it fit. I seem to break everything down to guilt about not feeling or guilt about being oblivious when situations call for answers.