Autism and the Challenge of Alexithymia

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I really like your piano composition, however I cannot think of an emotional term for it. It seems happy and sad at the same time which I really like.
Im a music composer and am alexithymic too. I like when music has an unidentfible feeling to it.

With the bad audio quality on the louder version, it almost sounds like a musician playing at some 20th century restaurant in a European country like France or something. It doesn't evict any real emotional response from me, the images it conjures up in my mind are kind of happy though, so I'll vote that.

That's a very interesting composition. I would describe it as very emotionally complex. The piece lacks direction(not in a bad way at all), so it really evokes a feeling of someone who is lost, or doesn't know where they are going but is just along for the ride. It has this feeling of mental and emotional unrest, of a mind that is always thinking, and perhaps in turmoil. I can feel sadness, confusion, hope, notsalgia, loneliness, and wonder in the song. It makes me think of a person who has just moved past some confusing and sad moment in his life, and is deep in thought, pondering the past and hoping for the future.

Several times I thought there was something almost identifiable, but then it went off in a different direction.

Thanks.

Thanks, for the feedback on the louder version. I was trying to get a version people could hear on a mobile phone, but it does not appear that the source of the audio is high quality enough to make that happen.

And that is an interesting analogy to the 20th century restaurants.

Thanks.

Only word I can come up with is "movement", but that's not an emotional one.

That also sound like a good description of my verbal and written communication.

Attempting to create a coherent focus moving in so many directions in my mind. It's not nearly as challenging as it used to be when I was younger, because I don't move in as many sensory directions as I used to, which overall, I found pleasurable for most of my life.

This is very fascinating to me as when I was diagnosed with PCOS (it's a girl thing, fellas) my adrenal/cortisol level was off the chart. I assume it still is. I never thought to wonder if that had any connection to my Aspergers, but I just googled it and there's some studies on the connection between the two. I haven't heard of Alexithymia but I could see having that as well because I would describe my emotions as pretty simple. I'm happy unless something happens to make me not happy, but then it gets resolved or I learn to live with it and I'm happy again. The doctor who diagnosed me with PCOS said I needed to reduce my stress in order to reduce my cortisol levels, which puzzled me because I wouldn't identify myself as being stressed. So, either I'm stressed and I don't know it or something else is causing the stress hormone to be high...which might be affecting my ability to perceive finer emotions because I'm in a perpetual fight or flight state of being.

I thought the music a little to jaunty to be sad or ghostly. It didn't really evoke any emotions for me.

PCOS is also associated with androgyny, a recent factor that has been associated with Aspergers/"High fuctioning Autism".

You might find this link interesting below, associated with these issues.

http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2012 ... utism.html

And, thank you for another word of emotion to look up on google, "Jaunty" as lively and happy.

I couldn't really identify any emotional content in the music.

I can relate to this quote from the article. I never associated the conditions before but can see now how they're linked. Gives me a lot to think about although it's kind of like the chicken and the egg...which condition triggers which? I'll have to see if I can find more information on this. Thanks!

You are welcome. Here is a link below that provides additional information, and a link to a recent discussion on the issue from this website.

http://keithsneuroblog.blogspot.com/201 ... l?spref=fb

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt215254.html

And here is another interesting link to a site, from an out of the box thinker on the spectrum, that was looking into this issue well before research is now providing evidence of it. He offers a free e-book on his website that describes his theory in great detail, as part of a culturally influenced cycle of expression of androgynous traits in human beings.

www.neoteny.org

I don't get emotions from instrumental music.

I definitely don't have alexithymia, in fact I think I'm more aware of my own feelings than most NTs.

I didn't really find any emotion in the music but I was unable to listen to the whole piece because the sound quality really put my teeth on edge.