Understanding What You're Feeling-Anyone Else not able to?

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I have emotions, sometimes very strong emotions, but don't understand what they are. I usually can identify them along the lines of --- feels good ---- feels like nothing --- feels painful. Anything more specific is very difficult for me to say.

I get emotional and cry and I lie saying I'm tired or stressed when something I read/heard set me off although IMO it's NO ONES DAMN BUISNESS! I hate my mom sees me like this and is like WHY ARE YOU CRYING Me: I don't know Her: YES YOU DO WHY?! !! !! !! !! !! !! ! Me: repeat. Her: ARGGGGGGG!! !! !! !! !! ! *storms out of room*

I have experienced a similar phenomenon. When I do recognise my emotions, it tends to be very vague, such as "happy", "sad" or "angry". I rarely am able to pinpoint the exact emotion that I am feeling. I think the clinical term for this is alexithymia.

I never understood what it means for an individual to not know what they are feeling. Doesn't the experience of an emotion itself constitute knowledge of a feeling? I always know what emotion I'm feeling, but putting feelings into neat little categories as dictated by the english language can be difficult, especially if different people never truly experience the exact same feelings.

If everyone always understood their feelings, psychology as a profession wouldn't exist.

We are complex beings; we don't need to always understand exactly what we are feeling or why we are feeling it. We don't really need to classify or hyperanalyze particular emotions or draw lines between them. It's human nature to classify and compartmentalize (as it helps us to wrap our head around a complicated world), but sometimes it is counterproductive.

My point was that it's possible to know something without having a name/category for it. I can have knowledge of something on a gut level without the ability to articulate my knowledge. This is often how I feel regarding emotions. My knowledge consists of feelings independent of my ability to articulate them to other people. Yet if I can't articulate something to someone else they may interpret that as me not understanding myself, which isn't necessarily an accurate picture.

Except for simple emotions (anger, sadness, happyness,...) I have a hard time understand what I'm feeling. I hate that when peoples ask me to talk about my feelings, I can't talk about them! For alexithymia, well wikipedia say that mean not having imagination, which is certainly not my case.

Sorry, Marshall. I was responding to the original post, not you. (Kind of late to the party, I know.)

I would agree 100% with your analysis.

Thats like mine but normally with the feeling of being in love and anger and frustration, sometimes I wouldn't realise how I feel and then at times I would start ending up crying aswell.

Some people sometimes even notice when I feel frustrated or when im so tired and i basically don't notice it, especially when i have a headache, my facial expressions kinda go flat and people then assume that im angry but im not, its just my head just really hurts

I can understand perfectly what I'm feeling, except everyone else can't. Sometimes I'm at a social event, like a theater, but only because I like the performer's music. I feel really annoyed by the people around me, and my expression turns to neutral for me, but my mother and sister seems to view it as angry.

This is similar to a common problem I have processing emotions when interacting with others. In the moment, no, I often can't identify what I'm feeling. I just usually know that I'm feeling "good" or "bad" about what's happening, if that, and I'm unable to sort out why.

Later, when I'm alone and have time to think it through, I can sort out what happened, name my feelings, and understand, "Oh, this makes me angry," or whatever it is I'm feeling.

I've been taken advantage of because of this, and at other times I've felt that I was taken advantage of. But there are also probably times when that happens when I wasn't expressing my needs very well in the moment, so maybe I confused the other person.

I hate going to the doctor, because I'm never able to express what I need to about health issues -- especially if I feel the doctor is rushed, which of course they always are.

Part of the problem with this is that I tend to just go along with what people want of me, and only later have a chance to sort out what I really want or need, separate from their wants and needs. I think it's a problem with empathy, but too much rather than too little, and getting my feelings mixed up with other people's feelings. Something like that.

I have trouble knowing what I'm feeling. Even when it gets very...pronounced. Like whatever I'm feeling is very strong, but I can't really feel it.

1. Figuring out my own feelings.
I feel. I know that. Very strongly, and am very sensitive to other peoples feelings. It takes me forever to understand and sort them out, and then once I do, to try and figure out the correct words for them is near impossible.

2. People misreading my feelings.
My tone, body language, and facial expressions tend to give off inaccurate information to those around me. So frustrating.

3. Misreading other's feelings when interacting with me.
I can get tones and vibes off of people. I know they mean something significant in some way. Most of the time when I feel them I get anxious because I don't know what they are so all "tone" = BAD to me. Any time I notice one I ask the person up front so it doesn't evolve into a big problem. People don't like that I guess.

I also react to the shades of anger as one group. Frustration, irritation, and anger in ones voice = yelling to me. I am so sensitive to any aggressiveness directed towards me that my mind panics and feels it as pure yelling. I don't feel the difference between raising your voice and full out screaming. I used to get upset at my Dad if he had even a small hint of anger or irritation in his voice at me. I would constantly tell him to stop yelling at me. He would keep repeating that he wasn't. I would then respond back, you are "silent yelling" though. It became a joke around my house.
I guess it would be kinda funny if it weren't destroying my relationship with my boyfriend.