The Overlap between Alexithymia and Aspergers

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Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - May 2006

These traits describe me very well. But this article is old. I wonder what better understanding we have these days

I am working very hard on emotion recognition and processing. I feel like I am making significant but slow headway into recognizing my own emotions. I have realized that alot of my actions are ones of avoidance, and have been based on emotions (fear mainly) that I did not know were there. It's strange to gain understanding about why I do certain actions.

There is also a thread about this here - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=275111&start=1
Interestingly I am finding their comment on the apparent pointlessness of traditional talk therapy with an alexithymic to be very true. Its going nowhere. To me it seems just an endless conversation without purpose or point. And it's 99% me talking, just recounting facts. I can do that to a wall. It seems the therapist is getting nothing from me to work with so just lets me talk until I go away. I get nothing from this toward correcting my behaviour and making a life for myself that is more than my pragmatic just-don't-die approach. They talk about emotions and to me, they're just words. Unfortunately, my mistaken belief that an alexithymic can't feel anything is also a common mistake among therapists. I can already see the arguments coming, of the same sort when I identify with anything, someone has to "disprove" it based on something superficial and mistaken - I can't be autistic because I don't speak in a monotone voice, I can't be trans because I don't care what pronoun people use, and now, I can't be alexithymic because I am capable of feeling emotional pain of any kind.
I'm interested to see what result I can get with the recommended more CBT approach with someone who understands autism and alexithymia, and won't expect me to spray my emotions everywhere, or know what the hell they're talking about when they say things like "love."

I like the just-don't-die approach quite a lot. It allots for time to figure out what (if anything) I'm percieving emotionally, or gives me pause during which I know I should go talk to some friends & gain perspective. My alexithymia is not without its' perks, it lets me look past myself with minimal fuss and absolutely fixate on just about any task at hand.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Perhaps I have a degree of Alexthymia

Well it's something that only exists in a state of flux - that's to say if you are experiencing it, you may have perceived a sort of blurry edge to your cognition, it's not desensitization so much as a reaction to being under-stimulated. *for me at least*

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos