Recognizing emotions and alexithymia

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A lot of times I feel like I have delayed reactions to things, and I don't know if it's because I really have a delayed reaction or if it just takes me awhile to recognize how I'm feeling.

But what I've been noticing lately, is even when I start to have strong physical signs of emotion (like tears welling up, or noticing I'm getting angry enough to start slamming things) the first thought I have is that I don't really feel this way, I must be faking, I must be exaggerating how I feel. And then I think oh I can just stop feeling this way and go on with things like everything is normal.

This is pretty mind boggling because this thought process happens so fast I just never noticed it before. I guess this is part of why I seem to have delayed reactions to things or sometimes can just blow up suddenly.

Does anyone else notice this, like whenever you feel upset you automatically think you're faking?

I don't ever think I'm faking--but it can take anywhere from hours to days to figure out what all the emotions are.

Often I just need to get some space to regroup and figure things out.