How does a person with alexithymia act?

People who do have alexithymia may describe themselves as having difficulties with expressing emotions that are deemed socially appropriate, such as happiness on a joyous occasion. Others may furthermore have trouble identifying their emotions. Such individuals don’t necessarily have apathy.

How do I talk to someone with alexithymia?

Treatments for Alexithymia Don’t punish, shame or mock their emotional unresponsiveness. Instead, practice patience. Consider explaining your needs in briefer terms, “I’m feeling tired, I don’t want to cook. Let’s get take-out for dinner.” Or helping them label emotions, “You look angry.

Why can’t people with alexithymia express what they feel?

The emotions that they feel are mysterious. They’re just a set of physiological experiences that cause tension, disquiet, stomachaches, etc. People with alexithymia can’t express what they feel because they don’t know what’s going on in their bodies. They’re experiencing emotions, but they can’t name them.

How do you assess alexithymia?

Various psychometric tools have been developed to identify alexithymia; such as the Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS-20, Bagby, Parker & Taylor, 1994). Depending on the outcome of your initial assessment, an MRI may be suggested to assess any damage to the insula in the brain.

How to deal with an alexithymic partner?

In fact, many people with alexithymia are reticent to accept specialized help because they believe other people are the problem. Some alexithymic men and women believe that their partners have emotional problems. They think they’re too intense and irrational. In that case, the best option is your own well-being.

Do you fall on the alexithymia spectrum?

Surprisingly, given how generally unrecognized it is, studies show that about 1 in 10 people falls on the alexithymia spectrum. New research is revealing what’s going wrong — and this work holds the promise not only of novel treatments for disorders of emotion, but of revealing just how the rest of us feel anything at all.