Alexithymia ?

[Arieswoman]

Alexithymia is a condition that I'd never heard about until recently.

 

Can it be compared to "emotional flatlining" or being intimacy avoidant?

 

I'm interested in opinions....

[Redhead14]

Alexithymia is a condition that I'd never heard about until recently.

 

Can it be compared to "emotional flatlining" or being intimacy avoidant?

 

I'm interested in opinions....

 

Alexithymia is the inability to identify and express emotions. The emotions are there but the client has for some reason or another dissociated from them entirely. Alexithymia is often an aspect of Borderline Personality and/or sociopathy, psychopathy, narcissism.

 

Alexithymia is also an aspect of PTSD and those who have experienced extreme trauma oftentimes as well and usually short-term or comes on periodically as a defense mechanism.

 

One could call it emotional flatlining. But, it is not a part of a fear of intimacy, unless of course, that person also experienced significant trauma. Significant trauma is that which would have been life threatening or seriously life altering and happened at an early age.

[Arieswoman]

Thanks for that Redhead.

 

I sometimes wonder if we are too keen to put Mental Health labels on people to excuse their bad behaviour?

[elaine567]

Alexithymia - literally means "no words for emotion"

 

Alexithymia: "Does My Partner Feel Anything?" | Huffington Post

[Redhead14]

Thanks for that Redhead.

 

I sometimes wonder if we are too keen to put Mental Health labels on people to excuse their bad behaviour?

 

The only purpose a label serves is to the therapist so as to develop a treatment approach/plan that best suits the "condition".

 

A therapist often refrains from telling the client what the "labelling" is on their issue because they do often use it as an excuse for their behavior.

 

However, once a client has entered therapy and has been "educated" about their condition and how to manage symptoms and behaviors, they are fully accountable. Someone might give them a pass before all this, but after, not so much.

 

For the layman, it simply doesn't matter what the label is. What matters is that the person's behavior is unacceptable to you no matter what. The label excuses nothing . . . it's bad for you and that's what counts.

[Popsicle]

Alexithymia is the inability to identify and express emotions. The emotions are there but the client has for some reason or another dissociated from them entirely. Alexithymia is often an aspect of Borderline Personality and/or sociopathy, psychopathy, narcissism.

 

Alexithymia is also an aspect of PTSD and those who have experienced extreme trauma oftentimes as well and usually short-term or comes on periodically as a defense mechanism.

 

One could call it emotional flatlining. But, it is not a part of a fear of intimacy, unless of course, that person also experienced significant trauma. Significant trauma is that which would have been life threatening or seriously life altering and happened at an early age.

 

Interesting. Hiw can one tell the difference between a person having this and a person not feeling/having any emotion?

[Redhead14]

I'd like to add that most people experience this now and again. Sometimes there are a lot of emotions swirling around because of a stressful situation and,if asked, "how do you feel", they will say, "I don't know how or what to feel at the moment :)" This is, of course, a very simple example but similar.

[elaine567]

I'd like to add that most people experience this now and again. Sometimes there are a lot of emotions swirling around because of a stressful situation and,if asked, "how do you feel", they will say, "I don't know how or what to feel at the moment :)" This is, of course, a very simple example but similar.

 

Some psychologists feel there are two types of alexithymia.

Bagby and Taylor suggest that there may be two kinds of alexithymia, "primary alexithymia" which is an enduring psychological trait that does not alter over time, and "secondary alexithymia" which is state-dependent and disappears after the evoking stressful situation has changed. These two manifestations of alexithymia are otherwise called "trait" or "state" alexithymia.

[Redhead14]

Interesting. Hiw can one tell the difference between a person having this and a person not feeling/having any emotion?

 

There is no such thing as a person who doesn't have feelings/emotions, except for people who are catatonic, perhaps. In these cases, people will push them away because they are uncomfortable with emotions, usually, negative ones because they are associated with something negative or traumatic in their lives. But there is no way for brain/heart to distinguish emotions. In other words, you can't keep out the bad emotions without keeping out the good ones as well, which is why the person comes across with a flat affect. The emotions are there, they just can't get ahold of them to explain or express or show them. These are repressed, unconscious responses. It's not about suppression. Suppression is a conscious effort to dissociate which is an entirely different thing. Some conditions cause alexithymic responses because of a neurological problem which is often the case for borderline clients and some other personality disorders.

 

It's difficult to make these kinds of determinations even for a therapist, let alone a layman. You'd have to do a complete historical profile and spend a lot of time with the client, testing, etc. There are layers and layers of things that need to be looked at in order to figure all that out.

 

As I said, it really doesn't matter what the label is, if the person is off-putting to you in someway, move on. It doesn't matter what's wrong with them. You do what's right for you.

Edited September 12, 2016 by Redhead14

[Arieswoman]

Popsicle,

 

Interesting. Hiw can one tell the difference between a person having this and a person not feeling/having any emotion?

 

That's an interesting question.

 

I once knew a girl who was a paranoid schizophrenic ( diagnosed as such ). She had emotions but they were inappropriately expressed. I also noticed that she would watch people carefully and "mimic" their emotions.

 

For example, if a group of us were in a pub having a drink and a sad song came on the tannoy she would just start to cry. I think a good way of describing it would be "emotional incontinence".

 

I stopped being friends with her because she was so unpredictable. In addition she would come off her meds on a whim and have "breakdowns" where she was prone to insane beliefs.

It was a shame because she was basically a nice girl who ( when well ) held down a very responsible job.

[BlueIris]

Interesting. Hiw can one tell the difference between a person having this and a person not feeling/having any emotion?

 

Yeah, this^. And how do you distinguish those from dysthymia?

 

The popular term "laid back" seems to encompass all of these.

[Redhead14]

Some psychologists feel there are two types of alexithymia.

 

 

There are lots of things that are state dependent . . . memories, for example, are often state dependent -- i.e. a result of a trigger. Sometimes the way the light shines on a place or object will remind the person of, take them back, to a childhood experience that had not ever been recalled before that point or had been a long time since they thought of it.

 

State-dependent alexithymia is often part of PTSD as I mentioned above. It is triggered by something in the current environment.

[Arieswoman]

Redhead14

 

I think this is the bottom line;

 

As I said, it really doesn't matter what the label is, if the person is off-putting to you in someway, move on. It doesn't matter what's wrong with them. You do what's right for you.

[Redhead14]

Yeah, this^. And how do you distinguish those from dysthymia?

 

The popular term "laid back" seems to encompass all of these.

 

Dysthymia, is part of depressive disorders. Diagnosis and distinguishing disorders, etc. can be difficult but they are generally self-reported, described when asked questions, etc. People with disorders learned to "blend" into society with mimicry. They understand that they are "expected" to exhibit certain things at certain times and often simply do whatever is necessary so as not to draw attention to themselves as much as they possibly can. They know something is not right for them, but can't put their finger on it without some therapeutic intervention.

 

Because of possible co-morbidity, it's difficult to untangle sometimes.

[Arieswoman]

Thanks for your input Redhead - are you working in Mental health/Psychiatry by any chance?

 

Just curious

[wmacbride]

my oldest daughter cope with this issue, and it's co morbid to her having asoergers.

 

She can't verbally express her emotions, which some interpret to mean she doesn't have them or lacks empathy.

 

That is completely not the case.

 

As an aside, I don't know about others with this issue, but she hates being asked how she is feeling, gets flustered and can;t answer. She especially hates the " on a scale of 1 o 10, how are your feelings today".

 

Funny thing is that she can write about her feelings, but it's in an allegorical way.

[Arieswoman]

wmacbride,

I have a colleague with borderline Aspergers - he's always asking my opinion about situations, mainly "did I do it right?"

 

He's very conscious of not seeing situations in the same way as other people, and needs a lot of reassurance. It's very well-qualified and intelligent but sometimes he gets a bit wearing...

[Mr. Lucky]

I sometimes wonder if we are too keen to put Mental Health labels on people to excuse their bad behaviour?

 

Amen, back in the day such a person would have simply been described as cold or distant. Same with BPD/NPD, such people were just asswipes ...

 

Mr. Lucky

[wmacbride]

Amen, back in the day such a person would have simply been described as cold or distant. Same with BPD/NPD, such people were just asswipes ...

 

Mr. Lucky

 

I'm sorry, but this is often not the case.

 

I mentioned my daughter. She is anything but cold and distant. In fact, she is actually overly empathetic, as odd at that may sound. She can't read people well, but if she knows how they are feeling , she internalizes their emotions to the point that it can get to be unhealthy for her.

It's not that she can;t feel, it's that she can't find the words to describe it, which can be a very painful and lonely way to be. She can be in emotional agony but can't find the words to say so.

[Mr. Lucky]

I'm sorry, but this is often not the case.

 

I mentioned my daughter. She is anything but cold and distant. In fact, she is actually overly empathetic, as odd at that may sound. She can't read people well, but if she knows how they are feeling , she internalizes their emotions to the point that it can get to be unhealthy for her.

It's not that she can;t feel, it's that she can't find the words to describe it, which can be a very painful and lonely way to be. She can be in emotional agony but can't find the words to say so.

 

Certainly not my intention to make light of her situation. I apologize if it came across that way.

 

But I still agree with AW's point - if everyone has a disease, disorder, handicap or anxiety, I think it erodes the sense of personal responsibility we need to have a functioning society. It's a little like food - can all these people really be gluten averse, lactose intolerant and allergic to every nut and spice?

 

You have a better chance of carrying a hungry wolverine into a modern elementary school than a peanutbutter cookie. I'm still trying to figure out how we got to this point...

 

Mr. Lucky