Are you good at identifying emotions/feelings within yourself?

Hmm interesting reading this post and some of the replies. 

I always describe myself  as someone who feels very intensely. 

But I wonder if it’s more that I don’t recognise it till it’s overloaded me and it has become too intense? 

A question I almost always evade is, “how are you?” Or “how have you been doing?” Because either i’m unsure how to respond because I realise I don’t know how I feel, or i’m Feeling too much and too scared to answer because I don’t want them knowing some of the horrible thoughts I have in my head. 

Hi... I am no expert but have read and studied quite a lot about interoception which is basically our brains ability to process signals from the body.

Sensory integration theory links this with the ability to accurately perceive and differentiate the subtle signals from our body (the changes in physiological state) that are linked with emotion and physical wellbeing for example:

• Interception enables us to feel the sensation that our bladder is full and we use this information to know we have to go urinate to relieve the discomfort.

• When we are anxious our fight or flight response (sympathetic nervous system) is activated and our body prepares itself for fight of flight.. Things like increasing heart rate to provide more oxygen to muscles, clenching our stomach muscles to protect or internal organs. For most people with adequate interoceptive processing they use this information plus context to work out they are anxious. 

Like our other sensory systems there appears to be some differences in the way that we perceive and process sensory information (which Interestingly also became part of this thread) so it would make sense that there may be differences that we process interception.

Like the other senses we may be over (feeling every signal from our body really strongly) or under sensitive to (not getting enough of a signal) interception and have difficulty with discrimination (i.e. We might feel the sensation but have difficulty interpreting what it is) 

This theory makes a lot of sense to me because I struggle to feel when I am full or hungry (until extreme states) and I also struggle to identify or feel most emotions. I find it difficult to differentiate between emotional pain and physical pain too. For example I had a head ache the other day (I think) and was being really impatient with people, but it wasn't until my colleague who knows me well suggested that I might be in pain and to take some ibuprofen that I worked out this was actually the cause.

I also no some people that are highly responsive to interception and can literally feel every sensation from their body and they really struggle with massive swings in emotional states throughout the day.

I would be interested in what others think about this theory. 

I think this notion of interoception is really interesting. Ask my partner and he would say "there's always something wrong" with me (headache, feeling cold, too hot, pain in my side,  knees, foot etc...). On the other hand, theres other things like I don't notice when I'm thirsty. Or I do and il make a drink but just not drink it.

When I was diagnosed with anxiety last year, I went to the doctors with my symptoms (one of which was I felt I was losing the plot). I don't know how I could've missed that it was anxiety given that we had finally moved house, there were loads of repairs needed and I watched my grandma slowly deteriorate until her death, which was preceded by a sudden death of another family member the day before. All of this with work stresses on top. Even at the doctors I just casually mentioned the bereavement like it wasn't a big deal. I also had some difficulty describing my physical symptoms to the doctor. 

At the doctors before now, I've realised, that unless I'm asked something outright, I don't mention it. Like it doesn't occur to me.

I know for sure in the past I have cried because I didn't know how to express my feelings or didn't understand why I felt a certain way so crying was the only way to release.

On reflection, I think a non-alexithymic person would have dealt with all this maybe differently as they would be more understanding of their feelings. 

I think this notion of interoception is really interesting. Ask my partner and he would say "there's always something wrong" with me (headache, feeling cold, too hot, pain in my side,  knees, foot etc...). On the other hand, theres other things like I don't notice when I'm thirsty. Or I do and il make a drink but just not drink it.

When I was diagnosed with anxiety last year, I went to the doctors with my symptoms (one of which was I felt I was losing the plot). I don't know how I could've missed that it was anxiety given that we had finally moved house, there were loads of repairs needed and I watched my grandma slowly deteriorate until her death, which was preceded by a sudden death of another family member the day before. All of this with work stresses on top. Even at the doctors I just casually mentioned the bereavement like it wasn't a big deal. I also had some difficulty describing my physical symptoms to the doctor. 

At the doctors before now, I've realised, that unless I'm asked something outright, I don't mention it. Like it doesn't occur to me.

I know for sure in the past I have cried because I didn't know how to express my feelings or didn't understand why I felt a certain way so crying was the only way to release.

On reflection, I think a non-alexithymic person would have dealt with all this maybe differently as they would be more understanding of their feelings.