Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello fellow autistic people!
I found this brilliant, accurate and thought provoking description of alexithymia on social media (Instagram)!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CovdEQysj00/?igshid=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA==
If you can’t access Instagram, here is the description:
’I have a theory about this term. What if it’s not that I don’t know what I’m feeling, it’s that I don’t know how to tell you. What if I feel it in such an extreme, primal and indescribable way that spoken language fails to encompass it? And instead of allowing to feel deeply you have pathologised my unique emotional experience?’
I completely relate to this, I feel emotions very intensely and it’s one of the things I love about being autistic! I particularly like how the description states that spoken language is insufficient to describe the depth of emotion we feel. This is why stimming is our natural means of communication and so cool.
Do you relate this description of alexithymia? What do you think about your autistic experience of emotions?
Ausomely Autistic said:What if it’s not that I don’t know what I’m feeling, it’s that I don’t know how to tell you. What if I feel it in such an extreme, primal and indescribable way that spoken language fails to encompass it?
This is how I feel, but... I don't think I have alexithymia I can describe my emotions, it just takes me a long time because I have to choose the closest word that seems relatively 'normal'.
Cool, it’s good that you can resonate with the description. Do you just mean you need more processing time?
battybats said:I have to choose the closest word that seems relatively 'normal'.
What do you mean by this? Do you mean choose a word that non autistic people will understand? No one ever feels one emotion at a time.
Yes, I definitely need more processing time.
Regarding the language used, I've always had a tendency to waffle a bit or try to find something very specific. That's not always possible for emotions because, as you say, it's never just one feeling at a time. So half the time I just give up and go "I'm tired" or "I'm grumpy"!
Autistic emotions are way too complex to neatly categorise!