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?
Makes sense to a degree, though I often also don't know what I'm feeling.
I sometimes describe the feeling I get before a meltdown using a metaphor - in fact, I think I often try to describe things in metaphors, me and my therapist have had a few!
Metaphors are very useful to describe emotions as I think they help distance yourself from the feelings. Do you think this is why you use metaphors? Do they help you?
When I am feeling an emotion intensely either positive or negative, it feels quite natural and really helps to speak about myself in third person. It really helps me think more clearly and help myself like I would someone else. I also do this when I am very intensely happy, it feels really good.