Published on 12, July, 2020
One of the questions asked in the screening process for my diagnosis was "Do you struggle to identify your feelings"
I answered this question with a huge, relieved, resounding "YES". I honestly believe if I had ever been able to identify and name what my feelings are? I wouldn't be in half this mess I'm in now.
My last therapist told me about something called a feeling wheel - which I am not ashamed to say my 30-something yr old ass found SO helpful. I'll include a link below: I bought one of these and stuck it on my wall above my desk. Whenever I was getting 'feelings' (hard to identify but you feel the bubbling up) I could look at this and be like 'okay I think it is THIS;. https://shorturl.at/beKP8
Something this evening has made me feel sad :( and disappointed :( and maybe remorseful :(
It is helpful to have the feeling wheel to identify what those are rather than them coming out in bad ways (like hurting myself).
Thought I'd share in case it was helpful for someone else.
Alexithymia is a fairly common autistic trait:en.wikipedia.org/.../AlexithymiaAlexithymia, also called emotional blindness, is a neuropsychological phenomenon characterized by significant challenges in recognizing, expressing, and describing one's own emotionsHere are a few books about the subject if you are interested in digging deeper:Emotionally Dumb, An Overview of Alexithymia - Jason Thompson (2009)ISBN 9780646512518Emotional Processing Deficits and Happiness, Assessing the Measurement, Correlates, and Well-Being of People with Alexithymia - Linden R. Timoney, Mark D. HolderISBN 9789400771765Alexithymia, A World Without Emotions - Juan Moises de la Serna (2018)no ISBN givenDisorders of Affect Regulation, Alexithymia in Medical and Psychiatric Illness - Graeme J. Taylor, R. Michael Bagby, James D. A. Parker (1999)ISBN 0521778506Integration and Self Healing - Affect, Trauma, Alexithymia - Henry Krystal (1988)ISBN 9780881631807
You are very kind ! I'll read the links and dedicate your time to me (thank you!) § It's actually like I'm blind to this for me. As well as the T.oM., theory of mind. § I know people with very high IQs who are NT. It seems they understand. But they just listen to you. § I think that if I were in their place I wouldn't understand myself sincerely. § I must first read what you kindly found for me. § I think it is my specific characteristic See @Iain , when I read about people with autism who are not alexitic I get a nice feeling about them. On Theory of Mind I think it is common to all of us. A thousand thanks