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?Alexithymia

Draziwekans

Alexithymia - I came across this word, which appears to describes myself, does this resonate with others on the spectrum ? Does cPTSD in autism contribute or cause this, or could it just be (c)PTSD. Especially repeated shutting down over time. How do you know if shutting down is the autism, or ptsd?

  • Alexithymia is a part of my life, for sure. It takes me ages to find the right word to put to the emotions or sensations I am feeling. I can describe the sensation easily (e.g. 'fizzy ankles') but its emotional meaning often eludes me for hours.

    My autism/ADHD assessor believes I have C-PTSD from cumulative childhood trauma. I can see how my own shutdown response is a protective measure once I experience trigger stresses. I imagine logically that alexithymia and C-PTSD are correlated but I am not a clinician and so encourage more informed posters to add their thoughts.

  • Hi

    Yeah massively. I didn't realise until fairly recently that 1. I didnt know how I feel to any deep level. I only knew if the feeling was good or bad. I would dismiss any 'how are you question' with 'im ok' or 'im not ok'... I thought this was just casual speech. When a counsellor prompted further I realised I didn't know how I felt.  I found emotion wheels useful but then...stopped using them

    2. I would show outward anger when it wasn't anger I felt. I assumed people would recognise my outward behaviour as something else...but only recently I realised they always thought it was anger. 

    I shut down an awful lot in adult life. Probably as a child tended to meltdown. However I never did this at school...only home.

  • in reply to Bluelyn

    Spot on! 

    I attended an academic webinar about alexithymia.  In the question & answer section; I asked when we could look forward to alexithymia-friendly clinical psychology questionnaires / wellbeing forms etc.?

    ...they did admit that would be a good idea.

    (I did give it a good try).

  • Yes very much so am I wish the medical world would catch up, constantly asking me 1-10 scale questions, I can't answer