Alexithymia is the difficulty or inability to identify and describe emotions in one’s self.

Essentially, it is a difference in emotional processing and is thought to be a common experience in the autistic community, often linked with emotional trauma.

To be alexithymic does not mean the person does not have feelings, but instead that they struggle to recognise and process the feelings. As such, they may experience difficulty identifying, and distinguishing between different feelings and bodily sensations (interoception).

It can make it difficult to make decisions, to relate to other people and avoid burnout, meltdowns and shutdowns. It is therefore understandable that alexithymics may find it hard to describe their feelings to others and identify or remember facial expressions and faces. An extreme form of the latter is face blindness or prosopagnosia, which means that you cannot recognise people’s faces, which has a severe impact on everyday life.

Alexithymia