♡ what IS alexithymia? alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by the inability to identify and describe emotions experienced by oneself.
the core characteristic of alexithymia is marked dysfunction in emotional awareness, social attachment, and interpersonal relation.
✩furthermore, people with high levels of alexithymia can have difficulty distinguishing and appreciating the emotions of others, which is thought to lead to unempathic and ineffective emotional responses.Traditionally, alexithymia has been conceptually defined by four components:
→difficulty identifying feelings (DIF)
→difficulty describing feelings to other people (DDF)
→a stimulus-bound, externally oriented thinking style (EOT)
→constricted imaginal processes (IMP)✧Baaasically!!!✧
alexithymia is the inability to recognize or describe one's own emotions.

♡ how alexithymia affects me: i struggle with mainly identifying my emotions. i can feel a void of emptiness, and i can tell when i'm supposed to be feeling an emotion, but i normally can never feel it, or identify it.
i can express myself just fine, but a lot of the time what i express doesn't match what i feel. it's confusing for you and me.a lot of the time, i don't feel. i don't feel anything. i don't feel happy, i don't feel sad, i don't feel mad, i literally don't feel anything. and i'm not talking edgy 12 year old "i feel nothing! im so emo im so empty" im fucking serious. i can't feel. i don't feel a thing.sometimes i do get moments where i recognize what i'm feeling, but those can be horrifying. i typically dont know how to process it and end up just freaking out. mb chat

♡ how can you help?: just be understanding. i just need you to know that i don't know what i'm doing when i express myself. i don't know how to properly express emotions. i overreact a lot of the time, and i don't mean to do that.i just need you to understand that i'm learning how to feel again. i WILL make mistakes, and i WILL fuck things up. i don't know what's right, i don't know what's wrong, and i just need your patience. i need you to know that mistakes are going to happen. i will be upset at something you can't correct. i will cry at something you can't help me with.please keep in mind, asking questions like "are you okay", "what's wrong", "how are you", "how are you feeling", "why are you sad", 99% of the time, you will not get a proper response. not because i'm mad at you, i just... cannot answer it. i can't.. i can't. i don't know.HOWEVER, PLEASE DO ASK QUESTIONS TO ME DIRECTLY ABOUT MY ALEXITHYMIA! it's hard to write stuff down here since it's.. awkward. BUT ASK ME ABOUT HOW MY BRAIN WORKS HERE! ask if i can identify what im feeling in the moment, ask how i think things work, ASK ME DIRECTLY. dont just go off this carrd PLEASE. ask me stuff PLEASE.there will be times i need help, i can receive help, my mind is open and able to listen. but other times, its closed, i cannot listen to you, every word you say will not reach me. i will shut down you down. if i say i don't need help, or i dodge your questions, that's a sign my brain cannot receive help in this scenario. i appreciate you wanting to help, but my brain cannot receive help. i don't know what im feeling. i only see colors in black and white: good and bad. i can't tell you what's wrong. i only see black or white. the colors are dull, bland, i can barely read them.Alexithymia isn't like depression. I don't need you to tell me that I'm not alone and that things will get better, because in all honesty I am alone, and things will not get better. I know nobody in my life that has alexithymia other than me. Things may get better but I know they wont any time soon. I understand wanting to be positive, but I am alone. And I don't think that's something all that bad.