Alexithymia, A Condition When You Cannot Express Feelings Even Though There Are Millions Of Words

Illustration of an expressionless black mask (Unsplash / John Noonan)

JAKARTA - How do you express joy, love, love, and happiness? Word is one medium to describe the state of feeling. However, those who experience alexithymia disorder will be much different.

Cited from Psychology Today, Wednesday, February 18, Imi Lo, a psychotherapist and author of the book Emotional Intensity and Sensitivity, explained that alexithymia is not only having trouble knowing how a person feels. Alexithymia also has difficulty understanding how other people are feeling.

In terminology, Alexithymia comes from Greek which means 'no emotion in words'. In the field of human psychology that delves into human psychology, we use the word Alexithymia to describe people who struggle to express their emotions and feelings.

Symptoms of alexithymia can be recognized through communication. Explaining an event or what a person feels tends to be logical.

Even though they often try to communicate with other people, people with alexithymia feel socially anxious. Often it can confuse other people because of their awkward attitude, lack of humor, lack of empathy.

Other people also often think that people with alexithymia are cold people, look tough. However, that doesn't mean Alexithymia is heartless, you know. Deep down, maybe they were sensitive and empathetic people. But because of the difficulty in expressing feelings, it invites negative assumptions from others.

Alexithymia is different from psychopaths. According to Mark G. Haviland, alexithymia tends to feel anxious, very controlled, boring, and ethically consistent. Meanwhile, for psychopaths, their anxiety is free, controlled, dominant, cunning, and far from boring.

Alexithymia is also related to the physical symptoms experienced, including a racing heartbeat, difficulty breathing, body aches, and headaches. These physical symptoms are just present and it is not known where they come from. The worst symptoms can lead a person to self-harm.

Imi Lo further explained that people with alexithymia are not completely apathetic. Feelings of joy, sorrow, joy, happiness, disappointment, and empathy remain deep in the heart. But it is difficult to connect with feelings and cannot express them to others.

To recognize alexithymia, there are psychometric tools such as the Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20. It can also assess damage to the insula in the brain that is known through an MRI check.

Illustration of an expressionless face (Unsplash / Elia Pellegrini)

Alexithymia can be caused by two things. First, primary alexithymia, which is experienced by someone with a genetic disorder that inhibits the ability to feel, empathize with and express emotions.

It can also be related to brain damage, particularly the interior insula, which is responsible for sensory, visceral motor, and somatic sensory reactions in the face, tongue, and upper limbs. An injury that can damage one part of the brain can also be a cause of alexithymia.

Secondary alexithymia is defined as a condition that arises due to a reaction to physical illness and extraordinary changes in life.

Although it is associated with post-traumatic stress, anxiety disorders, and depression, it is not clear whether alexithymia is the effect or the cause of these disorders.

Peter E. Sifneos, a psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School in 1976, does not consider alexithymia a mental disorder. However, alexithymia is often accompanied by other mental disorders.

Therapeutic illustrations (Unsplash / Priscilla Du Preez)

The good news, according to Imi Lo, is that alexithymia can be cured with expert assistance to identify and express feelings. Therapy is more dialectical and builds emotional literacy for those who have difficulty recognizing feelings.

Because Imi Lo also works as a Creative Arts Therapist, she recommends introspective practice with art as a medium to cure alexithymia, for example by taking classes on acting, dance, music, and literature.