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Post by Lydia on Aug 8, 2011 15:08:41 GMT -5
It's kind of funny, because while I can be at times very verbal... I can't express my feelings, opinions, likes and dislikes. I don't know why it's this way. If I talk, it's not social language or feelings, just about ever. It's about my cat or one of my other interests, and that's about it.
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Post by tamsin on Aug 9, 2011 6:26:30 GMT -5
I don't always have problems expressing feelings, but I often have a hard time identifying feelings. Unless I am feeling an extreme emotion I can't usually identify what I'm feeling. I was in therapy for years and therapists always started with "How are you feeling today?" and I always said "Fine." Usually they would ask me how "fine" felt or tell me I had to use a feeling word (apparently "fine" isn't a feeling). I think they thought I was being evasive when in reality I had no idea what I was feeling. To this day I hate when people ask me how I'm feeling. I'd rather they ask what I was doing because at least I would know for sure.
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Post by pensieve on Aug 9, 2011 18:43:12 GMT -5
I get so overloaded with emotion when I go to share some personal bit of information that it's impossible, I have to stop.
My meds make me talk about everything else. I do talk more when not on them because I've been on them going on a year now.
Tamsin, sounds like you may have Alexithymia. It's a term psychologists give to people who can't explain how they feel or can't identify what an emotion they're feeling is. I kind of had it until I started to analyze all my emotions. With me it was like I didn't know why I was angry or if I was feeling exactly sad, happy or angry - I had no word for it.
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Post by Lydia on Aug 10, 2011 6:54:18 GMT -5
Tamsin, I hated that too! I usually say I don't know.
I must have some kind of partial alexithymia, because I can type how I feel but not verbalize.
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Post by pensieve on Aug 10, 2011 18:23:18 GMT -5
Verbal alexithymia? I just made that word up but it seems to fit. Maybe that's what I have too. I also don't show a lot of enthusiasm when I say things are 'great.' It's like I have to push out some emotion, or talk my way out of my awkwardness.
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Post by verdandi on Aug 11, 2011 17:22:09 GMT -5
I mentioned to my therapist today that something made me uncomfortable, and then she pressed me as to why and I could not explain it at all.
A lot of the time I can't identify or describe emotions unless they get particularly intense.
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