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Do you ever feel like you don’t have emotions? Or your emotions feel separate from you, like they’re happening to someone else? Or maybe you feel emotions… but you can never name them at the moment.
You might have Alexithymia, or emotional blindness.
Alexithymia is not a diagnosable mental health disorder. Instead, it is a symptom that can be found in many types of mental health issues, including but not limited to depression, PTSD, and sometimes Autism.
This article will go over what alexithymia is, common symptoms of this condition, and how professionals treat it.
Clinical Emotional Numbness: Alexithymia
Alexithymia is not the complete absence of emotions. Instead, it is the difficulty in recognizing, understanding, and communicating emotions.
People with Alexithymia might get really angry, but instead of feeling the anger, they punch a wall. When later asked why they lashed out, they might answer with, “I don’t know, something just came over me.”
Similarly, people with alexithymia might not realize they're feeling anxious until they have a full panic attack.
Emotions are important communicators. When we feel an emotion, it’s our body’s way of telling us something important is happening. Communicating our emotions with other people is a cornerstone of healthy relationships.
When you feel emotionally numb or blind, it’s like going through the world without one of your senses. Also, alexithymia can strain relationships, hinder job opportunities, and affect life satisfaction and overall well-being.
Alexithymia Symptoms
People will feel alexithymia differently, but some common symptoms include:
- Difficulty identifying or distinguishing between emotions and physical sensations
- Limited ability to describe feelings to others
- Trouble recognizing or understanding others’ emotions
- A tendency to focus on external facts or details rather than inner feelings
- Difficulty imagining or fantasizing about experiences
- Social withdrawal or discomfort in emotional situations
- Limited emotional responsiveness or flat affect
- Difficulty making decisions based on emotions
- Feeling emotionally “numb” or disconnected from oneself
- High levels of stress or physical symptoms without a clear cause
It can be easy to want to stay in a state of emotional numbness. If you’re numb, at least you’re not feeling pain. Often, alexithymia occurs because the mind is trying to protect you from painful emotions. But this freezing state isn’t healthy in the long run. You don’t want to go through life in a fog. Treating alexithymia takes the blinders away and allows you to experience everything life has to offer fully.
What Causes Emotional Numbness?
Alexithymia is rarely a symptom on its own. Usually, it’s part of a mental health disorder such as:
- Depression: Feeling emotionally numb or blank is a common symptom of depression. Anhedonia, the lack of pleasure in things you used to enjoy, is another result of alexithymia in depression.
- PTSD: People who experienced a trauma might experience emotional numbness or blindness because their brains are trying to protect them from feeling the fear and horror of the trauma. While this can be helpful in the short term, it is detrimental to overall health in the long-term.
- Personality Disorders: Certain personality disorders like Schizoid Personality Disorder are characterized by a lack of strong emotions, an emotional numbness.
- Autism Spectrum Disorders: People with autism often have a hard time identifying and understanding the emotions they’re feeling. This emotional blindness is not numbness—autistic people still feel emotions—but rather a difficulty in naming emotions, needs, and wants.
- Dissociation Disorders: Dissociation and depersonalization often result in alexithymia. It might feel like the emotions are happening to someone else or like you feel disconnected from them.
These are just some of the reasons why you might be experiencing alexithymia. You might also be going through a period of extreme stress, and your brain is “shutting down” emotional processing to help protect you. This state of functional freeze can be detrimental long-term, so talk to a therapist.
Alexithymia Test
Here’s a quick self-check quiz for alexithymia. It’s not a diagnosis, but it can help you notice if you might have difficulty identifying or expressing emotions.
Answer each question with:
- Never / Rarely = 0
- Sometimes = 1
- Often / Always = 2
- I have trouble identifying what I’m feeling.
- I find it difficult to describe my emotions to others.
- I don’t notice physical sensations that accompany my emotions (e.g., tight chest when anxious).
- I struggle to understand other people’s feelings.
- I rarely fantasize or daydream.
- I feel emotionally “numb” or disconnected from myself.
- I focus more on facts and external events than on my feelings.
- I have difficulty making decisions based on how I feel.
Scoring:
- 0–3: Low likelihood of alexithymia
- 4–7: Moderate difficulties with emotions
- 8–16: High likelihood of alexithymia; consider seeking evaluation from a mental health professional
Remember that alexithymia is not a full diagnosis, but it could be a sign of a deeper issue. The only way to get officially diagnosed with a mental health disorder is by talking to a therapist, psychiatrist, or primary care provider. Contact Lifebulb to be scheduled with a therapist or psychiatrist near you today.
Alexithymia Treatment
How is alexithymia treated? How can you dig past the blankness and start to feel emotions again?
There are a few different strategies, depending on how severe the alexithymia is and what the underlying cause is. The top three treatment options are:
Alexithymia is usually treated using a combination of all three.
For mild to moderate cases, you may be able to treat alexithymia through coping mechanisms. These coping mechanisms and lifestyle changes can help you get in touch with your emotions, stay grounded when you feel a strong emotion, and process events and emotions fully.
- Exercise: Exercise is a natural mood booster, and it can help you work through stress, anxiety, and fear that might be keeping your emotions stuck.
- Eat sour candy: Sour candy is known to regulate the nervous system and snap you out of a funk. If you’re feeling dazed and brain fogged, eat a sour candy and focus on how it feels and what it tastes like.
- Take a cold shower: Cold showers can stimulate the vagus nerve, in control of your central nervous system, and do a functional “restart” on your brain. This can get you out of the funk of alexithymia.
- Talk to a friend: Sometimes, you just need to feel heard. Talk to a friend about what’s been going on. It might not be at first, you might not feel like you have a lot to say, but keep at it, and eventually the emotions will come.
- Sing out loud to music: Get loud! Let yourself dance, move your body, and feel the music. Focus on the way it makes you feel, either in the body or in your emotions.
- Journal about your emotions: Sometimes we just need to know where to look. Take note of your emotions throughout the day and journal about them. What made you happy? What made you scared? What do those emotions feel like in your body? Here’s a list of 20 journal prompts for your mental health.
- Stay mindful throughout the day: Have little check-ins throughout the day to stay mindful. What are you feeling at 11 o’clock? 1 o'clock? When you’re driving home? Tracking your emotions in an app can help you see patterns throughout your week.
It’s good to get in the habit of listening to what your emotions are trying to say. When you’re angry, you might have had a boundary crossed. When you’re feeling sad, it might mean something important to you is lost. When you’re happy, you feel fulfilled and safe. Emotions can have many different meanings, and decoding them is one way you can live happily and healthily.
Need some help working through the fog of Alexithymia? Lifebulb therapy can help you get back in touch with your emotions. Contact us to be scheduled with a therapist near you.
