Alexithymia

Alexithymia is, at its heart, a profound mismatch between what a person feels in their body and their ability to find the words to describe it.

When asked how they feel, someone with alexithymia might genuinely only be able to answer with "fine," "bad," or "I don't know." It is not because they are hiding something; it is because their emotions feel like a blurry & unidentifiable rather than distinct, nameable term.

Living with alexithymia can feel incredibly lonely and isolating. It takes an immense amount of energy to constantly translate an invisible, silent internal world while trying to navigate a society that communicates so effortlessly through emotional language. Understanding alexithymia means offering patience, recognizing that a lack of words is never a lack of feeling.