≡ Topic: Can you have Alexithymia if you can understand other people's feelings?

Can you have Alexithymia if you can understand other people's feelings?
23.02.2015 by Luca

So I'm pretty sure I have Alexithymia (though I only scored a 124 on the test); but I think I have a pretty good understanding of other people's feelings. I'm extremely empathetic/sympathetic and am usually pretty good at giving other people advice when it comes to emotional problems; but I have an extremely hard time identifying/recognizing my own feelings. I don't know why or when it started, maybe I've always been this way and just realized it a few years ago - I'm not really sure. A lot of times I will randomly start crying and I don't know why, and lately I've kind of just been living my life to appease everyone else and make sure everyone else is happy because like I don't know what that feels like, so might as well try and make everyone else as happy as possible... since there's no point in trying to do that for myself since I wouldn't know if I was happy anyways. But umm, yeah I guess I kind of went a little off track with this post - question is in the title.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Answers/feedback/questions are welcome.

-Luca

Thank you for sharing
25.02.2015 by Ludawis

I wasn't aware of neither this site or that this was a common problem for people but after reading this it feels a little better knowing I'm not alone with this feelings. Thank you for making my day. :)

I relate to you
05.03.2015 by DXS

Luca, I understand what you say, I can relate!

I'm not much of a crier, though.

But I know what you say, I can understand other people's feelings, but I cannot connect to my own.