Topic: Alexithymia and Asexuality

English Alexithymia Forum > Alexithymie Questionnaire

Alexithymia and Asexuality
15.07.2017 by Neotecha

I found this topic on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/asexuality/comments/6hd8a6/asexualitys_relationship_to_alexithymia/

It appears that someone who is asexual without alexithymia, their results may bias the questionnaire slightly in the affirmative direction. This idea would predict that an asexual person without alexithymia would score high on the "lack of sexual interests" section, but low on the other sections.

Can a person have Alexithymia and separately be asexual? Is it possible this is not a good metric for the questionnaire?

Not the same thing
21.08.2017 by tiger91

I'm alexithymic but not asexual.

to Neotecha
26.12.2017 by Gluskin

Yes I believe so, you can have Alexi and be asexual. Why not? We're all a bit different.
Speaking from another asexual.

20.02.2020 by Delik3648

I identify as Asexual. I scored pretty high on the Alexithymia test so I joined. I'm not sure if it's because of my Asexuality. Maybe i can learn more here so I will be able to make an informed decision.

20.02.2020 by kafofi

From what I read before knowing the test, one of the characteristics of Alexithymic is asexuality. This confused me because I have a strong sexuality like many I've read on the forum. So I don't understand why this issue of sexuality is present in the questionnaire. It seems to me that sexuality should be an issue independent of Alexithymia, but I can be very wrong about that. I'm learning to try to understand and understand myself as Alexi.

13.12.2020 by Momo83

I have identified as asexual for a long time, but thinking back it might just have been a simple way to explain why I didn't want to have sex. I'm unable to relax and am always getting very stressed about the whole situation around having sex. I'm not very keen on masturbation either, but when I do, I get a feeling of pleasure from it. So for me, I probably avoid sex because I can't handle that sort of situation.
I score 140 on the test and think I'm on the spectrum.

13.01.2022 by AwensMom

You already answered your own question "It appears that someone who is asexual without alexithymia, their results may bias the questionnaire slightly in the affirmative direction. This idea would predict that an asexual person without alexithymia would score high on the "lack of sexual interests" section, but low on the other sections."
So an asexual person would want to look closer at the detailed results and put less weight on the lack of sexual interests section. Not something very complicated to do. I'm sure there are other issues that require the same kind of adjustments. That does not mean that every section someone needs to adjust needs to be removed. Asexuals are not a large portion of the population, so removing everything that doesn't apply to them would be like removing everything pertaining to religion, because there are atheists.
Of course a person can have Alexithymia and separately be asexual. Having Alexithymia is likely to cause you to be more prone to being asexual, since disinterest in sex is a component, but they are two very separate things. You can also score very high while having a strong interest in sex. Much like gender and sexual orientation, there is definitely intersection, but that does not make them the same or mutually exclusive. Sometimes oversimplification can cause more problems than it fixes.

27.02.2023 by User294c8F39

No, this is dumb, it's not just about asexuality, I will say the unspoken part:

I had sex a couple times in high school and couldn't enjoy it because of my trauma. The emotional disturbance of alexithymia makes navigating relationships, let alone intimate ones, a huge difficulty for me. Letting someone touch my body and touching theirs would be very difficult to navigate. I don't have a sex life to ask deep questions about. I don't know how sex makes me feel or what I think about it because alexithymia, autism and trauma have disrupted my life and ability to relate to other people.

A majority of people with alexithymia have some form of autism, most people with autism have some level of alexithymia, and ALL autistic people have some level of trauma from growing up different. This is an incredibly common set of co-morbidities each of which individually indicate social isolation as a possible outcome, with it becoming more likely the more severe someone's case is and the more of these factors are in play.

So why is a tool like this, or for another good example the attachment theory tests, so ignorant of people who have not had the chance for a rich and full social life including romance and sex? Why does it pretend the people most likely to benefit from it don't exist?

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