Autism and Alexithymia

[@jmaessen3531]

Ive heard the advice to "talk to yourself like you would to a friend" many times. And it never quite clicked for me. But the way you described talking to yourself like you would to the little kid version of you makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

[@RangeGleasry]

It has only just occurred to me how confusing that advice must be for Someone like My kid who struggles to make friends. I will try this thank you

[@jmaessen3531]

Oh interesting, yeah! Very good point. 🫶🏻

[@flyygurl18]

Welcme back Elena Emotional constipation is a very apt discription of the build up of intensity and emotions; its so hard to push through them or release. Even harder i imagine in a new environment when you need to keep calm to get things done *I applaud you* This is another great video with helpful insight 🙂

[@elenacarr0ll]

Thank you for your comment, in some way it’s very comforting to me 🫶🏻

[@flyygurl18]

@@elenacarr0ll awww 🖖🏾 Your channel is awesome 🤩

[@InterDivergent]

Being self aware and getting on top of it right away is very useful. When I've pushed things I notice that my sensitivities to external stimuli like sounds (hearing quiet sounds and becoming annoyed) or lights (LED lights become very bright and blinding) affect me more. Very relateable video, thank you for sharing.

[@glossator-of-beauty]

I definitely have found value in this new perspective. I have struggled the last year and a half after learning psychology and the nature of the autism spectrum disorder, around the time of also finishing my studies for the first state examination in law, to the point of developing anhedonia and walking out the court, in front of which everyone was in party mood, with extreme lacklustreness in spite of the grandiose result in one of the hardest professional examinations existing for civilians, apparently because of getting used to conceive alexithymia or lacking feelings too fatalistically as them being a consequence of not being receptive to social cues, lacking mirror neurons, so that if the mum comforts the autistic child he does not react warmly, and your approach (11:40-12:17) of imagining yourself to be your parent would not work out. Now you have taught me a new causality: it is behaviour learnt for the purpose of suppressing needs or their expression to others and oneself if they cannot be met. Gotta keep grinding for two years though, not affording a yet unexperienced meltdown or shutdown or newly discovered special needs, to pass the second state examination so I can be a full lawyer and meet all needs from the fees, though anhedonia has to be lifted quite a bit already for remotivation. I have spent the last half year trying to restructure my personality and gather the missing keys. Navigating the foggy neurotypical world requires expert knowledge if you are autistic and tick all boxes of a schizoid already due to isolating for your special learning, except that you have the cognitive dexterity not to be inflexible. Cognition thirsts without affective substrate to see and you scratch at a chicken-or-egg problem when you have no idea how to proceed. Seeing the right causality helps to untangle the problem complex.

[@MovementBySaige]

I am so grateful this video made it onto my feed. I relate to essentially everything you’ve said, so yes it all makes sense. Thank you so much for your vulnerability, it is beautiful and valued… this is exactly what I needed to hear 💕

[@cowsonzambonis6]

“I live in adrenaline.” 🙌🏻 No wonder we can read our own body’s signals/our emotions!!

[@playground2137]

Yeah music is a big one for me to bring out emotions.

[@zebranothorse-EmJ]

Hi new subscriber here 👋 just wanted to say I came across this video and look forward to watching more. Totally relatable what you have shared here. It's good to shine a light on alexithymia and having more language for it.

[@christiankennedy9417]

This is really lovely! I would like to chime in that at a certain point, there is a need to make a switch in the relationship with how you are feeling. From that puzzle solving, interlectual mindset to maybe a more intuitive one. At least I feelt the deep need to do this, is order to grow closer to myself and process my emotions. Dancing was really helpfull for me here (as well as long runs).

[@patryn36]

i talk to myself all the time, but not like you are outlining. I have also never felt burnt out, but i do have a solid core of anger and it also has/had an instability in it, that has not flared up in quite some time.

[@Broken_robot1986]

I've never been able to manage friendships well. I'm down to only one that lives halfway across the country. Whenever i find myself with a chance to socialize my own voice startles me so much. It's confusing who i am around others, people pleasing desires fighting with no ducks to give makes me feel two faced.

[@elenacarr0ll]

THIS!!! Wow so accurate

[@Ferasleigh]

I identify with this so much!! I have always excelled at making new friends, I think bc ppl respond positively to my apparent vulnerability during initial interactions. Maintaining friendships is a whole other story, in part bc so often I would find myself ppl pleasing capitulating to povs I absolutely didn't agree with, unable to articulate my disagreement at all. This left me so frustrated, I'd become enraged and melt down when I got home. Abt 4 yrs ago I had a massive burnout, which I am very much still in recovery from. I've been almost completely unable to be social, unable to respond to messages. I've found myself questioning if the friends I had were really friends, or just ppl who didn't initially reject me so the friendship was more an exercise in trying to be accepted. I don't know if I trust them or myself. I love hanging out w myself, but I also want to have friends, but I also want to express myself authentically in those relationships and I don't yet know how. Thx for this vid, it made me think a lot which I love ❤

[@MiloschaSaddens]

Your friend's reaction is wild.

[@orionkelly]

❤

[@kendrickkx]

Amazing video 💙

[@MrDaydreamer1584]

Interesting video; you've got some good alexithymia techniques.

[@arstneio5753]

I've been watching a lot of different autistic content creators lately and I notice that autism manifests different in everyone. I'm also into personality typing and I notice certain personality types have problems with alexithymia but they wouldn't necessarily call it that, they might just say that they're out of touch with their emotions. Please feel free to ignore this but maybe check out objective personality typing, they have a youtube channel. I think your personality type might be an ENTJ and maybe that's contributing to, or perhaps adds another layer to your experience of alexithymia and autism.

[@jadynfey7743]

You're actually correct in a weird way. The MBTI was developed and is used by the US military to try and determine who is likely to experience shell shock during active combat, and extrapolating out from there, it's used to determine how people process stress. Its interesting to read about, but take the test itself with a grain of salt. The MBTI is still pseudo science like astrology.

[@elenacarr0ll]

Thank you very much!!

[@HereThereBeGods]

Thanks for the video, as a kiwi have you heard of MiriMiri?

[@elenacarr0ll]

No I haven’t! What’s mirimiri?

[@HereThereBeGods]

It’s a traditional Maori healing practice. I’m referring specifically to the bodywork form though. It deals with releasing trauma and disease from the body - I first experienced it about a year ago and was practicing it for awhile as well - It’s like a beautiful combination of spirituality, physical therapy and counselling at least that’s how I view it. Found my purpose through it anyway

[@Matt-nf2lo]

Hope all is well gorgeous