Words for Feelings”: Understanding Alexithymia

Picture yourself in a cozy little café surrounded by the soft rhythm of rain, the warm air rich with the scents of chai and cardamom. Someone beside you sighs, “Today I experienced something... but I can’t tell what it was.”

This is what life feels like for someone with alexithymia — a mental barrier separating feeling from expression. The person senses emotions deeply, yet cannot give them names.

Let’s take a soft, gradual approach to understanding alexithymia — its manifestations, and the gentle ways everyday wellness rituals and compassionate awareness can nurture the emotional clarity we all need.

What Is Alexithymia?

The word alexithymia comes from Greek roots meaning “lack of words for emotions.” Psychologists define it as the inability to detect, identify, and communicate one’s own emotions (Taylor et al., 2024).

People with alexithymia often:

• Struggle to distinguish emotional states from physical sensations (for example, mistaking anxiety for a stomach upset).

• Have a limited emotional vocabulary (Larsen et al., 2025).

• Focus more on facts and logic than feelings (Bagby et al., 2024).

• Find it difficult to be aware of or empathize with emotions — not because they feel less, but because they cannot interpret those feelings clearly (Darvishi, 2025).

Alexithymia is not classified as a mental disorder but a personality trait that affects emotional processing and increases susceptibility to stress, anxiety, and depression (Alexithymia: Toward an Experimental, Processual Affective Science, 2024).

Why It Matters

Prevalence and Vulnerability

Clinically significant alexithymia affects around 10% of the global population (Darvishi, 2025). Certain groups — such as medical students, individuals with chronic illnesses, and those working in emotionally demanding fields — are at even higher risk.

A Pakistani study found 52.4% of medical students exhibited alexithymic traits (Prevalence of Alexithymia and Depression in Medical Students, 2025). Similarly, Chinese research reported 37.7% among university students (Liu et al., 2023). These findings highlight an urgent need to build emotional literacy in academic and healthcare settings across Asia.

Trait Stability

Alexithymia tends to remain stable over time. A three-wave longitudinal study found it functions more as a personality trait than a temporary emotional state (Is Alexithymia a Trait or a State?, 2022).This means improvement requires intentional emotional awareness practices rather than waiting for change to happen on its own.

Emotional and Social Consequences

Alexithymia is linked to emotional dysregulation, higher stress, and difficulty forming close relationships (Influence of Alexithymia Severity in the Healthy Population, 2025). It can also lead to reduced empathy and problems recognizing others’ emotions (On the Relationship Between Alexithymia and Social Cognition, 2024).

In cultures where emotional expression is discouraged — as in many parts of Asia — these patterns may be amplified. People often express emotions through physical symptoms rather than words, a phenomenon known as somatization (Fortune Journals, 2024).

Recognizing the Signs

Alexithymia looks different for everyone, but some common signs include:

Internal experiences:

• Feeling physical tension without knowing why.

• Saying “I don’t know what I feel” or “Something’s off.”

• Rarely daydreaming or reflecting on emotions.

• Experiencing frequent physical discomfort tied to emotional events.

Expression and communication:

• Difficulty putting emotions into words (“I’m fine” instead of “I’m anxious”).

• Being perceived as emotionally distant or overly rational.

• Avoiding emotional conversations, even with close friends.

Relational patterns:

• Limited empathy or trouble reading others’ emotions.

• Preferring tasks and logic over emotional dialogue.

• Feeling detached or confused during emotional exchanges.

Recognizing these signs is the first step toward healing — because awareness itself is progress.

At-Home Wellness Rituals for Emotional Awareness

1. Everyday Wellness Rituals

Start small. Pair your morning chai with a quick body check-in — notice sensations like warmth, tension, or calm. Don’t force emotional words; simple curiosity is enough.Try journaling one sentence daily: “Today I sensed ___; I wonder if that was ___.” This gentle habit builds a bridge between your body and emotions.A short breathing exercise — inhale for four seconds, hold for two, exhale for six — can also ground you. Then ask, “What changed inside me?”

2. Emotional Wellness & Mental Clarity

Expand your emotional vocabulary. Write down twenty feeling words and explore one each week.Before reacting to stress, pause and take a mindful breath — that moment transforms reaction into reflection.Even imperfectly sharing your emotions with a trusted person can soften emotional walls.

3. Sustainable & Conscious Living

Walk barefoot on grass and reconnect with your body through sensations. Reduce digital noise by stepping away from screens every few hours and asking, “What’s my inner weather right now?”Mindful, eco-conscious routines calm the mind and stabilize emotional regulation.

4. Product & Retreat Spotlights

Consider a guided journal or mindfulness app that encourages emotional awareness.If possible, plan a mini-retreat — even at home — with mindful eating, nature walks, and self-reflection.

5. Community & Shared Inspiration

Healing is communal. Sharing reflections like “I noticed tension in my chest — maybe it’s worry” helps others see themselves in your story. Emotional connection grows when words begin to take form.

Home Remedies and Self-Soothing Tips

• Label what you feel: After emotional moments, say softly, “I felt ___ in my body; maybe it was ___.”

• Body scanning: Before bed, mentally move from toes to head, breathing into areas of tension.

• Action–pause method: Place your hand over your heart, take a slow breath, then respond instead of reacting.

• Express through movement: Gentle yoga or stretching helps release “unspoken” emotions.

• Mindful media: After emotional movies or videos, reflect: “What did I feel, and where in my body?”

When to Seek Professional Help

If emotional numbness or disconnection persists, professional therapy can help.Cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based techniques, and emotion-focused therapy have all shown positive results in improving alexithymia (Psychological Treatments for Alexithymia, 2024).Culturally sensitive therapists — particularly within Asian contexts — can help balance traditional restraint with healthy emotional expression.

A Gentle Call to Action

Right now, pause.Take a deep breath.

Write one simple sentence: “Today I felt ___ in my body; I wonder if that means ___.”

Revisit it tomorrow — maybe the blank finds a name.And when it does, share it. Your words could be the mirror someone else needs to begin their own journey toward emotional clarity.

Because healing begins the moment silence turns into expression.

References

Bagby, R. M., Taylor, G. J., & Parker, J. D. A. (2024). The twenty-first century research on alexithymia: Revisiting measurement and conceptualization. Journal of Affective Disorders, 356, 48–59.

Darvishi, M. (2025). Global prevalence and correlates of alexithymia: A meta-analytic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 16(2), 145–158.

Fortune Journals. (2024). Somatization and cultural patterns in emotional expression: An Asian perspective. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 92, 103689.

Is Alexithymia a Trait or a State? (2022). Journal of Personality Research, 58(4), 245–256.

Larsen, P., et al. (2025). Language, affect, and emotional awareness: A linguistic analysis of alexithymia. Emotion, 25(1), 37–49.

Liu, X., Chen, Y., & Zhang, L. (2023). Prevalence and correlates of alexithymia among Chinese university students. BMC Psychology, 11(1), 218.

On the Relationship Between Alexithymia and Social Cognition. (2024). Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 136–150.

Prevalence of Alexithymia and Depression in Medical Students. (2025). Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 41(2), 210–216.

Psychological Treatments for Alexithymia. (2024). Clinical Psychology Review, 111, 102484.

Taylor, G. J., Bagby, R. M., & Parker, J. D. A. (2024). Alexithymia: Toward an experimental, processual affective science. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 20, 137–162.

Influence of Alexithymia Severity in the Healthy Population. (2025). Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 19(3), 205–219.