This is a part of podcast series from the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center discussing emotional challenges after a traumatic burn injury (TBI). In this segment, Dr. Dawn Neumann discusses what alexithymia is.

Alexithymia is essentially poor emotional insight. So typical characteristics of alexithymia are lack of emotional self-awareness, so difficulty recognizing when you have an emotional response. It also encompasses challenges with being able to label or describe your feelings. It also has to do with being able to differentiate your emotions. So knowing the difference between feeling sad or angry or afraid. Alexithymia also, basically people with alexithymia have difficulty paying attention to those internal cues that we get from our body that are really helpful for telling us when we are having an emotional response. So they may not be paying attention to when their heart rate is elevated or their muscles are tense overall. I mean, alexithymia, the word itself stands for no words for emotions. If you don't have awareness for your emotions, and if you aren't paying attention to them and working through them and processing them, your emotions are going to come out whether you process them or not, because just because you're not aware of them doesn't mean they're not there, and they're going to come out in one form or another. And so it's still going to affect your behavior, right? So you're going to react in certain ways, but you're not going to have the capacity to control how you're reacting because you're lacking awareness for what those emotions are. 

Visit https://msktc.org/tbi and get the answers you need from experts who conduct innovative and high-quality research, provide patient care, and work to improve the health and overall quality of life for people with traumatic brain injury. That’s https://msktc.org/tbi.