Psychology

 The term Alexithymia happens to be a very new term and it is known to refer to a condition where a person is not able to express his feelings in words. From research that has been conducted on this topic, it is clear that majority of the people know that they are going to have a lot of problem if they are not able to express their feelings in words. Experts in medical field term this as a condition where the person is not at all able to describe his or her emotions in word. They say that most of those people who happen to be Alexithymic are never sure of what their feelings are. (Parker, 2000)

This term was created by Peter Sifneous who was a doctor back in 1972 from three Greek words. The first one was a which presented lack, then lexis which means word and lastly thymos which means emotions. Even though this disorder seems to be a new one, research has it that it is a personality trait that is now putting people at risk of psychiatric and other medical disorders.  This is encouraged by the fact that there is a likelihood that all those individuals who are found to have the condition will probably not respond to convectional treatment of the other disorders that they may be having. (Sifneos, 2004)
However, this condition is not classified in the DSM IV under the mental disorder classification because it happens to be a dimensional personality trait which changes as a person grows. In addition, it also happens to be different from one person to the other person. Research has it that majority of the people who find themselves having this condition are those who will always avoid having emotional relationship which are close. However there are some who eventually get into relationship but they tend to be impersonal, dominant or dependent of the other person. (Sifneos, 2004)

Further studies that were conducted in the year 2008 found that Alexithymia was related to relational affection demonstrations and impaired understanding. These conditions are known to contribute to a very poor relational well being, poor mental health and lowered relational quality. Apart from these, this condition is known to negatively affect the relationship between some couples. The condition is also known to be demonstrated by those individuals who happen to work in organizations which consider control of emotions a norm. However, these individuals are not necessarily Alexithymic. They are acting in that manner due to the circumstances that they find themselves in. It can also be said that if this situation is persistent, these people may lose their original identity due to continued lack of self expression. (Lesser, 2008)
85 per cent of all though people with autism are known to have Alexithymia. Most of the people with anorexia nervosa, posttraumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, major depression disorder substance abuse and bulimia are also said to have Alexithymia.  A research that was conducted in the year 2004 found out that Alexithymia will in most cases overlap with Asperser syndrome. (Sifneos, 2004)

There are some universal signs that one should look for so as to known whether he or she has Alexithymia. The first one is that if one is being perceived by other people as being unsentimental or excessively logical without being unfriendly, when one finds it difficult talking about his or her emotions, when one occasionally suffers from inexplicable physiological disturbances for instance stomach ache, palpitations or hot flushes and when one is perplexed by emotional reactions of other people. People with this condition seem to have a serious problem communicating and therefore, therapists who want to cure them must strike a sympathetic nerve in this situation. (Lesser, 2008)