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There is a fine line between autism and alexithymia – feeling emotions but being unable to identify them. Persistent stereotype that people with autism are individuals who are lacking in empathy and failed to understand emotion. Although it is true that people with autism do not reveal emotion in ways like the rest of the people without the condition, they do not lack of empathy.
Such sceptical notion must be put to a stop as it can distort the perceptions of these individuals and possibly delay effective treatments.
The overlap between autism and alexithymia, a condition defined by a difficulty understanding and identifying one’s own emotions. People with high levels of alexithymia (which we assess with questionnaires) might suspect they are experiencing an emotion, but are unsure which emotion it is. They could be sad, angry, anxious or maybe just overheated. About 10 percent of the population at large — and about 50 percent of people with autism — has alexithymia.
Alexithymia caused emotional difficulties, claimed the participants of the current study, such difficulties are often misunderstood that it happens to everyone with autism.
Individuals with autism but not alexithymia show typical levels of empathy, whereas people with alexithymia are less empathic. In other words, autism is not associated with a lack of empathy, but alexithymia is.
The inability to recognize and understand anger is difficult for individuals with alexithymia to respond empathically to anger specifically.
It is important for researchers to separate the impact of autism from that of conditions such as alexithymia that frequently accompany it.
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Category(s):Autism spectrum disorders
Source material from Scientific American
