Agree, it’s much easier to lock all the emotions inside yourself than to try to explain in words what you feel. Most people do this, and this has become quite commonplace. It’s just that not every person knows that the inability to express their emotions in words is a psychological characteristic of a person, which can be both a healthy and a mentally ill person. People who cannot understand their feelings are called emotional color blind and only on the Toronto alexithymic scale can we determine how true this is.
Alexithymia
In the literal translation from the ancient Greek language, the word "alexithymia" means "there are no words for feelings." This means that a person is unable to express his emotions verbally. In addition, other difficulties may arise:
- Inability to define and describe the emotions of others and their own.
- A person cannot distinguish between emotional background and physical sensations.
- It is difficult for him to focus on inner experiences.
- Such people are prone to logical thinking to compensate for the lack of emotional reactions.
It is difficult to call Alexithymia mental illness, it is rather a feature of the nervous system, only if it is overwhelmingly developed, it can cause a number of negative consequences.
Syndrome Forms
In psychology, it is customary to distinguish the primary and secondary forms of alexithymia. The primary form is considered congenital, and it is difficult to treat. Alexithymic abnormalities can occur as a result of malformations, hypoxia or birth injury.
The secondary form of alexithymia appears in people as a result of nervous shocks, stress, psychological trauma, and neurological diseases. Secondary alexithymia appears in older people.
Also, the development of this deviation can be affected by upbringing, for example, if there is a stereotype in the family that showing your emotions is a sign of weakness, accordingly the child learns this attitude and, as an adult, gradually begins to suffer from alexithymia.
Symptomatology
You can determine the presence of deviations using the Toronto alexithymic scale. The classic Russian version consists of 26 statements, where you need to indicate the degree of your consent. The statements used in the Toronto Alexithymic Scale describe the symptoms of alexithymia.
They cover the emotional sphere, and they can be described in this way:
- A person has difficulty perceiving and expressing emotions. Such people naturally feel the whole spectrum of human emotions, but they cannot understand how they feel. In dealing with other people, this can cause difficulties, which can lead to a tendency to loneliness.
- Limited imagination and poor imagination. Such people are incapable of creative work.
- Rare dreams or their complete absence.
- Thinking is logical and clearly structured; people do not believe their intuition, or even deny its existence.
- Individuals with alixithymic abnormalities constantly confuse emotions with physical pain. If you ask them about feelings, they will begin to describe bodily sensations.
Psychological test
The Toronto alexithymic scale is a special test that helps identify cognitive abnormalities in order to quantify them. At the beginning of the 90s. last century there was such a test, consisting of 20 points. For short, the scales defining alexithymia are abbreviated as TAS-20/25/26. The last digits will determine the number of statements that make up the test.
The 20-statement scale was a revised version of the Toronto Alexithymic Scale (TAS-26). TAS-26, although it has satisfactory psychosomatic properties, its authors eventually began to identify some inaccuracies. The points that talked about imagination did not lend themselves well to statistical correlation. Later, these items were removed, and some were replaced, creating a version of the TAS-20.
This scale reflects three factors of mental disability:
- Difficulties in identifying feelings (TICH).
- Difficulties with the description of feelings (TOCH).
- Externally Oriented Thinking (VOM).
The TAS-26 test also reflects the imagination factor; in a simplified version, this factor indirectly manifests itself in the segment of outwardly oriented thinking. TAS-20 was translated into 16 languages, including Hindi, Japanese and Persian, however, in Russia, the Toront alexithymic scale test TAS-26 is used for clinical research.
Statements
The alexithymic research scale consists of statements that relate to the patient’s emotional state:
- "I always know the reason for my tears."
- "Dreams are a waste of time."
- "My shyness bothers me."
- “It's hard for me to determine how I feel.”
- “I like to dream about the future.”
- “I can make friends just as easily as others.”
- “It’s more important to know how to solve a problem than to understand its cause.”
- "I do not know the words that can describe my feelings."
- “I like to describe people my position on specific issues.”
- "Sometimes my physical sensations are incomprehensible even to doctors."
- “I need to know why and how something happens, than to find out the reason that provoked such a result.”
- "I easily describe my feelings."
- “I like to analyze problems, not describe them.”
- “When I am upset, I can’t say for sure whether it’s sadness or anger.”
- “I often imagine something.”
- “If I don’t know what to do with myself, I indulge in dreams.”
- “The sensations that appear in my body often puzzle me.”
- “I hardly dream.”
- "I like everything to go on its own, and I don't want to understand the reasons for what is happening."
- “Sometimes I can’t give a precise definition of my feelings.”
- "Being able to understand emotions is very important."
- "I can’t understand how I feel about other people."
- “My friends say I need to express my feelings more.”
- "What is happening needs to find a deeper explanation."
- "I can’t understand what is going on inside me."
- "I cannot understand the reason for my anger."
Test results
The interpretation of the Toronto alexithymic scale is as follows. For each statement there is a consent scale consisting of five answer options, each of which has points, which are summarized at the end:
- I absolutely agree - 5 points.
- I rather agree - 4.
- Neither one nor the other - 3.
- I rather disagree - 2.
- I completely disagree - 1.
In the specific example given, it is believed that if the patient scored less than 63 points, his emotional state is within normal limits. Those who scored from 63s to 73s are in the so-called “risk zone”. And patients who scored more than 73 points suffer from alexithymia. This is how the Toronto alexithymic scale works. Toronto TAS-20/25/26, regardless of the number of questions, helps to determine the presence of deviations, and, accordingly, prevent the development of psychosomatic diseases.
People who cannot express their emotions accumulate them inside, they are forced out into the subconscious and later appear in physical blocks and clamps. Arterial hypertension, ischemia, asthma, atherosclerosis, gastritis, colitis, dermatitis, obesity - all this can be the consequences of unexpressed emotions. So from time to time, you need to give your emotions a way out, even if the feelings can not be described logically.