Alexithymia is considered a “sub-clinical phenomenon” (Silani et al. 2008) and doesn’t identify a personality disorder  per se  but is a personality trait that is dimensional in nature (Taylor et al. 1991). Alexithymia is not a symptom of autism, but rather an independent construct that frequently co-occurs with autism. Although alexithymia has similar symptoms , it is distinct from autism – it is neither a necessary nor sufficient feature for an autism diagnosis, and there a

The connection between alexithymia and ASD was initially explored in the 1990s through clinical studies on individuals with eating disorders, specifically anorexia nervosa (AN).   The studies revealed the co-occurrence of eating disorders with deficiencies in social competence and identified some traits that were considered typical of ASD, [ 1 ]   such as empathy problems, as well as some features considered typical of alexithymia, such as difficulty verbalising emotions, ide

The growing evidence suggests that alexithymia is a heterogeneous  and dimensional phenomenon. Alexithymia Subtypes Several studies have identified alexithymia subtypes. Here are some of the most recent ones: Lane et al. (2015) distinguished anomic (problems naming  emotions but intact theory of mind) and agnostic (problems forming conceptual representations  of emotions and impaired theory of mind) forms. Kajanoja et al. (2017) compared depressive and anxiety symptoms, se

The term “alexithymia” was coined by psychotherapist Peter Sifneos (1973) to describe a relative constriction in emotional functioning, poverty of fantasy life and inability to find appropriate words to describe their emotions. For lack of a more suitable term, he called these characteristics ‘alexithymic’[ 1 ]. Since that time research investigating the alexithymia construct has considerably broadened: Alexithymia  is a multifaceted personality trait characterised by difficu

‘Autistic individuals always say what they think / or what they want to say’ There is a common misconception that autistic individuals...

Imitation as a Social Tool in Autism Though the broken mirror hypothesis  predicts that autistic individuals should show severe impairments in understanding and imitating actions, so far the research evidence is inconclusive and some research studies have found no such impairments (e.g., Beelen et al . 2018). In fact, many autistic individuals are excellent mimics, able to take another person’s way of speaking, moving, etc. (Tantam 2009). We can see ‘echolalic behaviours’ in

The Diagnostic Difficulties Chronic pain is quite common in autism , yet it is often unrecognised (and undiagnosed). The diagnosis of chronic pain in autistic individuals poses unique and intricate challenges due to various factors. Overlap of autism symptoms with pain signs The overlap between autism symptoms and pain indicators can lead to the misinterpretation of pain signals. Careful consideration and comprehensive assessments are necessary to differentiate pain-related b

The Invisible Burden The study of pain sensation in autistic individuals has seen significant growth in research over the past few decades. Previous studies have primarily focused on pain sensitivity, indicating either a decreased sensitivity (hyposensitivity) or increased sensitivity (hypersensitivity) to pain in individuals with ASD. Alley (2013) conducted a review of research papers to investigate the prevalent belief that autistic children and adults are insensitive to pa

‘Autistic people don’t do metaphors’ Because of their literal interpretation, autistic children do experience difficulties in understanding figurative language. However, figurative language is a wide concept which means the use of words or phrases that deviate from their literal interpretation to achieve a more complex or powerful effect. It includes, for example: - s imile (a figure of speech that a simile compares  two similar things using ‘like’ or ‘as’): many autistic ch