#alexithymia — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #alexithymia, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 9, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: How specific masculine ideals are linked to anxiety and depression in men
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-specific-masculine-ideals-are-linked-to-anxiety-and-depression-in-men/
The relationship between traditional masculine ideals and men’s mental health is highly complex, according to new research. While some societal expectations about how men should behave are neutral or even protective, a recent survey reveals that specific norms—namely emotional suppression and extreme self-reliance—are uniquely linked to higher rates of anxiety and depression. The study helps explain the psychological mechanisms behind this, showing that these specific ideals are connected to difficulties in processing and managing emotions. The findings were published in the journal Sex Roles.
Researchers have observed that men are less likely to seek professional psychological help and more likely to drop out of therapy than women. Men also face high rates of internalizing symptoms. Internalizing symptoms refer to mental health conditions where individuals direct psychological distress inward, rather than acting it out aggressively, with common examples including depression and anxiety disorders.
Lead author Vincent O. Mancini, a researcher affiliated with The Kids Research Institute Australia, the University of Western Australia, and Curtin University, along with a team of international psychologists, set out to map the psychological pathways connecting cultural expectations to these internalizing symptoms.
Importantly, the researchers approached masculinity not as a single, homogenous construct, but as a multidimensional set of norms. In many industrialized Western countries, these traditional ideals range from a drive for social status and risk-taking, to stoicism and a reluctance to show vulnerability. The study aimed to identify exactly which of these specific expectations are harmful, which are neutral, and which might even be protective.
To understand the connection between these cultural expectations and mental health, the researchers looked at two specific psychological concepts: alexithymia and emotion regulation.
Alexithymia describes a personality trait characterized by a severe difficulty in identifying and describing one’s own emotions. People with high levels of alexithymia tend to focus their attention outward rather than analyzing their internal feelings. Emotion regulation, on the other hand, is the ability to monitor, evaluate, and modify emotional reactions to achieve a desired state or goal.
The researchers hypothesized that certain cultural expectations teach boys to suppress vulnerability from a very young age. When children are repeatedly encouraged to hide sadness or fear to appear strong, they lose opportunities to practice identifying and processing those feelings. Over time, this lack of practice can develop into alexithymia in adulthood.
To test this framework, the researchers recruited 740 men from the United States and the United Kingdom to complete an extensive online survey. The participants ranged in age from 22 to 80 years old, with diverse educational and employment backgrounds.
The survey included several questionnaires designed to measure different aspects of the participants’ psychological profiles. One questionnaire assessed the degree to which each participant conformed to ten distinct traditional masculine norms. These dimensions included traits like risk-taking, the desire to win, the pursuit of status, self-reliance, prioritizing work above all else, and maintaining strict emotional control.
Additional questionnaires measured the participants’ levels of alexithymia and their ability to regulate their emotions. Finally, the survey evaluated the presence and severity of internalizing symptoms, specifically screening for signs of depression, anxiety, and stress.
The statistical analysis revealed that the relationship between masculine norms and mental health varies heavily depending on the specific type of norm. Four specific masculine ideals were strongly and positively associated with higher levels of alexithymia: the prioritization of work, the drive to remain entirely self-reliant, the desire to win, and the emphasis on emotional control.
Men who reported higher adherence to these norms were more likely to struggle with recognizing and labeling their own feelings. The researchers suggested that burying oneself in work or refusing to ask for help might reinforce a habit of ignoring internal emotional states.
However, other traditional masculine norms did not show this harmful association, and some even appeared beneficial. For example, men who strongly endorsed the “pursuit of status” actually exhibited lower levels of alexithymia and reduced internalizing symptoms. Norms related to risk-taking and heterosexual self-presentation showed no negative association with emotional processing.
For those who did experience high levels of alexithymia, the study found a strong cascading effect. Because these men struggled to accurately appraise what they were feeling, they were less equipped to manage those feelings effectively. This inability to regulate emotional responses was, in turn, strongly associated with elevated anxiety and depression.
By connecting these variables, the researchers mapped a sequential psychological pathway: The pressure to conform to ideals of extreme self-reliance and emotional suppression is linked to an inability to identify personal emotions. This emotional blindness limits the ability to manage psychological distress, which ultimately corresponds to a higher likelihood of experiencing internalizing symptoms.
The data also revealed other associations that operated independently of alexithymia. For instance, the researchers suggested that the “playboy” norm—seeking multiple short-term sexual partners—might be linked to emotion regulation difficulties because it serves as an impulsive, reward-seeking strategy to cope with distress, rather than stemming from an inability to identify emotions.
The authors also noted that emotional control has a highly complicated, dual relationship with mental health. Attempting to restrict or conceal emotions can sometimes provide a successful short-term reduction in distress. However, this immediate protective benefit is ultimately canceled out if it leads to alexithymia over time, which impairs the deeper emotional regulation required for lasting mental health.
Because masculinity is multifaceted, the authors warn against treating it as a single, harmful category, noting that this oversimplification risks perpetuating unhelpful stereotypes about men.
Instead, these findings offer targeted guidance for mental health professionals and educators. The researchers noted that failing to address fundamental difficulties in identifying emotions early in therapy could reduce the effectiveness of traditional psychological treatments. Interventions that first help men build an emotional vocabulary—without pathologizing masculinity as a whole—might prove highly beneficial. Additionally, the authors suggest that school programs focusing on emotion labeling could help boys develop healthier emotional functioning long before they reach adulthood.
While the statistical models map out a sequential pathway, the study relies on cross-sectional survey data. A cross-sectional design captures information at a single point in time, meaning the researchers cannot definitively prove the direction of causality. It is possible that individuals already experiencing high levels of anxiety and depression might report their adherence to masculine norms differently than they would otherwise.
The study also relies entirely on self-reported questionnaires. Future studies could incorporate clinical evaluations or reports from family members to provide a more comprehensive picture. Additionally, research across a wider variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds is needed to see if these psychological patterns hold true outside of Western, industrialized nations like the U.S. and the U.K.
The study, “Internalizing Symptoms in Men: The Role of Masculine Norms, Alexithymia, and Emotion Regulation,” was authored by Vincent O. Mancini, Julia Ditzer, Jack D. Brett, James J. Gross, and David A. Preece.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-specific-masculine-ideals-are-linked-to-anxiety-and-depression-in-men/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MasculineNorms #MentalHealthInMen #Alexithymia #EmotionRegulation #MenAndDepression #AnxietyInMen #EmotionalSuppression #SelfReliance #MasculinityResearch #SexRolesStudy
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This article was basically written about me. I mean, it wasn't, but there's nothing in it that doesn't match my experience.
Anger has always been one of the biggest issues in my life. And when I was angry, of course I was the problem. Not what I was angry at. This was beaten (sometimes literally), drilled and programmed into me by so many incidents. And #Alexithymia stopped me from constructively fighting back. As the article says, it's a cruel loop.
One big thing this article has shown me is the crucial differences between #anger and a #meltdown. Anger can lead to a meltdown but they're not the same. There are so many insights in this article, it's worth several reads.
"Autistic Anger: The Emotion You Were Never Allowed to Have"
https://www.heyasd.com/blogs/autism/autistic-anger -
DATE: August 2, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Study links emotional blindness to violent behavior behind bars
Difficulty putting feelings into words is strongly linked to aggressive behavior among incarcerated individuals. A recent study reveals that this emotional struggle fosters deep social isolation and high anxiety, which then drive inmates to act out violently. The research was published in the journal Deviant Behavior.
Alexithymia is a psychological condition characterized by an inability to identify and describe one’s own internal emotional states. People with this trait often struggle to distinguish between feelings and the physical sensations of emotional arousal. The term originates from Greek and translates roughly to having no words for emotions.
Within correctional facilities, the proportion of individuals with this emotional deficit is unusually high. Past surveys estimate that an excess of thirty percent of prison populations display these traits. At the same time, aggressive behavior behind bars remains a persistent challenge for prison management and rehabilitation efforts.
Researchers Hejia Yu and Meng Zhang of the People’s Public Security University of China wanted to understand the psychological pathways connecting these two phenomena. Prior investigations had established that a relationship exists between emotional blindness and aggression. No previous project had fully mapped the psychological domino effect connecting the two inside a correctional setting.
The researchers rooted their investigation in a well-established psychological theory known as the general aggression model. This framework suggests that aggression is not just a random outburst. It is triggered by a combination of the situations people face and the personal traits they carry inside themselves.
Prisons create intensely stressful situational scenarios. Inmates face a loss of freedom, restricted social contact, and minimal privacy. Institutional routines frequently strip away individual identity. Inmates are assigned numbers and wear uniforms, which indirectly limits their opportunities to seek emotional support and validation from others.
When an individual who cannot process their emotions enters this restrictive environment, their internal regulatory systems fail. The researchers theorized that this failure creates a cascading effect. If negative emotional states are left unchecked, they can transform into persistent frustration and eventually lead to physical or verbal aggression.
To test this idea, Yu and Zhang surveyed male inmates at a prison in a Chinese province. In total, 415 men provided valid responses to a series of specialized questionnaires. The surveys measured their ability to identify feelings, their current levels of loneliness, their daily anxiety, and their tendencies toward physical aggression, verbal abuse, or hostility.
The demographic data revealed an average age of about 38 years among the participants. The respondents were serving varying sentence lengths and had different educational backgrounds. The researchers accounted for physical health and age in their statistical mathematics to prevent these variables from skewing the final data.
The data confirmed a robust positive relationship among all four psychological elements. Inmates who scored high on the inability to identify emotions also reported elevated levels of loneliness, anxiety, and aggressive behavior. The researchers then mapped out three distinct pathways to explain how these variables feed into one another.
In the first pathway, loneliness alone serves as a bridge. Individuals with a restricted emotional vocabulary often struggle to read the facial expressions or body language of others. This deficit prevents them from forming bonds or resolving interpersonal conflicts. The resulting social friction isolates them. Persistent isolation in a confined space acts as a form of social starvation, prompting inmates to act out aggressively just to break the monotony or force an interaction.
The second pathway revolves purely around anxiety. This route proved to be the strongest predictor of aggressive behavior in the study. Inmates who cannot accurately label their feelings, such as confusing fear with anger, experience ongoing emotional confusion. Without the ability to talk through their distress, their internal tension remains consistently elevated.
This constant state of high alert is the essence of anxiety. The researchers explained that high anxiety narrows a person’s focus. It makes individuals hyper-vigilant to potential threats. In a high-stress prison environment, anxious inmates are primed to perceive neutral actions from guards or peers as direct attacks. Lacking a better coping mechanism, they resort to aggressive retaliation.
The third pathway describes a chain reaction. The researchers called this the emotional cascade. The inability to process feelings first leaves the inmate isolated and lonely. Because the social environment of the prison prevents them from seeking comfort, the loneliness begins to fester.
Over time, this unresolved loneliness escalates into profound anxiety. The inmate becomes trapped in a loop of negative thoughts. The emotional pressure continues to build until it breaches the person’s self-control threshold. The final outcome of this psychological pressure cooker is a violent or hostile outburst.
Psychologists classify loneliness as a low-arousal emotional state. It builds slowly and quietly as social connections fray over time. Anxiety, by contrast, is a high-arousal emotional state that flares up quickly and dominates immediate attention. The researchers noted that moving from a low-arousal state to a high-arousal state represents a dangerous escalation for incarcerated individuals.
When the simmering tension of loneliness boils over into the urgent panic of anxiety, the resulting physical energy demands an exit. Because prisons restrict positive outlets for energy, the sudden surge is often redirected into destructive actions. Understanding exactly how these internal states transition gives facility administrators a new perspective on inmate disturbances.
Finding these exact pathways offers a roadmap for prison psychologists. The researchers suggested that correctional facilities should implement basic emotional education. Teaching inmates how to identify and name their feelings could stop the aggressive cascade before it even begins. Simple interventions, such as guided journaling or peer support groups, could help inmates process their isolation.
Because anxiety is such a strong driver of violence, short-term relaxation exercises could also prove highly beneficial. Engaging inmates in mindfulness or stress-reduction techniques could lower their physiological arousal. Lowering that baseline physical tension reduces the likelihood of sudden altercations.
The authors acknowledged several limitations in their work. The study relied on a survey given at a single point in time. Because the data is numerical and cross-sectional, it cannot definitively prove that one psychological state directly causes another, only that they appear sequentially.
Additionally, all participants were male inmates housed in a single facility. This means the findings might not apply perfectly to female inmates or individuals in different types of correctional centers. The data also relied entirely on subjective self-reporting, which can be influenced by survey fatigue.
Future investigations could track inmates over an extended period. Researchers might also incorporate objective measurements, such as heart rate monitors or skin conductance tests, to physically verify the physiological arousal of inmates. Combining subjective surveys with bodily data would provide a more complete picture of how hidden emotions drive visible actions behind bars.
The study, “The Relationship Between Alexithymia and Criminal Aggression: A Chain Mediating Effect Through Loneliness and Anxiety,” was authored by Hejia Yu and Meng Zhang.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Alexithymia #EmotionalAwareness #InmateWellbeing #PrisonResearch #ViolencePrevention #MentalHealthInCorrections #LonelinessAndAnxiety #AggressionPathways #EmotionalEducation #MindfulnessInPrisons
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We are taking a hike in the forest in southern Washington, and after a while I noticed my jaw was really hurting, and I didn't know why...
Took me a moment to realize, it was because I'd been grinning like an idiot the whole time. Because, I like trees!
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Zinberg studied drugs. Sternberg studied love. Same collapsed triangle.
The culture fused emotion and feeling into one category. The alexithymic registers the weld because the noise is absent.
New on The Unexpected Autistic Life.
#Alexithymia #Autism #Neurodivergence #Psychology #Love #actuallyautistic
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In this paper, we develop:
*why describing alexithymia as "transdiagnostic" is not sufficient to understand it from a clinical point of view
*the limitations of the current research & promising future perspectives
*the possibility & benefits of integrating #alexithymia in clinical case formulationI really hope that this paper will be found by a clinical and research audience. It was a pleasure to co-write this piece, a very rich and fruitful collaboration!
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💡New commentary out : "Why #Alexithymia Matters: A Process-Based Framework for a #Transdiagnostic Approach to #Psychopathology" in Clinical Psychology: Science and Pratice, with Olivier Luminet and Kristy Nielson
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New preprint: I propose epiphanesthesia as a candidate third functional category of interoceptive content, distinct from homeostatic and affective signals, with a neurobiological hypothesis and four falsifiable predictions involving a dissociation in high-alexithymia individuals.
Critical reading welcome before peer review. Boost toward interoception/alexithymia researchers appreciated.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20700796
#Interoception #Alexithymia #Preprint #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodiversity #AuDHD
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Lately, I’ve been obsessed with this singer. There is something about her voice that manages to bypass my alexithymia and shake me to my core.
https://youtu.be/r6L-GUOAhGo?is=DozvPm2Jx2FpHZYO
#music #alexithymia #Neurodiversity #ActuallyAutistic #Maphra
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Following our recent article on #Alexithymia (https://tslr.to/Ed7Akp), I thought of what an #ADHD and #Autism friendly watch face may look like. Here's what I have come up with (mocked up for Apple Watch). What do you think?
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My ieji.de #introduction post...
I'm Drew. I'm an escaped Brit, late 50s, child-free, #AntiTheist, #synesthete, former #musician, living in 🇵🇭 since 2019. I'm #neurodivergent with severe #CPTSD. You can ask me about it, I'm trying to get better at discussing it. I can also be abrasive, capricious and inconsistent, and I'm done apologising for who I am.
I'm married, I work in #tech and I love animals and nature. My wife and I bought a run-down smallholding to have a peaceful place to live and now we're accidental hobby farmers.
I may write about: #DogsOfMastodon #Tech #WebDev #Linux #RaspberryPi #Apple #NoAI #FuckAI #Privacy #InfoSec #Autism #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #ADHD #Alexithymia #ChildhoodTrauma #MentalHealth #Stroke #SubarachnoidHemorrhage #Arthritis #Trains #TrainTrackTuesday #Railways #ModelRailway #NGauge #Philippines #SilentSunday #Today #3Things #Bookstodon #Books #Music #DIY #FarmLife #GoatsOfMastodon. I edit posts a lot (including this one).
I have a one-page personal site at https://www.drewtowler.me that tells my story.
I'm bullshit-phobic so I try to keep my feed as free from politics and religion as I can. That said, I would welcome the annihilation of #China by any means. If you lived in the Philippines you'd understand. And I support #PalestineAction's right to exist and protest.
I see a lot of Starlink-hate on here. We happily use #Starlink - it meant we could buy the land we really wanted and build our house in a peaceful place in the hills where there's no fibre or 4G. For us it was a no-brainer. It's transformed our lives.
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For years I thought my emotional system was defective. I was wrong.
Alexithymia is not an absence. It is a “low-noise” operating system optimized for logic rather than biochemical storms. I explore this paradox between neurodivergence and neural architecture in this essay.
You can read it for free (no paywall) here:
https://medium.com/the-unexpected-autistic-life/the-fish-that-no-longer-wanted-to-fly-06a1305113cb?sk=e6828f387679f8ff43429d287970dff4#autism #actuallyautistic #psychology #audhd #alexithymia #neurodiversity #neurodivergent #science
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New Publcation in Affective Science about #alexithymia and emotional complexity!
🔗 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42761-025-00344-7#Sec10 -
I finally landed on what's been going on with me for the past year (two years, really, with symptoms much much worse this year)—vestibular migraines. Really regular vestibular migraines with varying degrees of intensity. And then failing to take care of myself appropriately leading to a blur of migraines blended into one another with no clear beginning or end.
I'm finally eating more regularly. I have to use timers and I have to be careful about meal planning.
... It's so strange to me how much easier it is to take care of myself now that I know what's going on because I have a full understanding of what is happening and why. These solutions are, to me, very intuitive; the body will tell you what it needs. But. Without actual lines drawn between the dots it just felt like chaos despite the intuition. I was chasing solutions instead of calmly choosing what I could feel was needed…
... Which is weird for me to experience, but is nevertheless how it is. Part of this is #alexithymia adding to the confusion and chaos. Another part, I think, stems a bit from a lack of self-trust and the confidence that I actually know what I need. That has been a theme for me lately: trusting myself in terms of what I need instead of listening to what others tell me that I need and what I'm doing 'wrong.’
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"Internalizing Symptoms in Men: The Role of Masculine Norms, #alexithymia and Emotion Regulation" ; new article from Vincent O. Mancini, Julia Ditzer, Jack D. Brett, James J. Gross & David A. Preece published in Sex Roles.
A great read, linking theory to practice. Good job!
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Maybe it is actually #alexithymia speaking, but I am pretty sure I can’t feel hate.
Like, I can feel despise, disgust, loathe, horror, fear etc - but hate? Hate assumes certain amount of passion, strength - it’s something too big to bother to maintain for someone you don’t like.Maybe it’s just my #autistic negation to use definitive labels - like the hesitancy to consider what I can feel ‘love’ or to call someone a friend.
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I share my experiences of love, boundaries, and authenticity as someone living with neurodivergence and alexithymia.
#Neurodiversity #Relationships #Authenticity #Alexithymia #MentalHealth -
@actuallyautistic She's not a villain. She's a poor communicator about her emotions.
I'm not a villain. I'm an effective communicator about my emotions when I know what they are. #alexithymia
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To the tune of NIN's "I Do Not Want This":
Don't you ask me how I feel
Don't you ask me how I feel
Don't you ask me how I feel
I DON'T KNOW JUST HOW I FEEL! -
I was looking for mental health screening tests that did not require collecting personal data.
Yesterday I found @divested has developed Kairoscope, website with dozens of questionnaires that run solely on your browser, zero data sent to anywhere else.
Support Tavi's work here:
https://divested.dev/pages/donate#ADHD #alexithymia #autism #BipolarAffectiveDisorder #anxiety #borderlinepersonalitydisorder #depression #dissociation #eatingdisorders #fatigue #ocd #schizophrenia