Thema: How do you start romantic relationships?

I’m 22, a newly diagnosed autistic, and apparently alexithymic. Finding out I am alexithymic helped me understand why I found other people so confusing. I had no clue that emotions other people were describing to me were the same ones I felt (to some extent) because mine were so muted in comparison.

I say all this to say that I don’t understand how people enter into relationships, especially someone with alexithymia. How would I know I even like someone? I don’t feel emotions strongly and unless I’ve felt the emotion before and taken the time to recognize and unpack it, it might as well not exist.

It seems like a lot of you are currently or have in the past dated someone. Could someone explain how your relationships came to be? Did they pursue you? Did you like them back initially or did it take time? How did you know you liked them romantically and how did you go about pursing a relationship?