Topic: the shrinks say I'm fascinating?

English Alexithymia Forum > Personal Experience

the shrinks say I'm fascinating?
10.10.2016 by Hokkai

2 years ago I was forced into seeing a shrink by my college and was told that at young age (the doc believed 5-6) my brain went into what she called "survival mode" as a response to abuse which is what made me unable to seriously think about the future or be able to recognize most of my own emotions unless they are fairly strong emotions that do not last long. After having this conversation I proceeded to see several others who all ended up saying the same thing "your case is rather fascinating and I'm amazed you managed to do that at such a young age" but have never tried to help me when I honestly believe there is still a hope (faint though it may be) that I can recover some amount of emotional normality.

Same here
28.10.2016 by CV

Same here - therapist seems to find me interesting for the juxtaposition of having strong ethics without the (conscious at least) emotions behind them.
They theorised the same with me - something they term "compound trauma" occurred from a young age, but I mainly dismiss this. Surely, a traumatic basis capable of causing something like alexithymia would have to be an extreme PTSD-like event? Four years in trenches in World War II type scenario? Or surely one would not still be on amiable terms with the perpetrators?
Doesn't seem clearly obvious to me.

I think it's understandable
28.10.2016 by Hokkai

from what they tell me it is a form of PTSD because PTSD can come from any extreme trauma obviously not traumatic enough to make us go through episodes like some war vets but traumatic enough for our brains to realize something needs to be done personally I think it makes sense seeing as I went through severe abuse, neglect, abandonment, and betrayal throughout an 8 year period at a young age they also believe my mind decided to attempt to wall off emotion to stop me from killing myself and the only reason I can occasionally recognize my emotions at the moment is because after my emotions were walled off I put myself through a large amount of emotional stress due to the broken wing syndrome that accompanied the abuse however despite them knowing all this they offer no thoughts on how I might go about tearing down said wall as though they want me to stay emotionally crippled so they can treat me like a guinea pig

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