Difficulty identifying/verbalizing emotions

Anyone else have issues with saying what you are feeling? Not out of anxiety or fear of how the person will react, but because you just can't identify it with words and therefore can't verbalize it?

I have a lot of issues and my therapist said it has something to do with the right hemisphere not communicating very well with the left. I have been trying to do some research on it, but as she has not given me a name I haven't found a lot. Does anyone here experience it? I'm wondering specifically what it is caused by, but I would like to hear other people's experiences as well.

Catlovers,

I know everyone has two sides to their brain but as far as speaking technically, well let's just say there are some experts in that area and I'm not one. It is hard to know what the therapist might be thinking. When you find out the word or theory there may be some good responses coming.

I have a bunch of personal ways of explaining it inwardly that make sense to us but the words are probably not going to apply to you. I know there are verbal parts and non-verbal parts and there is more and more connection all the time but it does take time. Especially the little ones (when the abuses occurred, did not have a vocabulary for what happened). So, they explain in other ways. They seem to occupy a certain side, whether that is coincidental or not, I don't know.

Here's hoping you get your answer.

I can relate very well to what you are saying. Often times in T my words I say out loud do no justice to how I am feeling inside and I just don't have the words to describe it. I used to think that I just didn't have a good enough vocabulary, but not even that sums it up. It's like the words do not exist....there's just no way to express the emotions and feelings.

Often times I find I can express my feelings easier by doing collage work. Finding pictures that make a statement of what I feel like and building a theme around that.

I did some personal research online and found a personality trait that some have called "Alexithymia". It parts of it sound very familiar to what I experience. I don't fit the lack of empathy or restrictive imagination. Actually I feel my emotions very deeply and have so much empathy that, if I'm not careful, I can let myself get to absorbed by other's emotions.

Mainly, I just don't feel there are words that can describe what I feel, to the depths that I feel it. I've also heard that this type of trait can be common in people who are considered HSP (Highly Sensitive People). I am very HSP and can become over-stimulated by my surroundings and by the emotional temperature of an environment quite easily. Maybe give this a read and see if it makes any sense to you. Not to diagnose yourself, but just to give you something more to explore with T.

I hope this helps some.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexithymia

I can relate to this. I often can't describe how I am feeling because it is almost like I am numb. I have gone through a lot of major stress the last 10 years and I learned how to block out feelings that really upset me to get through but I think in doing that it blocked out the good feelings as well so I often just feel numb. Never really excited or happy, I do worry a lot. It concerns me now because my life is getting back on track and I know I feel better I just wish I could show it more. I think I may have a fear of being put back in an awful situation so I am overly cautious, I am not sure. I really do want to feel joy again.....I know this wasn't much help to you but I just thought I would let you know I do understand what you are experiencing...maybe you have developed the ability to just go numb for some reason as well and that's why it's hard to describe your feelings.?.?.? Good luck, I wish the best for you!

hi two years ago i could not even tell someone if i felt happy or sad! the only words i could find to express my emotions were I feel ok and I feel yucky! i could not explain yucky , just knew it was not ok! now i am more settled i find it easier to say how i feel , but still find it hard to find exact emotional words to describe it, usually i am either : ok, crap, tired or ug...mmm... not good!

As for the idea of the two hemispheres not communicating well, nothing showed up on my MRI scan to show this.
As a pre school teacher in the past, i remember some training about helping children with balance problems, we were told that by getting them to cross their mid line (this is an immaginary line which runs down the body from the bridge of the nose to between the legs) it would stimulate the growth of the 'bridges' that carry messages across the two hemesphires!
try sitting on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you, touch your left knee with your right hand then reurn it to the right side, then touch your right knee with your left hand .... left hand to right shoulder..... basically anything which means your arms cross to the opposite side of your body without twisting your body! start slowly and build up speed, this encourages messages to travel quicker over the 'bridges' you need to di this every day for quite a few weeks but it did help lots of our kids who had trouble with balance, speach and co-ordination so it may work for emotions too, especially if your doc is right in their thinking it is to do with the links from one hemisphere to the other
hope this makes sense

Well Catlover, we experience this all the time. i thought we just did not learn the words for the feelings. But it is more......the words do not describe the feelings or the intensity. Too often we struggle so hard to find words that we develop some physical symptom that we can describe. We collectively think we learned to disconnect the right and left hemisphere during times when we were not to speak. When under similar intense times....even talking with T, the same no words....no explanation....flood of nothing happens.
Sorry if that made no sense. Again words escape as trying to share feelings and experiences.

I am terrible at it! I can pretty much identify happy and sad.... after that I'm fairly clueless. Some of the inside kids are good at talking about their feelings... I guess that's why I have them around.

((((Yellowted))))

Making a bridge for those two sides to send messages to brain is a simple and practical and wonderful idea. Thanks! I think it helps not only in identifying and verbalizing emotions but getting to know the parts that may dominate one side of the brain or other, at least that has been kind of my experience having been treated with a bit of a different left/right brain therapy.

Oh yes and it could be from preverbal emotions you are experiencing. Try drawing. It workd wonders for us. Scribble or trace something or close your eyes and see what you amke with your emotions. It can actually be fun.

I haven't told my T how I experience some memories and meditation because its too hard to explain. Some of my/our memories are like they are viewed with one eye closed. So some are with the left eye open only, and some are with the right eye open only. I know that sounds weird. And when I meditate, always the left side is closed, I can only see out of my right 'mind's eye'. It even sounds daft when I read this. Why can't things be simple??
And I can relate to the no words exist to speak that will tell me and others how it feels inside.
kp