ALEXITHYMIA IN HEALTHY PEOPLE AND ITS ROLE IN DEVELOPMENT OF DIFFERENT DISORDERS

Abstract

The reduced ability or difficulty to express verbally, to name one’s own emotional states or feelings of other people, is commonly called alexithymia. Currently, studies are being conducted in which they ascertain whether alexithymia is a specific property of a person or whether it can only predispose to psychosomatic diseases, being their predictor. Some researchers believe that alexithymia itself is not a disease and is a series of characteristics characteristic of certain individuals. Alexithymia is clearly expressed in the personality structure of patients with cardiovascular diseases and represents a separate factor in this structure. In general, studies show that patients with alexithymia are hypersensitive to both internal somatic unpleasant sensations and external pain stimuli, but they cannot describe the differences between different types of pain. Alexithymia can be considered as one of the premorbid personality factors that reduce the compensatory psychological defense capabilities in lucid alcoholism. Alexithymia is found in many drug addicts. Instead of simply getting rid of painful, intolerable, or overwhelming feelings, people who abuse chemicals can use them to control affects, especially when these affects are hard to grasp, distinguish, and give them a name. At the same time, the differences in the manifestations of alexithymia in alcohol and drug addiction, including its influence on the development of addictive behavior, are not well understood. The study of alexithymia is a topical issue of modern psychiatry and narcology, which allows us to apply a personified approach to the patient and to improve modern therapeutic and rehabilitation measures.

Keywords

• alexithymia, affective disorder, treatment of mental disorders, psychosomatic diseases, therapeutic and rehabilitation measures.