Topic: Alexithymia and chronic pain

I have suffered from chronic pain for as long as I remember, and I've lately come to be aware of alexithymia. It would make sense to me if the suppression of cognitive emotion were responsible for somatically intensifying my pain, but I don't know how it works. I do have a congenitally deformed spine, but not so terribly that it is unambiguously the sole cause of my pain. It may be a comorbidity with whatever is causing my alexithymia.

i'm someone with POTS and EDS, both of which bring me chronic pain. i have just newly found out about alexithymia (like the previous responder), and i honestly believe that the alexithymia played a part in my late diagnoses. i have never been able to perfectly identify and describe my pain, and many time simply didn't say anything as it was easier than trying to understand it, so i just lived my life in constant pain without any terms or reasoning behind it. i have genuinely only just found out about all of this tonight so i haven't had the chance to examine the interaction between the pain and the alexithymia, but it's something i'll be trying to look out for regarding variation.

I probably have EDS too. I have fibromyalgia like symptoms (10 years!). I’ve recently started some TMS / Sarno type work and realised whilst journaling I had / have minimal awareness of emotions and when I searched google flagged up Alexithymia.