Topic: Alexes and imagination, creativity

I used to write and I still want to. So I do have imagination for creating stories sometimes. I loved reading fiction and some heavier literature too, I still read sometimes. I easily get engaged in it if I watch a movie. But other than that, I don't at all use imagination tbh. I'm not sure how it comes out sometimes like that but it's not my default mode. I don't see myself as creative in the way the creative tests tend to measure it. I fail at them miserably :)

Yet I can come to new ideas sometimes but again, such idea generating isn't the default mode for me. It's more like, I just think concretely and rationally, analyze details patiently and not get into brainstorming for ideas but this process can still lead somewhere where an actually good idea comes up as the (pretty logical) end result. While someone else may brainstorm new ideas all the time and then at the end they also arrive to some actually good idea after discarding the other ideas, just via a different thought process. Make sense?

It's a bit like you say about your husband with the photography, he's methodical all the way but he does end up creating something.

Let me clarify, when watching a movie, I get very engaged in the sense of following the storyline, the actions mainly, almost as if I were there (obviously not totally the same as if I were there but I do get very immersed). But I don't actually imagine anything beyond that. I know some people do go beyond that and add extra imagination, reading more things in the storyline than what's actually visible. No idea how they do that. :)

Then with some "heavier" literature, it does mean you have to go a bit beyond just following the storyline. And that's why I call it "heavier". It's not really easy for me but it can still put me into some moods vaguely that I can like for some inexplicable reason. The same with other arts and some "more abstract" movies, too.

I'm creative. Ever since I can remember, I've been drawing a lot (entire days and then it'd repeat the next). I also write a lot of stories/parodies, and create videos on games. Whenever reality sucks, which is 90% of the time; I get in my own head and do whatever I want there.
It's the only way that I can survive, have a sense of “life” and not kill myself because life has no goddamn meaning.

Everything else is just pretty much f**king tasteless and I see no point in it.

So far, I haven't seen these traits in other Alexis; yet making me think that I don't belong here or anywhere.

About a year ago I self-diagnosed myself as being on the spectrum but I'm still processing this information and reframing my life (I'm 52) in the context of being Aspergers. Today I came across the term Alexithymia and, for the first time, looked it up. Took the test, scored "high alexithymic traits" on 5 of the 7 traits, and "no alexithymic traits" on 2 -- one of them being the creativity trait.

I'm an artist and designer and have spent much of my life in what others would call creative pursuits. In fact at this point I cannot do much that does not allow for creativity, which has made holding a job extremely difficult.

From my extensive readings on/by people on the spectrum, my results seem to confirm how very different and varied our experiences are, and I'm sure this applies to NT people with Alexithymia. Sometimes it makes me question the validity of these tests and how to interpret the results, but then I come across other accounts that I totally and completely relate to. It is frustrating for sure! I guess everyone has to come to their own conclusions even when it's our nature to have our truth verified by outside sources.

I do believe that you can have Alexithymia and still possess creativity and imagination. I think there are several different facets to the condition that any one person experiencing it may or may not have. I myself and decently imaginative though thinking on my preferred daydreaming scenarios, they do tend to reflect reordering of events, things, times, places, that I am already familiar with rather than creating entirely fictitious things. I can imagine elves and goblins because I was exposed to them in literature but I dont know if I could astutely create a creature purely from my own imagination.

Interesting to read about this issue of creativity and imagination. I can fantasize but within a "known reality", I am not able to create something or to have ideas of those that "come up". When I have ideas for work, or any other situation that I need to present a logical answer it seems to me that my mind simulates various possibilities with known information, discards what is not good and then comes out a result.
As for physical exercises I also isolate myself intensely on the bike and I go out there pedaling sometimes in a group or sometimes alone, I think intense physical exertion makes me feel several reactions by the body and this should alleviate the emotional issues that I do not understand . This same physical intensity I can have sexually so at this point I perceive to be a little different from many alexithymics who say they do not have active sexuality.

Hi Gluskin, I understand your feelings and desperation at a pointless life. I ended up looking outside myself for meaning. Not religon, but actually reading the bible and discovering there is something greater than just me.