Page 51 - JCBP-2-2

Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Alexithymia as a mediator relationship

by a situation should enhance our understanding of it, difficulty in identifying (DIE) and describing emotions
enabling us to better grasp the felt effects and consequently (DED). Therefore, it would be an exaggeration to claim
rationalize or explain what is happening; in essence, to that no connection exists between the two.
defend oneself against the stressful situation. Furthermore, In any case, these questions open up interesting
if alexithymia truly functions as a defense mode, we might perspectives because our results seem to affirm that the
expect alexithymic individuals to exhibit lower anxiety so-called SPS, while potentially exacerbating effects in the
scores (especially health anxiety). However, this was only face of anxiety-provoking or problematic situations, also
true for those reporting high scores on the dimension harbors a power for action and coping. In other words,
related to DDE. As a matter of fact, DDE acted as a SPS can generally be considered a factor of vulnerability,
protective factor against health anxiety. Consequently, the especially when characterized by heightened EOE and LST.
inability to describe emotions might imply a failure to However, it can also be considered a factor of adaptation to
articulate them, leading to a lack of awareness regarding environmental threats when characterized by dominance in
contextual effects. Without the inability to describe AES or CHA. Each aspect appears closely linked to the very
them, the transition from the emotional to the cognitive characteristics of the individuals’ sensitivity. Considering
dimension becomes impossible, resulting in diminished that SPS can facilitate learning certain skills, we could
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awareness of problematic situations. These findings envision it helping highly sensitive individuals develop
support the need for further research to better understand some components of this sensitivity. Then, we could offer
how the inability to describe emotions contributes to the a way of reconciliation for those who suffer from it and
reduction of health anxiety. are no longer determined to simply suffer the potentially
4.1. Perspectives negative effects of their sensitivity. Similarly, by offering
two perspectives—working on the esthetic component
A key question remains: are AES and CHA different? and/or working on the control component—a better-
Smolewska et al. allocated two of the CHA items in the EOE adapted approach is provided to the specificities of each
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component (“Do you try hard to avoid making mistakes person. Additionally, if the persons concerned feel more
or to forget things?” and “Do you make it a high priority able to work on one or the other of these components for
to arrange your life to avoid upsetting or overwhelming various reasons specific to them, adapted and specialized
situations?”), while assigning one to the AES component psycho-educational approaches could be proposed.
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(“Are you conscientious?”). Konrad and Herzberg chose In the first case, support for learning to be moved or
to place one of the items in the EOE component (“Do you overwhelmed by art or beauty (e.g., learning to observe,
make it a high priority to arrange your life to avoid upsetting look at, and understand works of art) or by the effects
or overwhelming situations?”) and removed the other two of nature (e.g., forest bathing) can be offered to highly
items. It should be noted that the CHA items focus on the sensitive people who prefer to develop this component
conscientious dimension of individuals’ personalities and/ of their sensitivity. In the second case, sessions aimed at
or behaviors. Conscientiousness is one of the dimensions educating highly sensitive people can be offered to develop
of the Big Five Model (a descriptive model of personality strategies for controlling and avoiding nuisances. This
based on five central traits, 51,52 i.e., openness to experience, can be achieved by teaching them to identify problematic
conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and situations and to avoid them more effectively, or by teaching
neuroticism). In some respects, these items could be them to focus on the present moment (for example, body-
related to the CHA items. However, does this component scan or mindfulness sessions). Indeed, the role of SPS in
ultimately measure a strategy that arises as a consequence anxiety is well-established. Anxiety generally revolves
of the stimulus? Moreover, this dilemma illustrates around future events (compared to depressive disorders,
the questions raised in the literature, which can be which often focus more on the present). By helping highly
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summarized as follows: (i) Does the SPS measure a sensitive people reduce their fear of the future, they may
personality trait or the ability to process sensory stimuli? also learn to better control potential nuisances, such as
and (ii) is the SPS a continuous or categorical variable? intrusive stimuli and thoughts that the future may bring.
While some of the components appear to overlap with the It may also be expected, and this hypothesis appears
Big Five Model, LST (health anxiety vulnerability factor) worthy of investigation, that highly sensitive individuals
is characterized by its originality. This component shows undergoing this type of psychoeducational training will
no correlation with emotion recognition ability, which subsequently exhibit higher scores on AES and CHA
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is contradictory to our own results. Indeed, we observed components, which would act as protective factors against
that LST was one of the factors in the HSPS that predicted anxiety, potentially leading to reduced anxiety scores as
alexithymia. Higher scores on LST indicate greater a result. More specifically, with regard to alexithymia,

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.2681