OAQ-G2 Alexithymia Screener

A free thirty-seven-question self-assessment measuring how you identify, describe and make sense of your own emotions and bodily sensations. It takes seven to fifteen minutes and gives you a picture across seven dimensions. Your report is private and sent to you by email.

What alexithymia is

Alexithymia is difficulty identifying and describing your own emotions. The word means, roughly, "no words for feelings".

It is not an absence of emotion. People with high alexithymia feel things fully - often very intensely. What is missing is the step in between: the process that turns a physical state into a named feeling you can think about and say out loud. The common experience is knowing something is wrong, feeling it clearly in the body - a tight chest, a churning stomach, restlessness, exhaustion - and being unable to say whether it is anger, fear, sadness or hunger.

It is also not a diagnosis. Alexithymia is a trait, present to some degree in everyone and to a marked degree in some, and it occurs alongside many conditions rather than constituting one.

Why it matters for autistic adults

Alexithymia is common in autism. Research reviews put the rate of clinically significant alexithymia in autistic people at around half, compared with roughly one in ten in the general population.

That overlap has changed how researchers understand something important. A substantial line of work - often called the alexithymia hypothesis - finds that several difficulties long attributed to autism itself, including trouble recognising emotion in others and the reduced empathic response the stereotype rests on, track more closely with alexithymia than with autism. Autistic people without alexithymia do not show them to the same degree.

Put plainly: the idea that autistic people do not feel for others is substantially a description of alexithymia that got attached to the wrong label. Separating the two is worth doing for its own sake, and it is one of the more useful things this questionnaire can help you start to see.

What the OAQ-G2 is

The Online Alexithymia Questionnaire is a thirty-seven-item self-screener developed as a freely available alternative to the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the twenty-item measure most commonly used in research. It covers more ground than the TAS-20 and breaks the result across seven dimensions rather than three.

It is worth knowing that it does not carry the same peer-reviewed validation history as the TAS-20. It is widely used and useful for reflection, and it is not the instrument a clinician would use to establish anything formally. Read your result as a detailed picture of your own experience rather than as a measurement against a validated norm.

Who it is for

Adults who find emotions hard to name, who are told they seem detached when they do not feel detached, or who have been asked "how do you feel about that?" and had nothing to offer despite genuinely looking.

It is particularly relevant if you are autistic or think you may be, and it is relevant to partners too - a great deal of what gets read as coldness in a relationship is a processing delay rather than an absence of feeling.

The seven dimensions

Each is scored separately, and the pattern across them tells you more than any single one.

Difficulty identifying feelings

Scored 6 to 30. Knowing that something is happening without being able to name which emotion it is, and distinguishing an emotion from a physical sensation. This is the core of alexithymia and usually the dimension people recognise first.

Difficulty describing feelings

Scored 4 to 20. Being able to identify a feeling internally but not to put it into words for someone else. These two dimensions often come apart, and the difference matters in a relationship: one is not knowing, the other is knowing and being unable to hand it over.

Vicarious interpretation of feelings

Scored 3 to 15. Reading and interpreting what other people are feeling. High scores here relate to the emotion-recognition difficulty most often misattributed to autism.

Externally-oriented thinking

Scored 7 to 35. A cognitive style focused on facts, events and external detail rather than inner states. This is a style rather than a deficit, and it is frequently an asset in work that rewards precision.

Restricted imaginative processes

Scored 6 to 30. Daydreaming, fantasy and mental imagery. Worth reading carefully - low imaginative fantasy is not the same as low creativity, and many people who score high here are highly creative in concrete and structured ways.

Problematic interpersonal relationships

Scored 7 to 35. How much difficulty with emotional processing spills into relationships - closeness, conflict, repair, and being understood.

Sexual difficulties and disinterest

Scored 4 to 20. How emotional awareness intersects with intimacy and desire. If this is the area you most want to understand, our ASIM-24 intimacy screener looks at it directly and in more detail.

How it is scored

Each of the seven dimensions is scored separately and placed in a low, moderate or high band. A high score means that dimension is a prominent part of your experience.

There is no single pass or fail number here, and that is appropriate - alexithymia is a trait on a continuum rather than a category you are in or out of. The useful output is the shape: which dimensions are high, which are not, and whether the difficulty sits in identifying feelings, in describing them, or in both.

What this screener is not

This assessment is for information and self-reflection only. It is not a diagnostic tool and does not replace professional medical or psychological advice. Alexithymia is not a clinical diagnosis on its own; it is a trait that can be present alongside many conditions, autism among them.

High alexithymia also occurs with depression, anxiety, PTSD and eating disorders, and it can rise temporarily under stress or in burnout. A high score tells you something is happening in how you process emotion; it does not tell you why, and the why is worth establishing with a clinician.

What happens after you finish

You receive your seven dimension scores and a report by email. Nothing is shared with anyone unless you ask us to send it somewhere. If you would like to talk the result through, you can tell us at the end and we will follow up.

Working with us

We offer an alexithymia evaluation as an add-on to a full assessment, using validated clinical measures rather than this screener.

We also provide adult autism assessment, ADHD assessment, dual assessment for both, and an add-on evaluation for demand avoidance. If you need documentation rather than a diagnosis, our page on neuroaffirming accommodations explains that process.

You can also meet the clinicians, read our frequently asked questions, or browse the rest of our free tools on the self-discovery page.

About Adult Autism Assessment

We assess and support neurodivergent adults - people seeking a first diagnosis in adulthood, people who have known for years and want documentation, and people who are still working out what fits. Our approach is neurodiversity-affirming: an assessment here is about accurate self-understanding and practical accommodation, not about finding out what is wrong with you.

Adult Autism Assessment is part of New Path Family of Therapy Centers, Inc.