Alexithymia describes an inability to recognise or name your own emotions. Coming from the Greek to mean literally “no words for emotions”, alexithymia is strongly related to autism (it is estimated over half of autistic people also have alexithymia)
Being in touch with your own emotions is vital to building friendships and relationships. I believe a lot of the social aspects I struggle with due to autism can be partly attributed to alexithymia as well.