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Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20)3

Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) Test

Understand how easily you recognize and put words to emotions in about 3 minutes. Get clear insight into where emotional awareness gets stuck to guide therapy and support mental health.

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Questions: 203 minutes

08:30

October 2, 2025

October 2, 2025
Material has been updated

October 2, 2025
Material has been published

29,755 views

3,973 completions

2,985 likes

Verified by Daniel Hall

Psychologist with 25 years of experience

Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

example score

21/40

Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT)

Measures the degree to which a person focuses on external facts and events rather than attending to and reflecting on inner emotional experiences.

More emotionally reflective

Balanced focus

Strong external focus

8 – 15: More emotionally reflective | 16 – 25: Balanced focus | 26 – 40: Strong external focus

A score of 21 falls in the Balanced focus range, suggesting a generally even mix of attention to external events and to internal emotional experience.

example score

17/25

Difficulty Describing Feelings (DDF)

Measures how difficult it is to put your own emotions into words when communicating with others.

Low difficulty

High difficulty

5 – 17: Low difficulty | 18 – 25: High difficulty

A score of 17 suggests relatively low difficulty describing feelings, though you may still sometimes struggle to find the right words for emotional experiences.

example score

22/35

Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF)

Measures how difficult it is to recognize and distinguish your own feelings and related bodily sensations.

Low difficulty

Moderate difficulty

High difficulty

7 – 11: Low difficulty | 12 – 24: Moderate difficulty | 25 – 35: High difficulty

A score of 22 falls in the moderate range, suggesting noticeable but not extreme difficulty identifying what you feel and separating emotions from bodily cues.

example score

40/100

Overall Alexithymia (OA)

This scale measures the overall severity of alexithymic traits, including difficulty identifying and describing feelings and a tendency toward externally oriented thinking.

Low

Borderline

High

20 – 39: Low | 40 – 63: Borderline | 64 – 100: High

A score of 40 falls in the Borderline range, suggesting mild to moderate difficulties with recognizing and verbalizing emotions compared to typical levels.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Emotionally numb or confused

41%OF USERS

People who often feel “blank” or overwhelmed and can’t tell what they’re feeling or why.

Therapy and diagnosis seekers

34%OF USERS

People dealing with anxiety, depression, or psychosomatic symptoms who want to understand whether low emotional awareness plays a role.

Partners and family conflicts

25%OF USERS

People whose relationships suffer because they struggle to talk about feelings and tend to focus only on facts and actions.

BASED ON AGGREGATED, ANONYMIZED DATA FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREUDLY USERS.

Benchmarking

See How You Compare

Once you complete the test, your results are compared with real-world data from people in your country.
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.

Externally-oriented thinking (Et)

Average

29.3

Normal range

25.1 — 33.5

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Difficulty in Describing Feelings (DiDF)

Average

13.6

Normal range

10.1 — 17

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Difficulty identifying feelings (Dif)

Average

27.4

Normal range

23.4 — 31.4

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

General level of alexithymia (Gloa)

Average

42.5

Normal range

29.2 — 55.7

min.

max.

100

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

- Strongly disagree
- Disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Agree
- Strongly agree
- Strongly disagree
- Disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Agree
- Strongly agree
- Strongly disagree
- Disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Agree
- Strongly agree

These are 3 of the 20 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

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WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

About This Assessment

Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) Test - Symptoms and Signs

alexithymia

autism

This self-report measure is used to assess alexithymia, or difficulties identifying and describing one’s emotions, using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). It is commonly applied in clinical and research settings to characterize emotion awareness and related cognitive style.

The instrument includes 20 items and typically requires about 3 minutes to complete. Items are designed to capture difficulties identifying feelings, difficulties describing feelings, and an externally oriented thinking style. Developed by R. M. Bagby, G. J. Taylor, and J. D. A. Parker, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) can support case formulation and treatment planning by highlighting emotion processing features that may be relevant across a range of presentations.

Author: G. J. Taylor, J. D. A. Parker, R. M. Bagby

Literature: Parker, J. D. A., Taylor, G. J., & Bagby, R. M. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 1994.; Lumley, M. A., Neely, L. C., & Burger, A. J. The assessment of alexithymia in medical settings: Implications for understanding and treating health problems. Journal of Personality Assessment. 2007.; Bagby, R. M., Parker, J. D. A., & Taylor, G. J. The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 1994.

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