If it is the case that unexpressed emotions cause Type 1 Diabetes, a higher rate of alexithymia would be expected in this population.  Saying that, I would not expect it to be a 100% correlation because there is also likely to be a percentage who are generally good at identifying and expressing their emotions (i.e. do not suffer from alexithymia) but, during the time leading up to their T1D diagnosis were prevented from expressing emotions in their usual way.  I can think of a couple of examples to illustrate this.  Firstly, I once met a person undergoing Type 1 Diabetes who became diabetic not long after her mother went back to work.  Her mother had been her main emotional support so, with her mother’s absence, she was unable to process the emotions resulting from her mother’s return to work.  At the time, this child felt abandoned by her mother and, due to her mother being at work, was unable to express it.

Another potential cause of alexithymia, that would result in it occurring after the T1D diagnosis, is diabetes burnout.  As anyone with T1D knows, managing T1D is highly demanding and can take more energy and life force out of you than you can muster on any given day.  When it all gets too much, you can’t take a day off diabetes care so the only option that is really left is mentally checking out.  Alexithymia could be the consequence of that.