Interoception is the ability to be aware of internal sensations in the body, including heart rate, respiration, hunger, fullness, temperature, and pain, as well as emotion sensations. A lot of autistic people have a difficult time with interoception, and don't always understand the signals that are sent throughout their body.
Personally, I have a lot of trouble with this, as I never get the feelings of hunger, thirst, or fullness. I can go more than a full day without eating or drinking, and I won't even realize my body has been neglected until I feel physical pain from the lack of protein and nutrients in me. The only time I notice myself becoming hungry, is when my body starts to shake and I feel weak and even more fatigued than what is normal for me. I also get sharp, aching pains in my stomach if I haven't eaten in a long enough time.
I also have an extremely hard time with figuring out how I feel emotionally, and I'm never able to describe or even pinpoint my emotions and feelings. If somebody asks me, "Are you okay?", I don't know. I can't answer them properly without actually knowing the answer myself, so I usually just reply with, "I'm fine".
One thing I can suggest is to practice recognizing your emotions and what kind of feelings come from them. For example, if you discover you are sad, then rewind in your mind and think about the sorts of things you being sad led to. Did it make you teary? Did it lower your appetite or increase you thirst? Did you feel more irritable or less enthusiastic? Take mental notes (or visible ones if you must) and try to work out which emotions bring out which feelings.
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Let me know if this helps, or if anyone can relate! :)
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Just An Autistic Teenage Girl
Документальная прозаI am a teenage girl, and I'm autistic. I wrote this book in the hopes that it could help another autistic girl (or boy) out there who needs it. :) This is basically just a book of random things about autism and what it's like for me, and also a teen...
