Hey guys! Welcome back to my blog! For my blog post this week, I will be writing about autism and interoception. I’ve briefly mentioned writing about this topic in other blog posts, but I wrote interception instead of interoception. Lol oops…. Anyways, I’m going to use an Instagram post from one of my favorite autism advocates of all time, @neurodivergent_lou, and you guys NEED to follow her! I love her account and her posts! I give her so much credit for this blog, honestly.
I usually don’t start off my post quoting exact quotes, but I really like the way she put it so I’m going to use it. “Interoception describes the body’s sensitivity to internal sensations. The interoception system works through receptors located inside the body. As a result, we are able to feel hunger, pain, thirst, temperature or the need to go to the toilet. They gather information from the inside of the body and send it to the brain which makes sense of these symptoms”. This definitely makes sense to hear because I know a lot of autistic people/people with autism either from my past or current life who have a hard time with some of these things, and I finally know something to call it other than just “autism”. Interoception is also emotional, as well as physical. For instance, when you’re anxious, you feel your heart beating fast, you may feel your body shaking, or recognizing you’re breaking heavier than normal. All of this can help people identify their feelings. However, autistic people/people with autism have a hard time with identifying our emotions due to interoception. This may be because alexithymia is common with us as well (week 75). Interoception also has a lot to do with hyposensitivity which means not reacting enough to interoceptive input. On the other side of things, autistic people/people can also be hypersensitive to interoception which means reacting too much to interoceptive input. If you’re hyposensitive to interoception, you may have a hard time knowing when you need to use the restroom, when you’re hungry, thirsty or in pain. You may also struggle with realizing sensations in your body relating to emotions since the body has a hard time picking up on interoceptive cues if you struggle with this. If you’re hypersensitive to interoception, you may have a bigger reaction to when you have to use the restroom, when you’re hungry, thirsty or in pain. One who struggles with this may be hungry or always have to use the restroom. When it comes to emotions, you can be hyper sensitive to body sensations when it comes to feelings. You may have an increased heart rate when you’re anxious if you’re hypersensitive to interoception. Out of these, I identify with hypersensitivity to interoception out of the two. My body is really sensitive when I’m hungry, thirsty or have to use the restroom. If you’re autistic/have autism and are reading, let me know if you’re more hypersensitive or more hyposenstive, I’d love to hear! Thank you all so much for reading this post. I’m going to attach the post I used for this down below. She also added some slides on how to cope with interoception so you guys can check those out too! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all next week! Email- [email protected] Instagram- @embracingmysuperpower Facebook- Embracing my Superpower Tik Tok- @embracingmysuperpower https://www.instagram.com/p/CPn92OWMGrc/?utm_medium=copy_link
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