Autism and interoception

“Yesterday I had an epiphany. I seem to have quite a few epiphanies lately and it was Christmas I suppose.… Epiphanies are nice because I can share them with people. The epiphany I had was I understood what being tired felt like and so I went to bed because I felt tired. In the past I would have worked myself to the point of collapse and then realised I was tired. The skill or ability needed in this case is one called interoception. It means being aware of the sensations in your body – hot or cold, hunger or satiety, illness and pain and the need to use the toilet. Autistic people are very frequently unaware of those sensations in the body.

Being aware of interoception is a very useful life skill. Many autistic people do not know if it is hot or cold out or wether they feel hot or cold. This can be very unpleasant. In my case ion one occasion this meant I wore abut four warm layers to a music festival in the middle of summer when I was a teen and probably only just escaped heatstroke!”

You can read the rest of the article by Janette here