Have you ever skipped a meal because you didn’t realise you were hungry? Or forgotten to sleep because you didn’t realise you were tired? If that sounds like you, you might have poor interoception.

Interoception issues can cause a lot of problems, especially for autistic and other neurodiverse people. In this blog, I'm going to go over what is interoception and how it relates to autism. I’m also going to share my tips on how to improve your body’s interoception awareness. This is just the basics of interoception and some of these tips may not work for you. But this blog is just to get you thinking about interoception and how it impacts you. Let’s get into it!

What is Interoception?

Interoception is how we feel our internal experiences. It is our ability to sense what is going on with our bodies. Think of it like your body’s internal GPS. Having good interoception can help us know how we are feeling both physically and emotionally.

Interoception can be important as it helps us tune into our body’s signals and respond to them compassionately and proactively. When you have good interoception skills, you are better at understanding your body’s needs and how to take care of yourself.

When you have poor interoception, you can find it harder to recognise and respond to your body’s signal. This can lead to stress, anxiety and difficulty regulating your emotions.

Interoception is an important ability for everyone, but it can be something that autistic people struggle with.

Autism And Interoception

When it comes to interoception and autism, things can get a little complicated. Neurodivergent people can experience sensory processing difficulties. We can be sensitive to light, sound and touch. But our sensory processing difficulties can affect all senses, including interoception. This can mean we have a hard time sensing our internal state and knowing how to respond. For example, our brains might not properly receive hunger signals. This can prevent us from feeling hungry, which can impact our health and nutrition. But not only can we have difficulties with hunger and eating, but this also extends to emotional regulation, sleeping, knowing when to use the bathroom, feeling pain, etc.

How Poor Interoception Impacts Autism

As mentioned, autistic people can struggle with interoception. This can make it harder for us to recognise our body’s signals, which can lead to stress, anxiety and difficulties with emotional regulation. Interoception difficulties affect how autistic people experience and express our emotions. We can find it harder to identify and label our emotions, which can make it harder for us to communicate our feelings to other people. This can sometimes lead to misunderstandings in our relationships and social settings. Difficulties with interoception can also have an impact on our physical health. We may find it harder to identify and response to pain, hunger, thirst and other physical sensations.

Self Regulation

Our bodies work hard to stay in a state of homeostasis. This is just a big word that means our bodies like to stay in a state of equilibrium. Or have a stable internal environment.

Difficulties in interoception can make it harder to self-regulate our emotions and behaviour. This can cause difficulties with eating, using the toilet and other physical difficulties.

They say that self-knowledge is self-care. Understanding our body’s signals can provide us with a great foundation of self-care and self-advocacy. Body signals help us understand what is happening inside. And this can help us identify what we need at that moment.

With poor interoception, the reason for our discomfort cannot be pinpointed. This can mean we cannot get our needs met and regulate ourselves.

Emotional Regulation

Emotional regulation is our ability to perceive our emotions and help our body self-soothe. Any activity we engage in that helps to reduce the intensity of our emotions is emotion regulation.

Interoception plays a crucial role in our ability to emotionally regulate ourselves. If you do not know why you are stressed or upset, it is a lot harder to control that emotion.

Health And Wellbeing

Interoception is vital for maintaining our health and wellbeing. When we struggle with interoception, this can have an impact on our physical health.

People with poor interoception can struggle with:

Thirst: When you cannot recognise you’re thirsty, you might forget to drink to the point of dehydration. This can lead to headaches and digestion issues.

Temperature Regulation: People who have trouble perceiving their body temperature might miss body cues of coldness or overheating.

Nutrition: People who struggle to understand they are hungry can miss meals. Someone might not realise they are hungry until their blood sugars crash, or they may over-respond through binge-eating. This can result in an imbalanced diet.

Pain Awareness: Not recognising pain signals can result in a delay in seeking medical attention.

How To Increase Better Interoception

Struggling with interoception can make life hard for autistic people. But the good news is that interoception awareness can be improved with practice and the right support. Improving your interoception skills is a process and it requires regular practice and patience. Here are some ways to improve your interoception skills:

Practice Interoception Awareness Activities: This can include things like body scans and mindful check-ins. You will become more attuned to your body’s signals and better understand your emotions.

Create Accommodations And Adaptations: This will help you support your body needs and accommodate your interoception difficulties. You can use timers to remind you to eat and drink. Or to remind yourself to take a sensory break. This can be helpful in managing sensory overload and overwhelming emotions.

Mindful Check-In

These are simple and effective ways to improve your interoception skills. Mindful check-ins involve taking a few moments throughout the day to focus on your physical and emotional experiences. It gives you a chance to tune into any signals your body is sending you. Check-ins can be brief (like 10 seconds) or can be a longer exercise. You check in without judgement to identify and notice any sensations you experience.

It can be as simple as holding a hot or cold drink. Hold the drink in your palm and notice the sensation on your skin. Now, take the cup away and notice the changes in sensations. Mindfully turn your attention to that part of the body and observe how it feels different.

Body Scans

Body scans are another way to improve your interoception awareness. They allow you intentionally check in with your body and observe different sensations and feelings. You can do a full body scan or just focus on one or two parts of the body.

Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. Take a few deep breaths and mindfully bring your attention to your feet. Focus on each part of the body and slowly move to your toes. Notice any sensations without judgement. Slowly go through the different parts of the body until you reach your head.

When doing a body scan, try to use descriptive words to describe how you are feeling rather than evaluative ones. Descriptive words can be ones like tense, hot, relaxed, sharp. Evaluative words are ones like bad, good.

When you regularly practice body scans, you improve your ability to tune into your body signals. And remember to be patient with yourself. It can take time to improve your interoception skills.

Summary

Interoception is our ability to sense what is going on internally with our bodies. It helps us to know how we are feeling physically and emotionally. Interoception is important as it allows us to tune into our body’s signal and respond proactively. Autistic people can struggle with interoception awareness. But it can be accommodated with the right supports and improved. By being compassionate with ourselves when improving our interoception awareness, we can better understand and manage our emotions.

Autism and interoception: what you should know