Body/mind disconnect

[sharlinski]

Since my recent self-diagnosis I've been trying to unravel the decades-old, layered-on mask from what I am really like underneath. My feelings are never right, and so I have ignored, suppressed, or tried to change what I'm feeling for my whole life, almost 50 years.

One thing I've noticed since I started paying attention is that I have a huge blind spot for what my body is trying to tell me. And then when I notice my body's needs I want to completely ignore them for as long as possible. For instance, when I am thirsty or hot I don't recognize these things until it's an emergency. I rarely have the feeling of being thirsty, outside of physically exerting myself, and that might just be the feeling of a dry throat.

So I'm wondering if I have been ignoring my body for so long that it's ingrained, or if this might be a symptom common to autism.

 

[The Q]

I definitely feel this. While "strange" feelings I am hypersensitive to, like a bug crawling on me or a clothing seam, general body condition is always muffled and distant. I personally chalked this up to my dissociative issues, feeling out of body or not real, but it's very possible it has some basis in a more physical thing!
For example, I have a slow response to pain, and especially for blunt force injuries it's dulled. I even use small amounts of pain to ground myself in reality and shake off the more pervasive numbness.
I have similar thirst experiences to you. I'm not actually sure I know what thirsty feels like unless it's parched, which is too far along.

 

[SDRSpark]

I have the same issue with thirst, and hunger, and sometimes some other things as well. Pain is a coin toss- it depends on what it is and what's going on. I'm queen of "how did that bruise get there?" and "why am I bleeding?".

I think the sense of your body's condition is called "interoception" and I'm pretty sure difficulties with this are part and partial to the sensory issues prevalent in autistic people.

 

[clg114]

When it comes to eating and drinking, I have to watch it very closely. I am prone to dehydration, so I have to make myself drink a lot of water. I also have to make myself eat or my blood sugar will get so low that I will pass out. I think that these problems have more to with being old than being autistic.

 

[Thinx]

I definitely have a disconnect from my body. What body? I can feel things, I know my body is there, but generally that's it. It seems to fit with my clumsiness and dislike of being near to others. And just, being all about thinking.

It's making me laugh just thinking about it. When people who are trying to help others connect to feelings and they say stuff like, where can you feel that in your body? My mind just goes, 'really? Is that even a thing anyone can do?' Though I know it is, of course, and indeed sometimes have made such connections, and found it helpful. But it does feel alien to me.

 

[sharlinski]

When it comes to eating and drinking, I have to watch it very closely. I am prone to dehydration, so I have to make myself drink a lot of water. I also have to make myself eat or my blood sugar will get so low that I will pass out. I think that these problems have more to with being old than being autistic.

I think I'm dehydrated also, and low blood sugar at times. I think a long time ago I equated any feeling of tiredness or dizziness or headache to needing food, and so now I eat way more often than I need to, thinking it's going to fix these things that I often feel (because I'm old lol). I noticed this tendency a few years back, but it's habit now, and we all know how hard it is to quit your eating habits.

I think the sense of your body's condition is called "interoception" and I'm pretty sure difficulties with this are part and partial to the sensory issues prevalent in autistic people.

Very helpful breadcrumb, thank you. I'm going to go study interoception.

 

[Deepthought]

Since my recent self-diagnosis I've been trying to unravel the decades-old, layered-on mask from what I am really like underneath. My feelings are never right, and so I have ignored, suppressed, or tried to change what I'm feeling for my whole life, almost 50 years.

Consider perhaps that your feelings might actually be out of sequence with your awareness of things, so basically delayed rather than being incorrect, maybe?

One thing I've noticed since I started paying attention is that I have a huge blind spot for what my body is trying to tell me. And then when I notice my body's needs I want to completely ignore them for as long as possible.

Well given that people on the spectrum are pretty renowned for preferring habitual routine ~ ignoring your body's needs yet further would be maintaining that habitual routine.

The smell of two particular aspects of the body's needs is in my opinion well worth avoiding, which is a partly a deterrent to of course eating and drinking. Along with also being more used to not meeting the body's needs ~ one's interests can therefore seem more important than as such those inconvenient and time consuming bodily distractions.

For instance, when I am thirsty or hot I don't recognize these things until it's an emergency. I rarely have the feeling of being thirsty, outside of physically exerting myself, and that might just be the feeling of a dry throat.

Well I can so very much relate with what you here state, as the moment I get stressed and for as long as I remain stressed ~ I completely forget to drink water, and the result of which means passing fluids really stinks, and passing solids is incredibly difficult. The deterrent factor here is massively problematic.

The only work around here for me was to have a quarter litre of water before every meal, which I do 5 times daily as a habitual regulum ~ which still needs more integration as a habit as I still forget, but my health is much better on account of recalling to drink water more often.

So I'm wondering if I have been ignoring my body for so long that it's ingrained, or if this might be a symptom common to autism.

Well at least in part the ingrained thing may very well be the case, but it is definitely a common symptom for some on the autistic spectrum, so maybe check the following information available via this link which serves as very useful checklist:

Sensory Difficulties - NAS - The National Autistic Association

And the information via this link which serves as reasonable round up:

Sensory Hyper- and Hypo-sensitivity in Autism

 

[Hylian]

Yeah, this is called interoception and it's not uncommon for autistic people have issues with it. I have similar problems with recognizing hunger, being too hot/cold, etc. due to having these issues. After years of being able to kind of "ignore" my needs since childhood I do think I've unintentionally made it worse/desensitized myself more. lmao

 

[Fino]

I get anxious or irritable when I'm hungry or thirsty so I go off that. Sometimes my lips also get a little dry if I'm dehydrated. Not feeling thirsty could also be from never drinking much water, similar to the way fasting can eventually lead to not feeling hungry.

 

[Pieplup]

Since my recent self-diagnosis I've been trying to unravel the decades-old, layered-on mask from what I am really like underneath. My feelings are never right, and so I have ignored, suppressed, or tried to change what I'm feeling for my whole life, almost 50 years.

One thing I've noticed since I started paying attention is that I have a huge blind spot for what my body is trying to tell me. And then when I notice my body's needs I want to completely ignore them for as long as possible. For instance, when I am thirsty or hot I don't recognize these things until it's an emergency. I rarely have the feeling of being thirsty, outside of physically exerting myself, and that might just be the feeling of a dry throat.

So I'm wondering if I have been ignoring my body for so long that it's ingrained, or if this might be a symptom common to autism.

I do the exact same thing. Executive functioning makes it even worse because I might forget what i'm doing on the way there. I ignore my pain physical mental emotinal. Till it gets so bad I can't deal with it. It sounds like hyposensitivity to the introspection. It can be easy to ignore the urges when they aren't that strong in the first place. What I do is if I haven't eaten in a while I eat regardless of whether i'm hungry or not. (OFC adhd medication has a side-effect of suppressing appetite). It might help have a drink with you at all times. Lots of autistic people struggle with this.

 

[menander]

Yes. I am notorious for doing something to the point of stress injury and not even know it till I cannot move a body part. I have had to rehab body parts and one is still injured from a stress injury from repetitive movement! I over do everything. I just never feel feel that, "done" or "finished" or "sated" or whatever. It's always, "oh, I guess that was enough? Was it? "

 

[sharlinski]

It's hard for me to put into words what I'm feeling about this. I have a half-gallon water bottle that my boss gave me, and I'm going to fill it up every morning and drink at least that much water every day. We'll see if I can sustain.

The mystery injury thing--I identify with that, too.

My daughter delights in seeing me find these things out about myself, and since she has ASD also we trade info when we learn something new. I told her what you all replied here, and she realized she hadn't had a single drop of water all day! So now this is on our radar. Thank you all very much.

 

[BenderRodriguez]

Hmm... I seem to be the opposite of this, except for the bit about acquiring bruises or scrapes without knowing how and when