Interoception

One of the hardest times I find when trying to understand Isabelle and meeting her needs is when she is unwell. Whereas we might be able to pinpoint where something hurts or understand why we might have a sore throat or what certain ailments may feel like, Isabelle will feel things differently. This difficulty is caused when the eighth sense we have called; interoception works differently.

For Isabelle this means she perceives excitement which causes butterflies in her stomach, to be confused with anxiety so when something good is happening, she can make herself sick due to the way she reads that emotion and feeling. She can also struggle to know if her tummy is telling her she is hungry, thirsty or if it is telling her she is unwell. In the past she has had a sick bug, but we were unaware leading up to her being sick because Isabelle read her stomach feelings as meaning she was hungry, so she kept eating things when it was unsettled and making her feel sick from an illness.

This can make it so challenging when trying to work out what is wrong with her as well as how then to proceed with treating her symptoms. Even feelings like pain can feel more intense or different. Something sore may feel itchy to them.

Isabelle recently had a urine infection, and it was very hard to diagnose to begin with as she kept saying down below felt tickly. It was only when she got so emotionally overwhelmed and started to need the toilet every two minutes that I realised what it was and got her some antibiotics.

Interoception also explains why autistic people may have emotional outbursts as they can feel very simple emotions such as happy or sad and then other emotions may build up as they might not read the feelings at all or read them differently. Sometimes the emotions are only felt once they are very intense.

I have left the link that explains further about interoception.

https://autismawarenesscentre.com/interoception-and-autism-body-awareness-challenges-for-those-with-asd/