Can you hear yourself? Let's talk about interoception!

Have you ever heard a "grow..grow.." sound from your stomach when you are really hungry? Or have you suddenly felt your chest pounding and you felt like you were having trouble breathing while you were doing something important? Maybe you felt like you had to urinate but had to hold it in for a while. All of this is your body's way of talking to you, giving you signals about certain things. In medicine, we call this amazing ability interoception .

Simply put, what is interoception?

Interoception is your ability to understand signals, or feelings, coming from within your body. It's like a "sixth sense" inside your body. It's how you understand how you're feeling.

Imagine that you have been working since morning and haven't been able to eat lunch. After a while, your stomach starts to hurt, your stomach is rumbling, and you feel dizzy. When these signals reach your brain, the brain interprets it as "Ah... he is hungry now, his energy is low." Then you eat some food in response. When you finish eating, all those discomforts disappear and your body feels light. That's how the main thing in this process is to identify a need of the body, fulfill it, and bring the body back to normal, or balance (Homeostasis).

We gradually develop this ability from a young age. It is only when this interoception ability develops that a small baby understands when he needs to urinate and gets used to going to the toilet.

This has a big impact on our behavior and emotions. Imagine you're walking down the street alone at night. Suddenly you hear a noise behind you. At the same time, your heart rate increases, your body becomes cold and you start sweating. The brain interprets these physical signals as "fear." Then you quickly decide whether to run away or scream. Did you see? A signal in the body becomes a feeling, and you make a decision based on it.

But not everyone has the same ability to sense their body's signals. Some people are very good at sensing them. Others are not so good at understanding them. But the good news is, it's a skill we can practice and develop.

Some common examples of interoception

This includes many things we experience in our daily lives.

• Feeling hungry or full.
• Feeling thirsty for water.
• Feeling like your bladder is full and you need to urinate .
• Feeling hot or cold.
• Heart rate (when calm, when scared, when exercising).
• Feeling tense and tense with tight muscles.
• Feeling of restlessness and anxiety.
• Feeling nauseous.
• It feels like the skin is being scratched.
• The pain felt when something is cut or injured.

How does this process actually happen?

This is a very complex, yet amazing process. It happens in three main steps. Let's look at it this way to make it easier to understand.

But sometimes we can misinterpret these signals. For example, someone with a condition like anxiety may experience a normal pounding in their chest, but with great fear, they may think, "Oh, am I going to have a heart attack?" This means that they perceive a harmless signal as something dangerous .

Also, someone with a condition like depression may not be able to notice a signal that really needs attention, like body pain. This means that their ability to recognize these signals may be somewhat impaired.

What happens when interoception is impaired?

If you feel like you're a little lacking in your ability to understand these body signals, the symptoms below may be common to you.

• Not feeling the urge to urinate : Sometimes you may not feel your bladder full until it is completely empty. Or you may feel like you have a hard time urinating even when it is slightly full.
• Difficulty controlling emotions: You may suddenly become angry, feel sad over small things, or be unable to understand exactly what you are feeling.
• Being easily nervous or scared: Feeling anxious over even the smallest things, feeling afraid to be in public.
• Sensitivity to pain: Some people feel unbearable pain even from a minor injury. Others feel very little pain even from a major injury.
• Eating problems: Not feeling hungry, not feeling thirsty, or not feeling full after eating.

Conditions that affect interoception

This ability to sense interoception can be impaired with some medical conditions, because all of this is related to brain function.

• Anxiety Disorders
• Attention problems (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder - ADHD)
• Autism (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
• Depression
• Eating Disorders
• Panic Disorder
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Substance Use Disorder

The relationship between neurodivergence and interoception

Neurodivergence , simply put, is when a person's brain processes and operates in a slightly different way than normal. Autism and ADHD are two good examples of this. People with these conditions may also have different interoceptive abilities.

• Autism: Often, people with autism have difficulty accurately recognizing signals from their bodies. For example, they may have difficulty distinguishing between anger, sadness, and fear. They may also be unable to accurately sense physical needs, such as hunger and thirst.

• ADHD: People with this condition pay close attention to signals from their bodies, meaning they feel the signals well. But they have difficulty responding to them, meaning they have difficulty taking action. For example, even though they feel very thirsty for water, they may put it off by thinking things like, "What should I drink? I'm too lazy to get up and get some water."

How to develop this ability?

The good news is that we can develop this ability of interoception through training. Just like exercising and strengthening muscles, it can be trained.

• Deep breathing exercise: Sit calmly and pay attention to the movement of your chest, your stomach, and the rhythm of your heart as you breathe in and out slowly.
• Mindfulness: Paying attention to the present moment. When eating, pay close attention to the taste, smell, and texture of the food. When walking, pay attention to the way your feet hit the ground.
• Yoga: Yoga is a great exercise that connects the body and mind. When you are in different poses, you get a better understanding of what different parts of your body feel.
• Meditation: Meditation allows you to pay close attention to your inner self, the thoughts that arise in your mind, and the sensations you feel in your body.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): This is a type of treatment that can be provided by a mental health counselor . It helps you understand the relationship between your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations and helps you learn to manage them.

You probably didn't even think about the sound of your heart beating until you started reading this article. But now you feel it, don't you? Maybe you feel hungry when you think about what to eat for dinner. That's what interoception is. It's a wonderful system that we all have in our bodies. Although it doesn't work the same for everyone, it can be developed with patience, self-love, and help if needed.

Interoception, body signals, mental health, anxiety, autism, ADHD, brain function