Interoception and autism: the hidden key to emotional experience
By Helen Edgar and David Gray-Hammond · From the Re-Storying Autism workbook, Module 3
Interoception, the sense that tells you what is happening inside your body, is perhaps the most misunderstood sensory system of all. Autistic interoception is often different. Signals may include: - Too faint (low interoceptive sensitivity) - Too intense (high sensitivity) - Misinterpreted - Inconsistent - Absent - Delayed - Drowned out by external sensory input This is why so many Autistic people experience alexithymia, the difficulty in identifying and describing internal emotions. Alexithymia is not emotional absence. It is emotional opacity. The feelings are there; they are simply not labelled in ways that other people expect. An Autistic child asked, “How are you feeling?” may genuinely not know. An Autistic adult who appears calm may be close to shutdown. A young person who says “My stomach hurts” may actually be anxious. A person who cries “for no reason” may be experiencing interoceptive confusion rather than sadness. Families often misunderstand these moments as dishonesty, avoidance, or defiance. The truth is simpler and far more humane; the internal signals are unclear. Supporting Autistic people requires translating those signals into something comprehensible: “Your breathing is fast, and you’re holding your shoulders tight. That can happen when someone is overwhelmed.” “You said your stomach hurts right after that noisy thing happened. This could be anxiety.” “You’re moving a lot. Do you think your body needs deep pressure or movement?” Using suggestions such as the above can help your childmake sense of their internal world.
Keep going in the course
This is a short extract. The full lesson in Module 3: Sensory and Emotional Landscapes includes the video teaching, the rest of the workbook text, reflection questions for parents, carers and Autistic people, and progress tracking.