Interoception

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Interoception is awareness of what is going on inside the self. It is automatically interconnected with the environment outside, and with all the domains inside as well. With allistics, sometimes interoception is just being aware of heart rate and breathing, of hunger and thirst, of bathroom needs, and of emotions and their connection to the body. With Autistics, interoception can become extremely complex, with sensory hypo and hyper-sensitivities, drive for creativity and data processing, and difficulty distinguishing the many nuances of emotions. In Autistics, any one of these items that present as too much or too little can be a source of energy drain and dysregulation. Many of these items put together can exert a cumulative drain on the system.

Below is a checklist of various interoceptive data points to gauge whether one needs more or less of each item. The checklist is there to illustrate how much data is being considered, rather than to serve as a comprehensive list. Please feel free to add your own items or make your own list using this as a springboard.